Statement of the research questions
	Aims and objectives
	Aims and objectives: progress to date
	Aims and objectives: amendments
	Outlook: in brief
	Outlook: chapter structure & timetable
	Anticipated contribution to knowledge
	Discussion of method
	Images as instances of historical event or personality and present fieldwork methodology

Statement of the research questions

Can it be seen that the international success and impact of the contemporary Oaxacan art studied provides some evidence of an evolving global culture through and due to postmodernity? 

 Are the applications of highly accessible, mass media, real-time, global information dissemination tools, created by postmodernism, in the fields of commercial and political marketing accurately and justly criticised in the discussion offered by the cultural producers studied?

As responsible for the contemporary art studied, can postmodernism be seen to have created a wider, political and altruistic role for Oaxacan artists in Oaxacan society and beside other Mexican artists in the national Mexican political and social arenas due to these mass information dissemination tools having been integrated into modern living at all levels of society?  Is this role an evolutionary consequence of the role of artists in Pre-Hispanic cultures, the difference now being the financial wealth and media empowerment of artists?

Are contemporary cultural producers in Oaxaca and Mexico able to use their empowerment to provide positive comment and promote constructive ideas in reaction to current events in the political arena in which they now roam and act alongside the rulers and legislators who were once strictly their masters?

Aims and objectives

The original aims of the present work would have used a positive response to the research question stated in the first paragraph above to test the theory that the tools that postmodern thought has created permit and express reaction to a situation similar to that which Colin Rhodes refers to as the "growing disjunction between a rapidly increasing technological and scientific complexity and the ability of the individual to comprehend these changes" to cause "the rise of Primitivism at the turn of C20th."[1]  The present research has duly noted that the cultural phenomenon characteristic of the present situation lived by Oaxacan and Mexican populations, is one of increasing political and social complexity due to greater dissemination of information and the use and abuse of the mass media towards this end.

 

The present research seeks evidence of global culture systems constantly at work divulging change, similarity and disparity of nations, states, cultures and continents.  From the research presently being undertaken, a clear common denominator is the influence of left-wing political goals on change across the globe, in particular in developing countries, new nations and post-colonial countries whose more recent development has been closely linked to the United States of America, such as those found in Latin American.

 

So similar and combined are the images, techniques, themes and intentions of the contemporary art studied, the contemporary advertising culture, political marketing and media and entertainment output; so much more powerful do each of these institutions become.  The principal line of attack on globalisation is that it can dilute and replace local cultures thereby eradicating the traditional values lived by those societies and introducing those of the globalising power, often seen as the United States of America.

 

When seen in this specific light, globalisation is referred to as the ‘Americanisation of culture,’ a self-explicatory term, and is extremely important in a Mexican context.  The nearest neighbour to a developing Mexico[2], home to twenty-four million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans[3] and receiving over half-a-million Mexican immigrants per year[4] across the 1,951-mile border, the United States of America exports language, culture and values at a greater rate and with greater impact to Mexico than to any other country.  The geographical proximity and close relationship between the two countries in nearly all sectors of society and industry create benefits and costs on both sides of the border.  In proportion to the influence of migration on Mexican culture, the relationship with the U.S.A. is a marked factor in everyday life in Mexico, from political manoeuvrings to street style, colloquial language and the sole source of family income[5].

 

The cultural and political backgrounds as much as the ramifications of this relationship were originally to be investigated using the art and artists studied as the primary source, but during the period of study of the present work, these have become much more an issue of public debate and investigation.  A rapidly-evolving media industry and media-awareness; increasing access to, and creation of, digital media; and a developing transparency in Mexico, promoted by the current president’s new ‘Transparency Law’[6] implemented in June 2003; these factors have combined to create a real-time, multi-faceted investigative and media-combative arena that unearths, presents and discusses political parties’ ideologies, spending and actions that pits all against all (with, perhaps, a winner-takes-all prize structure) in an all-comers (all stakeholders) open.  Already relative[7] experts in self-promotion using any stage, form of attention or medium available, Mexican artists currently use their experience to promote the ideals and defend the down-treading of the insurgent left and expose the unacceptable weaknesses and the abuses of power committed by the ruling right.

