Gallery Walk-through: Friday, February 16, 6:30–8 PM
December 9, 2023–February 23, 2024
CATHERINE AND ROBERT PALMER GALLERY
Evan Apodaca: The Secret City
Free admission
Join us for an artist walk-through with Evan Apodaca, where he delves into his ongoing research for The Secret City, currently showcased at Athenaeum Art Center. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with the walk-through commencing at 7 p.m.
Since 2017, Evan Apodaca’s work has aimed to confront the hyper-militarization of San Diego and its global implications. His video installation Monumental Interventions creates illusory worlds where toppled statues come to life, addressing San Diego’s complicity in US hegemony in Latin America and the Pacific, all while examining the militarization of the US-Mexico border. With anonymous community participation, Apodaca’s work delves into the saturation of patriotism within San Diego’s socially and physically constructed landscape while shedding light on the environmental injustices experienced in Barrio Logan due to pollution from nearby naval shipyards. The artist’s series of drawings entitled Reruns and documentary films Oceanside 69 and Del Mar 72 collectively provide an intimate window into San Diego’s tumultuous antiwar era from 1969 to 1972. These stories capture personal experiences , from acts of violence by FBI-funded, right-wing vigilantes to the struggles of antiwar and civil rights activists who organized both on and off military bases in the region. The Secret City examines the past and the immediate present and envisions a future devoid of waging war with impunity, limitless military aid, illegal occupation, and genocide, all in the name of capital and at the cost of our environment and our global community from Palestine to Mexico.
Desde 2017, el trabajo de Apodaca ha tenido como objetivo confrontar la hipermilitarización de San Diego y sus implicaciones globales. Su videoinstalación, Monumental Interventions, crea mundos ilusorios donde estatuas derribadas cobran vida, abordando la complicidad de San Diego en la hegemonía estadounidense en América Latina y el Pacífico, al tiempo que examina la militarización de la frontera entre Estados Unidos y México. Con la participación anónima de la comunidad, la obra de Apodaca ahonda en la saturación de patriotismo dentro del paisaje social y físicamente construido de San Diego, a la vez que arroja luz sobre las injusticias medioambientales experimentadas en Barrio Logan debido a la contaminación de los cercanos astilleros navales. La serie de dibujos del artista, titulada Reruns, junto con sus documentales, Oceanside 69 y Del Mar 72, ofrecen en conjunto una ventana íntima a la tumultuosa época antibelicista de San Diego entre 1969 y 1972. Estas historias recogen experiencias personales, desde actos de violencia por parte de vigilantes de derechas financiados por el FBI hasta las luchas de los activistas contra la guerra y por los derechos civiles que se organizaron dentro y fuera de las bases militares de la región. Evan Apodaca: The Secret City examina el pasado, el presente inmediato y vislumbra un futuro sin impunidad bélica, ayuda militar ilimitada, ocupación ilegal y genocidio, todo ello en nombre del capital y a costa de nuestro medio ambiente y nuestra comunidad mundial desde Palestina hasta México.
The exhibition can be viewed in the Catherine and Robert Palmer Gallery at the Athenaeum Art Center (1955 Julian Avenue, San Diego, CA 92113) during open gallery hours, Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and every second Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m., during the Barrio Art Crawl, and by appointment.