In War Times (2019)

Often in wartimes, people become seduced by concepts of honor and power, jaded by the need for victory. Individuals and entire nations will slip into an Agentic Mode a heightened physiological state of mind that promotes brutal martial behavior with the goal to be the survivor. The opposing force becomes the bad guy, oppositional, deserving to be killed, in a completely black and white matter. This occurs daily to communities in the U.S., where the capitalistic drive intertwined with racism creates a state of wartimes for ones entire life. The good ole boys, talk about being in wartimes as state of nostalgia but others live in a constant system of dodging bullets or strikes that come in the form of racialized policing, limited access to education, western ideals of beauty standards, neighborhood ghettoizing, the list can continue to eternity.

In War Times is a solo-exhibition by Chicago based artist Marcela Torres. In War Times derives from research spanning the Vietnam War, martial arts training, 00’s rap and contemporary current events. These disparate parts come together to compare the experience of living as an “other” in the U.S. as a state of extreme distress. The exhibition exists both as a set and by-product of the performance Agentic Mode that Torres will perform on opening night. After the opening the space will hold the sounds, the strikes, the frustration, the text of our battle.