| Humor
is also one of the most effective means of seduction. What would sex
be without humor? I am not sure I want to know- especially today,
when AIDS has made us all afraid to even think about sex. But, as
we all know, talking about problems, and even more so, laughing about
them, is one of the best ways to begin solving them. Just like in
the popular song “Let’s talk about sex!” Mama’s Little Boy Most of
us would agree that the love between a mother and her son is sacred.
It signifies a bond between two kindred souls, between a creator and
her creation, between the past and the future. Manuel PARDO, A Cuban
artist who lives and works in New York City, would certainly agree. |
| Pardo
loves his mother so much that he dedicated an entire series of works
to his loving “Madre”: “Mother and I”. But, as in all his work since
the very beginning, there are to sides to the story. On the one hand,
the series of colorful, neo-pop portraits is an homage to his mother,
who brought her children out of Cuba under difficult conditions after
Fidel Castro came into power and finally settled in New York to guarantee
them a life full of liberty, justice, and the “American Way”. On the
other hand, these garish “Technicolor” images reveal some of the artist’s
deepest erotic fantasies For depicted in these portraits is not the
mother of the artist, as one might expect after reading the titles,
but rather self-portraits of the artist himself dressed in his mother’s
fashionable, late 50’s Cuban dresses. Mother and son are thus united
in one image, reunified, so to speak, as one soul. |
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“Mother and I” is a labor f love; and indeed, love does have many
faces. Seen in the context of his entire oeuvre Pardo’s transvestite
selfportraits make a clear and distinct statement about the lifestyle
of homosexuals in contemporary society and the way this lifestyle
is viewed (and judged) by others. An earlier series of works present
the viewer “scenes from the closet”, that is to say with the secret
accessories of particular subgroup of homosexuals which embraces the
feminine side of male nature. We see the frilly dresses and high heeled
shoes, the handbags and jewelry, and even the pansy wallpaper that
covers the wall of the closet (“Pansy” being a popular derogatory
term used to insult homosexuals for decades, which the artist thus
embraces in an attempt to take away its sting). Indeed, all his works
are concerned with deconstructing or breaking down stereotypes and
prejudices. By laughing not at but with those who judge him, Pardo
reverses the insult so that we finally question our own ways of thinking.
Indeed, questioning the way we think is one of the artist’s most favored
weapons. |
| In
“Trust”, for example, a provocative work which bears the subtitle
“In dedication to housewives everywhere, that are at the mercy of
their husbands’ fidelity”, Pardo points out the well-known, although
frequently ignored fact that all members of society, not just homosexuals
and junkies are potential victims of AIDS. We are all in danger and
no amount of love or trust is going to change this brutal fact of
life. But rather than playing the grim reaper, Pardo chooses instead
to show us just how much fun sex can be. His “Designer Dildos”, “Tabletop
Condoms” and “Do and Don’t Blow Jobs” do not simply promote the use
of sexuality in the age of Safer Sex. For Pardo AIDS has not destroyed
sex, but rather forced us into exploring new possibilities of erotic
pleasure. |
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