Marcos Ramirez ERRE | Garden of Angels/Jardin de Angeles

Marcos Ramirez’ new body of work furthers the Tijuana based artist’s interest in the notion of borders and concentrates on a special section of a Tijuana cemetery that is devoted entirely to children, an area the artist calls a “Garden of Angels.” Ramirez photographed the installations set up around the graves of the “little angels”, or angelitos, because these sites reveal an interesting hybridization of Mexican and global cultures. Here the Mexican tradition of honoring the dead is accomplished with distinctly American icons: Disney characters, Pokemon dolls and Hot Wheels cars. Not only do these sites mark unique examples of cultural overlap, but they also represent the larger border between the living and the deceased, earth and heaven. Ramirez displays the photographs in light boxes sheathed in metal, so that they become sculptural objects which simulate actual gravestones. The metal is finished in pastel colors, such as pink or baby blue.

Marcos Ramirez was born and raised in Tijuana, Mexico. His work has appeared in many national and international venues including the Havana Biennial, the Whitney Biennial, inSITE ’97, The Centro Cultural Tijuana, The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.