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Description

Stencil set showing a woman in partial profile pointing a rifle to viewers right. The woman wears a wrap on her head, blouse, long skirt and sandals. Stencils are installed as a set of twelve: three layers deep; three rectangles high in one stack (parts a-c, e-g, i-k) with additional rectangle at the upper right (parts d, h, l), showing the end of the gun. Each stencil layer was aerosol painted with a different colour - light taupe, dark taupe, and black.

Narrative

Two artists from the collective "Lapiztola", Rosario Martinez and Roberto Vega, traveled to MOA in May 2018 to install 6 sets of stencils (3289/99-104) in the exhibition "Arts of Resistance: Politics and the Past in Latin America". The exhibition label for "La defensa del maiz" read: "This graffiti installation by Lapiztola, Oaxaca, Mexico, links the struggle against transgenic maize with Indigenous empowerment. The artists have used pre-Hispanic maize symbols to associate Indigenous communities with historical Mesoamerican civilizations. Maize agriculture is at the root of Mesoamerica's earliest civilizations. Cultivation of maize that has been altered through genetic engineering (transgenic maize) is now being authorized by the Mexican government. This maize is sold cheaply across the country, affecting the Indigenous and locally grown maize market. Transgenic maize is less nutritious, and the profits it generates are not shared with Mexico's poorest agricultural communities."