Issue No. 28 – Control

What is the nature of control? The desire for it—and to be free of it—are essential parts of both life and art.

Exhibition Review: Danny Lyon: Wanderer

Exhibition Review: Danny Lyon: Wanderer

© Danny Lyon The Valley, Balle, Waiting to Dance

© Danny Lyon The Valley, Balle, Waiting to Dance

By Claudia Shaldervan

Image courtesy of Gavin Brown

Danny Lyon has been on the cusp of documentary photography and video since the Civil Rights Movement, and in Wanderer he again employs the medium to expose prevalent racism and xenophobia in America.

In 1846, U.S cavalry and Mexican soldiers engaged in a shootout on a disputed territory near the Texas-Mexico border, which resulted in the US War against Mexico. After two years of combat, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, by which the United States government claimed half a million square miles of Mexican soil. In Wanderer, Danny explores US presence in Mexico, and how Washington’s grip continues to impact it in the present. Odious decisions of the Trump Era especially call for activism against regulations steadily falling into place. According to the New York Times, the annual immigration rate was reduced to an unprecedented low. “The regulation, which the administration said would affect about 382,000 people a year, is the latest in a series of aggressive crackdowns by President Trump and his hard-line aides on legal and illegal immigration.” Danny Lyons’ Wanderer couldn’t be more relevant.

© Danny Lyon Eddie

© Danny Lyon Eddie

© Danny Lyon Mexican Worker at Ezequel's House

© Danny Lyon Mexican Worker at Ezequel's House

© Danny Lyon Citrus Workers Bathing in Irrigation Ditch

© Danny Lyon Citrus Workers Bathing in Irrigation Ditch

In 1970 Danny moved to Llanito, a town north of Albuquerque, and began photographing his neighbors and their families. Several individuals were undocumented workers with whom the photographer built close relationships. Eddie was among those laborers whom Lyon came to know during La Migra. Over many years, Danny photographed and filmed Eddie as he constructed Danny’s studio and pursued other work. Danny smuggled Eddie over the border several times, and procured him a green card. Only in 2017, at the age of 81, was Eddie finally granted American citizenship.

One of Danny’s films, El Mojado translates from Spanish to “the wet one,” and is an ironic reference to “wetback”: a racial slur used by Americans to describe Mexican immigrants. The term originates from the journey Mexicans make across the Rio Grande. In El Mojado, the Border Patrol discuss the pleasure they take in capturing Mexicans: “They come by the hundred or thousands, leaving tracks like cattle, across dirt roads of the US border patrol. It’s just like hunting animals, only it’s a lot more fun.”

© Danny Lyon Goodbye Johnnie, Goodbye Mexico

© Danny Lyon Goodbye Johnnie, Goodbye Mexico

The exhibition includes photographs, videos, and collages spanning three decades of work. Goodbye Johnnie, Goodbye Mexico surrounds a photograph of young Johnnie (resident of New Mexico) wearing a self-embellished t-shirt with a rattlesnake and Chicano Power drawn on the white fabric. The boy’s shadow rests on a giant, ghostly handprint that symbolizes revolution and struggle. Paired with Johnnie’s image, the hand suggests an immortal cultural memory. Johnnie was barely twenty two when he was killed. Surrounding gravestones photographed at different times of the year present the endurance of Johnnie’s life after death. Each montaged image radiates the light of golden hour; a spiritual light that immediately dilates the soul. Its symbolism invites viewers to consider life from the perspective of marginalized people living in hardship, as well as the poetry of life cycles that unify all beings.

Weekend Portfolio: Alicja Brodowicz

Weekend Portfolio: Alicja Brodowicz

Art Out: Gowanus Open Studio 2018