This collaborative project is inspired by links between domestic and international economy, Mexico/U.S. immigration, identity, home, and food. It asks questions about maintaining one’s identity in a foreign setting. In 2007, I began a rebozo series, the first of which was made of extension cords and small light bulbs that I wore as a part of a performance choreographed to Agustín Lara’s Farolito. I expanded the series to include shawls made of food wrappers, with the vertical threads made from Mexican wrappers, and the horizontal threads from U.S. wrappers. The weavings allow me to savor the everyday life of living between two countries. Juan Manuel Mendoza writes about the marketing and purchasing of nostalgia, while in a foreign country. His research on unique market niches show how some “authentic” goods were invented, appropriated, or imagined, with items like El Chocolate de Monterrey, manufactured in Indiana, or Té Guadalupano Purgante, a purgative made at the Guadalupe Medicine Company in Saint Louis, Missouri.
Juan Manuel opens his chapter “Inventing Mexican Products and Being Mexican: El Paso, Texas, 1880 – 1960” with a narrative on the molcajete as cultural symbol. In 2008 California tried to prohibit it’s importation and use, claiming its use unsanitary. Today “authentic” molcajetes are sold in San Francisco’s high-end stores specializing in cooking appliances. The molcajete is also a reoccurring image in my work, as a character I call ‘el inocente’ or the innocent one. Although similar in form and function to a cutting board or wooden spoon, ‘el inocente’ has had a far more controversial history.
Setting up in Mazatlán
Animal Crackers — Animalitos
Reception
The performance and audience participation
Mazatlán newspaper releases, from El Debate and El Noroeste
Click here for full article: ElDebate22oct2010.pdf
El Debate, Friday, October 22, 2010
“Susan Rippberger portará un rebozo edéctrico esta noche: La estadounidense presenta el performance ‘Angel de la noche,’ hoy en el Museo Viva Sinaloa”
Click here for full article: Noreste22oct2010.pdf
Noreste, Friday, October 22, 2010
“Performance, Cultura y Música: Presentarán hoy ‘Ángel de la noche’
Click here for full article: ElDebate25oct2010.pdf
El Debate, Monday, October 25, 2010
“Susan Rippberger es un ‘Ángel de la noche’: La artista estadounidense ofrece su performance en el Museo Viva Sinaloa”
Click here for full article: Noroeste24oct2010.pdf
Noreste, Sunday, October 24, 2010
“Susan Rippberge Fascina y se fascina: Un ‘ángel de la noche con música de Lara”