Selected as a Photoworks Award runner up, 2016 LCC photography graduate Constance M. describes the violence and political upheaval on past and present Guatamalans.
El Mañana es Incierto
The Future is Uncertain
El Mañana es Incierto is a series of five images and an interactive installation piece that provokes thought on past and current cultural and political issues in Guatemala. The series of work offers a look into the Guatemalan Civil War and the genocide of their Indigenous Maya population. With a focus on how the current political issues are affecting the next generation of Guatemalans.
Central America is often referred to as America’s Backyard. In this part of the world there seems to be an unspoken awareness of the issues in Central American countries. Central American countries are still suffering from political corruption, gang violence and the war on drugs. They have branded these issues as being acceptable in this part of the world.
The countries of Central America have experienced a violent past of political corruption, drugs and gang violence. The countries have suffered the mistreatment of the indigenous Maya population, civil wars, corrupt governments and a history of violence and inequality. This history reflects on the current situation in Central American countries.
This series of work takes the form of a photographic interactive installation piece. The five images explore the past and present issues of Guatemalan people. The table I have included in the exhibition, as seen in the installation image, takes inspiration from the image of the religious that depicts a shrine to Jesus and the iconography of Guatemalan people, in the house of the Yojcom Pérez family I stayed with in the village San Juan La Laguna, Lake Atitlan. My table replicates the family’s table and consists of religious iconography and a diary of conversations taken from the family I stayed with.
The interactive piece of this exhibition involves connecting the Guatemalan culture to our own. It involves exchanging a worry for a doll. On my table a woven bowl full with Guatemalan worry dolls, offers the viewer to take part in writing down one of their own worries and placing it in the plastic bag hung on the wall, in exchange for a Guatemalan doll. Resulting in a comparative study of our Western worries in relation to that of the current worries of Guatemalan people.
My multi-cultural background has ignited an interest in different cultures and has allowed me to adapt to different cultural ideologies and customs. I take a personal interest in the social unjust throughout all my projects and revealing to others, issues which they might not be aware of, is crucial to my photographic practice.
See here for more work by Constance.