 

Short Channel 4 (U.K.) television news reports as introductions to the information below:

(Editorial and technical assistance given by present author)
(Not vital to reading)

 Dickie, J., 2006. Report. More4 News. TV, More4. 30 June 2006. 2000 hrs.

http://www.channel4.com/more4/news/news-opinion-feature.jsp?id=310

 

Dickie, J., 2006. Report. More4 News. TV, More4. 15 September 2006. 2000 hrs.

http://www.sidestepthenorm.com/mexcityCH4sept152006.mov

 

In Oaxaca, public reaction began in the form of the annual teachers’ strike turning in to an almost-revolution which is still in progress and has seen the creation of a popular and very unofficial governing body (the APPO[8]) controlling the centre of the state capital and introducing a state of “ingobernabilidad”[9] across the city and state towards the destitution of the state governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, accused of political violence and wide-scale corruption[10].  In national terms, the surprise defeat of Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the first real left-leaning political leader in Mexican history, by Felipe Calderon, extreme right-wing party (that of the present president) candidate, caused a huge form of civil resistance including support and manning of permanent encampments in the main square of Mexico City and the main tourist and business districts which has lead to the left proclaiming AMLO its “legitimate president.”

 

Weaknesses:

 

• Impunity, National - Vicente Fox, e.g. Rise, power and violence of drug-related crime and use of Mexico as entry-way to U.S.A.
• Oaxaca - Ulíses Ruiz Ortiz.
• Corruption
• First Lady Marta Sahagún de Fox
• Informal economy, e.g. Chinese and pirate products goods, stored in Tepito,
• International relations, e.g. with Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro, e.g. Anti-Andrés Manuel López Obrador advert using Chávez.
• Relationship and dependence on bankers and business sector - conservative relationship with U.S.A.

           

Abuses of power:

 

• Corruption
• Use of influence, e.g.  First Lady Marta Sahagún de Fox, through her children from first marriage and various foundations.
• Links with Catholic Church and el Yunque.
• Negative publicity in general election campaign.
• Alleged election fraud in general election, alleged use of influence and/or friendship in workings of the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) and Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Power of the Federation (TRIFE) in the alleged fraud of general election of 2^nd July.

 

How is this being achieved by the artistic community as spokesperson and channel for the people and the left?  Following the themes presented in the research questions and the reality of the effects of recent events on cultural output and on the behaviour of the producers, it is important to accept the greater scope and necessary attention of the present study has been forced in to a real-time study of media wars on various levels spanning various geographical regions.  This amends, but also improves on, working towards the original goals:

 

“Can it be seen that the international success and impact of the contemporary Oaxacan art studied provides some evidence of an evolving global culture through and due to postmodernity?  This creation of a message "comprehensible irrespective of race or history." As Colin Rhodes has described Jung's archetypal images and the desired effect of their use in Primitivist modern art, can be investigated 'from the inside' by the proposed research which stems from prolonged immersion in the producing culture and a form of total, personal and professional integration with the producers.”[11]

 

Where the original proposal indicated that “the proposed research will make some attempt to discover the attraction of the art studied,” this attempt demanded the investment of time and effort in the analysis of the content, meaning and impact of the art studied in order to gauge the influence of postmodernity and global culture systems.  The amended aims and objectives, which focus, and provide sources of information for, the themes of the latter chapters of the research (see leaf to follow below) for revised chapter structure), where this initial investment of time and effort is equalled in the real-time enquiry in to the altruistic and political reactions of the artists and the wider artistic communities studied in both artistic and behavioural terms.  Good examples of this surface daily, even as the present author attempts to refine and finish this document:

 

From national daily newspaper, El Universal, 21^st September 2006:

“A group of well-known Oaxacan artists began painting {large-format pieces of material}[12] in support of the march organised to start this Thursday.  Amongst the artists taking part are Demián Flores, Jeronimo López "Doctor Lakra" (son of painter Francisco Toledo), Raúl Herrera, Óscar de las Flores, Adriana Calatayud, Bruno, Varela and Francisco Verástegui.

The artists sent a letter to President Fox in which they announce that the conflict “has affected all of us” and therefore they ask “urgently” for the presence of a Union  Congress Committee to directly assess the situation.”

The resulting action and further details of this effort relayed to me as part of an e-mail-shot on 22^nd September by Demián Flores:

 

“Yesterday morning, a group of artists demonstrated in favour of a peaceful settlement to the conflict in Oaxaca through painting some blankets {large-format pieces of material}[13] that were then left installed in the passageway of the former government palace.  We also delivered a message to the public opinion and sent a letter to president Fox.”   (Followed by full reproductions of the two texts.)

 

A seemingly lame example of the artists’ actions, and admittedly one of the weakest actions taken to date, this example does show the artists’ effort but perhaps also their pretension.  Even the wording here leaves something to be desired and the impact of their actions can only be as great as their existing collective or individual fame.  This is made clear here with the qualification of Jeronimo López being Francisco Toledo’s[14] son in the newspaper report while in the official letter to the president, Francisco Toledo himself is one of the signatories and the artists use ‘Jeronimo Toledo’ in that document.  It is true that the art market has suffered incredibly, but in the second poorest Mexican state, the hard facts of the four-month conflict speak louder: over 300 million dollars lost income, 100 bankrupted businesses, 20 hotels, 20 restaurants, hotel occupation at 3%, 1,500 jobs lost and 1.3 million children remain without a state education[15]; speak to the general population and the unstable politicians responsible in louder tones than some painted blankets. 

