Figure Item Number: 3462/19 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Day of the Dead figure. Figure depicts a skeletal market vendor. The skeleton is standing in front of a table and holding out a chicken in both hands. Three chickens lie diagonally on the table. The skeleton's clothes are painted on, and consist of a blue dress, short white apron, and black shoes. The skeleton is wearing gold hoop earrings, and its black hair is decorated with red glitter. The table and skeleton are both affixed to an irregular-shaped green and white base. The table's legs are made from thin metal rods.
Figures like these, made by local artisans, have commonly been sold in indigenous markets throughout Mexico, especially for Day of the Dead celebrations. The figures are used as domestic decorations and presents for children. In 2019 Shelton noted that both the large Oaxaca market and the Sonora market in Mexico City had far fewer stalls selling this type of figure than there had been twenty years earlier. One maker in Oaxaca said domestic demand had declined, and that there were fewer artisans as many of the older makers had died and their children hadn't taken-up the craft. Some of the artisans make skeletal figures encased in glass, to sell to tourists through folk art shops.
Purchased directly from the maker in Oaxaca in 2019. Sra. Elipidia Chacon Ruiz told Shelton that her parents had also been potters in Oaxaca. She is in her 80s, and has taught her daughters and their children how to make the figures. She also told him it was the younger members of her family that came up with the idea of making skeletons in cars and racing cars.