Regina Jose Galindo

I have recently become exposed to the artwork of Regina Jose Galindo.



Regina Jose Galindo was born in Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala in 1973. She is a performance artist who's work often reflects visual metaphors by utilizing her own body as a site of conflict. She will undergo often brutalizing acts in order to point out the anguish of personal and political inflictions. Galindo's body becomes a representation of brutality and agitation. Her work is often controversial but also promotes thought and introspection.

ExitArt (a 25 year old cultural center located in New York) had this to say about Regina Jose Galindo.

Performance art is the story telling of a premeditated action to create a reaction. It is the antithesis of the market because the substance is painful and cannot be controlled. We at Exit Art have a tradition of presenting this kind of artist, the ones that are “political,” strange, foreign, outlandish or awkward.

History is catching its tail. The past defines the present and forecasts the future. Performance Art tells truths with images that the artist articulates with a supernatural force of survival, transforming this art from its common origins into a sophisticated ritual of post-colonial aesthetic. R.J.G. is a messenger of this thought and documents it with her actions: performances that put her life in danger. She does not live in a liberal democratic territory but in a repressive and dangerous authoritarian state that is defined by acts of institutionalized violence and sectarian criminal gangs. R.J.G. is a valiant soul of critical extraction. She is redefining risk and showing us in this comfortable metropolis that the purpose of the artist is not only to please the powerful with beautiful objects and intellectual meditations but to practice the poetry of one’s circumstances even if your life is in the line of fire.

Brutality is the absolute crux of Galindo’s art, and her confrontational negotiation of it can force witnesses into the awkwardly passive position of watching. Mutilation and suffering may be common in Guatemala, but the impulse to do something about it necessitates a rebelliousness — a resistance to socialization — something Galindo challengingly incites. Galindo has persistently mutilated her own body to invoke women’s issues in her native country. At the 2005 Venice Biennial, she whipped herself 279 times, one for each woman that had been murdered in Guatemala that year. The same year, she used a knife to carve the word perra — “bitch” — into her thigh while sitting in a chair, “on display” in a gallery. A year earlier, she responded to a plastic surgeon’s classified ad about reconstructing hymens to restore virginity. After interviewing the doctor Galindo learned the surgery was usually received in anticipation of a wedding night; some patients, Galindo reported in the BOMB interview, were adolescent victims of sex trafficking who could command higher prices as coveted virgins. Galindo filmed the operation — which the doctor botched, leaving her bleeding and requiring an emergency trip to a gynecologist — and with Asturias’ black humor showed it in an exhibition titled Cynicism. In one of her most frightening performances, No Perdemos Nada Con Nacer (We Do Not Lose With Being Born), her naked body, stuffed into a transparent bodybag, is dumped in a landfill; uninvolved people watch … and do nothing.

Here are some examples of her work.


"¿Quién puede borrar las huellas?"


¿Quién puede borrar las huellas?" (Who Can Remove the Traces) by Regina Jose Galindo - 2003

Who Can Remove the Traces by Regina José Galindo. In a black dress Regina walks barefoot through Guatemala carrying a basin of human blood. She wets her feet with it so she can leave a trail of bloody footprints behind her. She walks to the Constitutional Court building to the National Palace. This piece is a statement about the role of art in showing human-rights abuses and government harms. The footprints represent the hundreds of thousands of civilians murdered by the Army during war. It is a protest against the presidential candidacy of Guatemala's former dictator José Efraín Ríos Montt. During the first five days of the Venice Biennale, she whipped herself 256 times, once for each woman systematically murdered in Guatemala from January 2005 until the day of the performance.


Himenoplastia

Galindo received the Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale in 2005, in the category of "artist under 30", for her video Himenoplastia. Galindo's own body is put at risk in Himenoplastia as she is cut up, and stitched without anaesthetic. This is a surgical procedure that is becoming increasingly popular with woman across the world. The procedure reconstructs the hymen so that it gets back its virginal condition. Galindo recognizes this procedure as an act of patriachy. Some women volunteer to have the procedure done in a clinic however in some parts of the world the prodcedure is done to prevent the violence or death from a males who insist that their wives remain virgins until the wedding night. Galindo's procedure was captured on video as part of her performance piece.


Crisis Cloth

"crisis: cloth" is part of a performance trilogy titled performance in crisis. the artist will sell each article of clothing she will be wearing for $5 a piece to any audience member willing to pay and remove it from her body





"Piel" (skin) - 2001

In "Piel" (skin) Galindo shaves all of her bodily hair and walks through the streets of Venice.


"Perra"

In "Perra" (bitch) Galindo carves the word "Perra" or "Bitch" into her leg.


"Perra" - 2005


El Dolor en un Panuelo

El Dolor en un Panuelo (The Pain in a Handkerchief), during which newspaper articles about victimized women were projected on her naked body

I am intrigued with Galindo's work for various reasons. One being that I am intrigued with Galindo herself. I enjoy the fact that she is not afraid to use her own body in her artwork. Our bodies are the only true thing we own however for centuries there have been governments in place that have denied this fact.

I do question however, why it is that Galindo feels she must put herself in harms way in order to make a point. Is it masochistic or am I not understanding the intent of her work? What are we to gain from witnessing a woman who is willing to whip herself or carve words into her skin? What is she to gain?

According to Video Art World, "In her form of self-expression there does not exist the distance that we can have with photography, a picture or the most terrible fiction written by Castellanos Moya. There does not exist that distance to anesthetize and subtract us from the everyday work of this country. It does not merit the satisfaction to see the image without frightening us. We are included."

Her art would not exist without the rest of us. As ExitArt mentioned earlier performance art relies on the reaction of others. While Galindo could certainly gain from expressing herself to no one, she needs a platform so that her message may be received.

However, I do wonder how her art impacts herself as woman. A sexual being, a vulnerable being, a confident being. When the day is done Galindo returns to her home and she is left with remains of her work. Perhaps a scar remains from when she carved "Perro" into it. For a time her head remained shaven after her piece "Piel."

I am curious as to how her schema is impacted and what psychological affects my have occured. How has her art affected how the world sees her, how the world sees women, how she sees the world, how she sees herself and women? I don't know about you but I would want a therapist to assit me in processing.

Does Galindo exist on a higher plane than the rest of us? Is she tortured and therefore is willing to torture herself? Or is she higly evolved and brave as hell?

Regina Jose Galindo has been involved in more than 85 group exhibitions on five continents. As a poet, she has published in several international anthologies.
To learn more about this artist visit her website at
www.reginajosegalindo.com