 

However, the events and players in this nation-wide problem, that is really just treating the Oaxacan conflict as the longest and strongest example of resistance, do have to take notice of such actions, on an issue benefiting from multiple references on a daily basis in the national media. Of course, the quote cited above is reported in this instance in a right-wing newspaper and included in a news article informing its readers of the APPO's decision to march to Mexico City and protest in ways that create as much havoc as possible, only days after AMLO's permanent roadblocks etc. had been removed.

 

However, this example does demonstrate the ‘extra-curricular’ use of marketing techniques that these artists discuss as pastiche and content whilst simultaneously make use of towards sales promotion, are developed and taught to the Mexican population by multinational companies that span more than one huge world market as well as popular culture.  These techniques are most effectively[16] used by television and communications media companies, best abused by formal political marketing machines at all levels and utilized optimally[17] and most creatively[18], by NGOs, social organisations and movements.

 

It is tempting here to provide a list of the forms and examples of mass media marketing prevalent in the changing and unstable contemporary Mexico described, however, this is beyond the remit and the scope of this report, not least of all due to the would-be necessary explanation of highly complex relationships between the events and the personalities involved.  Equally attractive but as complex, the more succinct method of introducing this section of the study’s fieldwork as the inclusion of the detailed timeline which the present author is consistently adding-to and using in order to provide some structure to the collation, analysis and presentation of the data, has been decided against, being replaced by the images and brief explanations at the end of this document. 

Outlook: in brief

 

A thorough literature review must be completed in the light of amended aims and objectives.

 

Visual culture and marketing/advertising literature must be reviewed.  Recently acquired knowledge of work by Tamar Herzog, whose work on the use/need for basic and simple messages and their presentation in primitive societies must be reviewed.  The newest literature on a pop art/mass media relationship must be reviewed.  Altruistic behaviour in groups may need to be studied.  These library-bound tasks are to be undertaken immediately upon receipt of a positive response to this document.

 

From the information presented in the first chapter, the position of the artists studied and their relationship to other generations of Oaxacan artists and the national and international art scenes, the second chapter focuses on the art itself.  The thorough introduction of the artists and their work in relation to their discussion of, and reliance upon, postmodern information-dissemination tools, in chapter 2 will lead to detailed analysis of the commercial and political use of these tools in contemporary Mexico as the body of chapter 3.  The fourth chapter will use the treatment of the still-current events in Mexico and Oaxaca from chapter 3 to analyse the role and the impact of Oaxacan and Mexican artists as an altruistic or direct political reaction to these events and discuss this attitude in general.

Outlook: chapter structure & timetable

 

Chapter
Introduction   Presenting Oaxaca, Oaxacan art and the works and community-related behaviour of Oaxacan Masters compared those of  the new wave of artists.	Write-up, alongside chapter 1.   Creation of ‘character list’ in order to introduce figures, schools, movements and tendencies.
Re-opening the literature Review	Research and write-up, October-November 2006.
1. The structure of the Mexican art world   20,000 words pinning-down the actual workings of the contemporary Mexican art world.  Important galleries museums, art dealers and artists will be researched.  The relationship of these ‘stakeholders,’ to borrow a word from the field of transparency politics, to their geographical location within Mexico and their individual and collective relation to the international art world will be ascertained.  The historical basis of the contemporary scene will be alluded to by the primary research and therefore induce secondary research in to the history of the stakeholders and therefore Mexican art itself.	Primary research 90% complete, Monterrey primary research to be completed.   Write-up, November and December 2006.
2.  WORKING CHAPTER TITLE Postmodernism in Mexico as creator of the work of the artists studied.   Interpretation and analysis of the art in question through formal and informal interview with the artists and the relevant gallery personnel, critics, creators, promoters, collectors and academics all surveyed.	Primary research completed.   Small amount of secondary work in form of pop art research to be undertaken, October 2006.   Write-up to final format, December-January 2006.
3. WORKING CHAPTER TITLE Visual communication and fine art in Mexico, special reference to the political events particular to 2006 in Oaxaca and Mexico.   Towards investigating “the simultaneous causal and reflective relationship between fine art, visual communication and global culture systems,” the nature of everyday life in contemporary Mexico will be studied.  The personality and psychology of the people, due to their history, both ancient and Modern, geography and the relationship this has on present day politics and economics which create the relentless and seemingly unregulated mass marketing and popular cultures that bombard Mexicans with consumer-oriented images on a cease-less, daily basis.   Individual case studies of the political events particular to 2006 in Oaxaca and Mexico and globalising companies powerful in Mexico will be undertaken.	Primary research completed.   Secondary research, specifically relevant  globalisation and marketing literature, October 2006 onwards to later date in 2007.   Write-up to near-final format, including collation and analysis of data on “events particular to 2006 in Oaxaca and Mexico,” January-March 2007.
4. WORKING CHAPTER TITLE The altruism shown by Oaxacan artists as a positive use of the tools of globalisation.   Important examples, discussion and application of the altruistic tendencies and behaviour of Oaxacan and Mexican artists in special reference to the events of 2006.	Write-up, April-summer 2007.

