Rafael Fajardo
Director, SWEAT collaborative
Associate Professor,
Emergent Digital Practices
University of Denver

 

Projects: (in)Action Figure

(in)Action Figure is a multi-part work in progress. It combines scholarly investigation into the history and development of advertising icon “Juan Valdez” with creative/poetic expression in a synthetic manner.

Summary
In which the author/artist looks at Juan Valdez as a role model for the Latin American population of the USA, and locates/creates –– for Juan –– the logical artifacts and trappings of contemporary heroes (super- or otherwise). The author will explore a nexus created by intersecting: Juan Valdez –– the synthetic spokesman for Colombian Coffee; the search for heroes and heroism in contemporary society; globalization; the idea of boys playing with dolls; and, evolving definitions of fatherhood.

Exhibitions, Conferences & Symposia
“(In)Action Figure” will be performed at Museo de las Americas, Denver, in late October, 2005.
“(In)Action Figure” was performed at the University of Denver for the Humanities Institute Faculty Lecture Series. November 2003
“(In)Action Figure: Meditations on Juan Valdez and Heroism” was performed for the first time at the Univerity of Texas, Austin Harrington Symposium on Gender and Globalization. April 2002
“The Phantom Gringo Boat and Meditations on Popular Culture” was presented several times for the Americas class in Border Studies at the University of Texas, El Paso. 1999-2001
“The Phantom Gringo Boat and Meditations on Popular Culture” was presented at the School For Visual Arts Conference on Humanities and The Arts, New York, NY. 1999

Components
Documentary Video
stills from reel 3
2002-present
720 pixels x 540 pixels x 12 images
project director: Rafael Fajardo
videography: Elaine Bay
editor: Rafael Fajardo

stills from reel 6
2002-present
720 pixels x 540 pixels x 12 images
project director: Rafael Fajardo
videography: Elaine Bay
editor: Rafael Fajardo

video fragment from reel 3 pretty boring without the spoken text
2001-2002 (this version)
1.5 MB (highly compressed) QuickTimeŞ movie
180 pixel x 120 pixel x 7:02 min color
will load progressively then begin playing automatically and then loop indefinitely
project director: Rafael Fajardo
videography: Elaine Bay
editor: Rafael Fajardo

“Meditations on Juan Valdez” Spoken word performance script
1998-present
ASCII text collected in Acrobat (PDF) file

appropriated, altered doll and hand sewn costume, lost in Raton, New Mexico, 2001-2002 material has been collected to recreate in 2006

“The Phantom Gringo Boat and Meditations on Popular Culture” 1999
essay in Acrobat (PDF) file
co-authored with Rex Koontz, PhD