The works presented in ropa sucia. have never been exhibited in physical form until now. The oldest date back to 2012—a couple of years after Rolando Rodriguez had written and staged a multi-media work titled THE LEAP OF ERSATZ. He designed the work so that it would contain no dialogue and instead, allow different mediums tell its story: film, music, puppetry and, even, live painting, as dancers and actors used their bodies to interact with the costumes and sets around them. The works in ropa sucia. are like that play. Told through different forms and relying heavily on performance and design, but all asking the same questions: What is really behind the color and the glamour and the facade of beauty? And can beauty exist where others do not find it?
In the aforementioned play, the characters are not of any specific place in the world. They are archetypes devoid of humanity; symbols representing the concepts of the subconscious as written about by Carl Jung. Symbolism was a large part of another play Rolando wrote, where infantilized characters wear sunglasses to hide their deepest and darkest secrets from those closest to them. The play ends in tragedy. And this work was never staged. But soon after Rolando created Malte, a character who also wears sunglasses, who doesn’t act entirely human, and who vacillates between darkness and childishness.
ropa sucia., or dirty laundry, is an opportunity to chronologically visit, for the first time, some of the works that have never physically existed before, as this is the first full exhibition of Rolando’s work as a visual artist. Born and raised in South Central to Salvadoran parents, the title rope sucia. is inspired by the lavanderias he grew up around, the carts that (usually) women wheeled to their nearest laundromat, the clothes that were tended on lawns laid out for the sun to dry. For his first public presentation, Rolando’s collections of works are also tended out for all to see, gaining a different life that, until now, only lived digitally, or in some cases, hidden.
2012—2014. In the dark spectacles and long brown coat came the mystery that gave birth to Malte Mara Mathe II, the prototype of Rolando’s personas that spawned a multiplicity of others. Cyborgs. Version V. Voglerbrigge. Malte. Characters upon characters with interchangeable names that are embodied as personal forms of internal struggle, idealism and, ultimately, the rejection of humanity. In two films that Rolando wrote, directed and designed, the stark contrast of this persona is noticeable: the cold, shadowy world of SURRENDER; the colorful one in MALTE. These two extremes would come to define all the forms that came after, as depicted in the self-portrait series that was shot at different locations in Los Angeles, including parts of Rolando’s childhood home and his father’s old work factory.
i've written many letters but this is a letter to myself. and so as it is for me, i address it to my former self for i will no longer be who i used to be. and all the other versions of myself, the ones that came before i was aware of who i was, and the ones that existed before i called myself we, have to be laid to rest in order for me to live.
2015—2017. After using his own body to tell stories, Rolando turned his lens to capture those around him in a more realistic spectrum in the Close Medium Wide series. This selection of portraits capture some of those faces from different communities, ages, backgrounds and identities in Los Angeles. Ranging from candid to staged portraits, this series of Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Mexican families at various festivities throughout Los Angeles was incorporated into ropa sucia.
selected images previously presented in boyle heights:
Sapo Verde Tu Yu (2016) at Guisados
2018. ropa sucia. is the eponymous mixed medium clothesline installation that sculpturally connects Rolando’s early works with his later works, and his family’s history with that of their native country, El Salvador. Displayed are the clothes he used in his self-portrait series, along with other objects that gave birth to his main persona. on sale in america is a two-part mixed medium work that further articulates the connection between South Central Los Angeles and Central America.