Dia de Los Muertos (2013)
$40.00
Original price $45
Institutional pricing (libraries, universities, for use on tv/movies etc). Contact us for invoicing or a custom listing: $90
Melanie Cervantes
20 x 26 inches
4-Color including blend, Handprinted, Screenprint, Heavyweight Archival Art Paper, Printed in Oakland, CA 2013
It was really important to me to center a danzante in the composition of this poster because I feel that Dia de los Muertos is about a world view that understands the duality between life and death. These understandings are rooted in indigenous cosmologies and worldviews from peoples across the Americas. I didn't want the image to flatten what used to be a month long ceremony about remembering the ancestors to a kitchy image of a cartoonish skull that provides no historical context to traditional practices or the reasons for them. I shot this photo of Lazaro Arvizu a danzante from Xipe Totec who used to come to my community college in Los Angeles to teach the third and fourth graders from local schools about the traditions of Dia de los Muertos. This was the last year I helped organize the event before I moved to the Bay.