 

Anticipated contribution to knowledge and discussion of method

 

The investment of time and effort in primary research in the first year highlighted the problems and academic concepts related to the type of ethnography being applied.  The real-time and postmodern study demanded by the present research created a fear of pending over-involvement with the subjects, their subjects and the general subjects advertised all around in a rapidly-evolving postmodern society.  However, the same events that caused the teachers strike to become a violent, political struggle also caused the Oaxacan art market to take a severe decrease in sales and outside interest whilst at the same time forcing a drastic increment in the need for the already-socially-active artistic community to take sides in, lead, articulate and even mediate the resulting events.

 

The level of public involvement of course changed from individual to individual, but showed a more marked general relation to: 1) length of time and therefore effect on income of every sector within a certain geographical area; and 2) increasing political and social severity of the situation in terms of personal and public well-being, including safety, in both the present and the immediate local and national futures.  Aside from the incredible and relevant visual, social and political material they created, the events under discussion obliged the present research to avoid drowning in the art and popular culture of the times in favour of following the original route by closely investigating the altruistic behaviour of the artists being examined.

 

This methodology and the contribution to knowledge that is utilised towards making constitute a double-pronged attack on unearthing the knowledge of, action and reaction to the trends and intentions of global culture systems in a postcolonial location effected at an accelerating level by postmodern mass media machines.

 

Images as instances of historical event or personality and present fieldwork methodology

1. APPO-authored graffiti depicting Francisco Toledo Francisco Toledo (b. 1941 Juchitán, Oaxaca, Mexico) and denouncing him as a thief, anti-Christ, ‘painter to the rich’ and ‘brother of the bottle.’  September 2006.

Between the time this image was painted on the side of the Alameda Cathedral in the centre of Oaxaca (completely under teachers-APPO control since 22 May 2006) and this photograph was taken some text above the figure’s head had been removed, as an attempt also made to remove the ‘666’ within the image the painter is painting.  This text read “A San Agustin” with a rough sketch depicting the new art school built and in San Agustin, Etla, Oaxaca, rumoured to have been built using the local traditional green stone (cantera) taken from the Oaxaca town square in one of Ulises Ruiz’s first large-scale and announced construction project in the architecturally beautifully zócalo, the very centre of a city declared part of the Cultural Patrimony of Humanity by UNESCO in 1987.

 

For only this extra information to have been removed may be strange but other examples of this have been seen on key words being crudely erased from anti-government slogans.  The time constraint before being seen or found out performing the erase would suggest itself as a sound reason for a partial ‘correction.’ This is not a plausible suggestion in the case of the Toledo graffiti due to its central (tightly controlled) location, proposing that those involved in the operation of removing this most offensive material were powerful enough not to be badly treated by the teacher-APPO members and for this incident to not receive any publicity.

 

Before this graffiti appeared, Toledo had already appeared as a mediator in the earliest stages of the conflict and later as the member of an organised citizens’ mediation committee.[19]

2. Map of striking teachers-APPO barricades sent by bar-nightclub ‘Salon’ then ‘Colectivo’ and now, ‘Cafe Central’ (name changes due to local government licensing pressure that included two full raids utilizing tear gas and tens of police officers during 2005), owned by politically-active painter Guillermo Olguín (b. 1970, Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico).   Olguín and other members of this collective organised transport for AMLO supporters to attend the “Voto por voto, Casilla por Casilla” (vote by vote, polling station by polling station) election-recount march in Mexico 30 July 2006, at which 2.4 million people attended.

 

This map was distributed after painter Mauricio Cervantes was attacked at a barricade upon leaving the Central in the early hours of the morning Friday 1 September 2006.  The bar was immediately closed before this map was issued on 10 September, attempting to attract customers by removing entry fees and only opening two nights per week, going in to the fifth month of the socio-political conflict.

