Guadalupe Rosales works to document Latinx experiences in the United States, and especially in her native Los Angeles, through her ever-growing repository of communally-sourced archival materials including photographs, memorabilia, and artifacts. She develops installations combining photography, ephemera, and sound that intersect with her archival practice. For Drifting on a Memory, Rosales collaborated with Dallas-based lowrider artist Lokey Calderon to create an immersive work that nods to lowrider culture and uses sound to replicate the aural experience of cruising in East LA.
With origins in Los Angeles in the mid-20th century, lowriders—customized cars that often feature intricate designs, opulent interiors, and glittering finishes—have become a prominent expression of Mexican American culture throughout the United States. The rich colors and finely detailed designs spanning the 153-foot walls of the Museum’s Concourse evoke the iridescent surfaces of the customized cars on a monumental scale. In orchestrating this sensorial space, Rosales activates memories and invites viewers to collectively share in the experience.
Focus Installation
Admission is FREE.
Guadalupe Rosales: Drifting on a Memory is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art. The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Members and donors, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
Images: Guadalupe Rosales: Drifting on a Memory at the Dallas Museum of Art; Sitting on Chrome (banner; detail), 2021. Guadalupe Rosales. Courtesy the artist.