Wrestling is a spectacle not a sport
(Roland Barthes)
Mexican Wrestling, as I found out during my residency at Ishuakara Taller Galleria in Oaxaca, Mexico, is a glittering world of constructed masculinity, fantasies of self and ideas of heroism and vilany. Against the back drop of contemporary Mexico’s world of unstable politics, violence and corruption, the wrestlers known as ‘Téchnicos’ play by the rules, the ‘Rudos’ are violent – and the referee is always biased.
Office Hero (2015) gouache on newsprint.
Criminal I, Politico, Criminal II (2015), gouache on newsprint.
Basement politics, Deal (2015) gouache, newsprint.
‘World Thumb Wrestling Championships’ have been held in Oaxaca (Mexico), Knocken Gorroch Festival (Scotland), Poet La Valle Puppet Festival, France, Southwark (London) and Old Market (Bristol) and translated into 3 languages.
Deep inside maybe you are a wrestler too …