 

 

3. Stencil and spray-paint graffiti depicting Mexican First Lady, Marta Sahagún de Fox (pictured right).  Mexico City taxi rank phone casing, September 22 2006.  This image is included for two reasons:

 

 

1) Corruption and trafficking of influence by the personality depicted. 

 

(See full Wikipedia definition, the present author revised this version)

 

On September 24, 2001 Sahagún founded a national philanthropic organization named Vamos México ("Let's go, Mexico!"). This was quickly criticized as a way for self-promotion and campaign fund-raising for the presidency in 2006.  After marrying Fox she refused to become head of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), a national institute for children and family welfare, a post traditionally offered to (and accepted by) the President's wife as it is to First Ladies of all ranks from municipal president in the smallest villages and state governors’ wives.  On January 31, 2004, the Financial Times published an extended report questioning management practices and the lack of transparency in the organization, accusing it of spending less than 35% of its income on charity.

 

In 2003 Argentine journalist Olga Wornat wrote the book La Jefa (Chiefwoman) about Marta Sahagún and her rise to power.  The largest scandal involving ‘Martita,’ has been the connection discovered between her and her sons’ business transactions and subsequent success.  She has been implicated in a network of corruption using both her and her husband’s names in the trafficking of influence.  In 2005, Wornat wrote a second book titled Crónicas Malditas (‘Cursed Chronicles’) describing, among other topics, how Sahagún's sons from her first marriage have benefited with contracts through her political influence. An excerpt from the book was published in the political magazine Proceso and Sahagún filed a lawsuit against Wornat, her publisher and Proceso's publisher for alleged personal damages. The filing of the lawsuit resulted in a one-house period of for Olga Wornat, an unprecedented occurrence in Mexican history.[20]

 

Much of the dislike towards Marta Sahagún stems from her 2004 delcaration that Mexico was "ready to have a woman as president,” refusing to say whether she was that woman or not.  Another scandal, involving details that the National Lottery (government-run), was funding Transforma Mexico (‘Transform Mexico’), a fund quickly linked to Vamos Mexico. This not only created controversy and a congressional probe, but caused changes in the government: Fox’s private secretary of Vicente Fox publicly quit, stating in an open letter that he didn't agree with the way Fox supported the political ambitions of his wife. A few days later Fox announced a new general director for the National Lottery. By the middle of July the pressure was so great that President Fox assured the press both he and Marta would go home after ending his term, and announced his wife would give a press conference about that. That press conference was delayed once, but finally, after one week, Marta Sahagun announced she would not run for the presidential office in 2006.

 

In February 2005, her religious marriage with Manuel Bribiesca was declared null and void by the Church. In practical terms a divorce, this means the Church found after her case accusing her husband of domestic violence that her marriage never happened at all.  This process began when she was denied the opportunity to meet and greet Pope John Paul II as an unmarried spouse, and revealed her and her husband’s party’s close relations to the stalwart Catholic church in Mexico, a very important topic in this year’s general election and resulting fraud accusations and civil resistance reaction.

 

2) Stencil graffiti such as this one have become commonplace across Mexico and I daresay other nations (to be investigated), seemingly a copy or extension of the ‘Banksy’ street ‘art’ phenomenon of recent years.  The website from where such images can be downloaded, http://www.stencilzone.tk/, was “curiosamente”[21] (‘curiously’) hacked during the last week of August 2006.  To distribute this information, the Oaxaca Citricos network used one of the anti-Ulises images which they describe as an “intervention” that pervades the walls of the city of Oaxaca.

4.  ‘Che Juárez’ poster.  An image now used by the APPO to associate their struggle with the life and work of the Benemerito de las Americas, Benito Juárez.  Benito Juárez, a native Oaxacan Zapotec Indian became the first president of the Mexican Republic, creating the nation’s constitution, reform and dividing church and state.  Having celebrated the 200^th anniversary of Juárez’s birth this year (March 21^st before the conlfict began), all of Latin America’s eyes have been on Oaxaca and his image and memory as  ‘Worthy of the Pride of the Americas.’  This image shows the bad manipulation of images and ideals prevalent in the militant left movements across Mexico.  The Che Guevara beret and Stalin’s red star mix messages in the same way that George W. Bush, Hitler, Vicente Fox and Ulises Ruiz have all been interchangeably labelled and condemned as the enemy and ‘bad-guy.’

 

The text here reads: “If for wanting justice they call you guerrilla-fighters, then I too, countrymen, am a guerrilla-fighter.”  In direct response to Oaxacan government labels of the APPO as nothing more than guerrilla-fighters, 19 September 2006.