Vírgenes urbanas

"Spanish colonial art is famous for its Virgins. Peruvian-born artist Ana de Orbegoso wanted to create a series of images that would both pay tribute to and critique that tradition. She appropriated Spanish images of the saints and Virgins, and then used modern photographic techniques to replace the docile, European faces with the faces of the Peruvian women of today. Her giclée prints superimpose the new over the old, the empowered over the objectified, drawing attention to both. But, instead of confining the works in art galleries, de Orbegoso wanted to make the Virgins a part of the modern landscape--Urban Virgins. She turned copies of each collage into a costume for her accomplices to wear on a walking tour of Cusco. Picture an unlucky employee lumbering between sandwich boards, and you'll have some idea of the scene, but instead of advertisements they're walking works of art."-- VQR Online, June 8, 2022