ART R101 Art Appreciation

MACK / Fall 2017

McNish Gallery Exhibition Guide (Bill Hendricks: Cuba)
CUBA: FROM THE SPECIAL PERIOD TO THE DEATH OF FIDEL
A SOLO EXHIBITION BY BILL HENDRICKS

OCT. 12 - DEC. 7 McNISH GALLERY OF ART OXNARD COLLEGE

Bill Hendricks is an artist, photographer and filmmaker. Professor of Photography at
Ventura College, he received the 2013 Mayors Arts Educator of the Year Award and
the 2016 Ventura Arts Councils National Arts Recognition Award.
In this exhibition, Prof. Hendricks presents work created during his nearly 25 years of
traveling and working in Cuba. His photographic study of the island nation and its
people is up-close and personal, tracing the complexities of Cuba in and through the
lives of its people.
BACKGROUND
Prof. Hendricks has made more than 70 trips to Cuba since the 1990s. From the
aftermath of the Cold War and the on-going US Embargo to the death of Fidel Castro,
the warming of relations under Obama and present-day uncertainties, it is a fascinating
stretch of history.
For much of this time, the US has pursued an aggressive policy of economic sanctions
and political isolation against Cuba. Travel to the island nation only 90 miles off the
coast of Florida has been severely restricted, and extraordinary levels of animosity
and distrust have been cultivated by the two countries.
Against this fraught political backdrop, Prof. Hendricks work is remarkably intimate
and personal. He engages Cuba and its people with a lens sympathetic to our shared
condition as subjects of history.

EXHIBITION GUIDE and QUESTIONS

Works on view at the McNish Gallery of Art include intimate portraits, street scenes,
and reflections on the political and social history of the island nation. The exhibition has
one work from a larger collaborative project with a Cuban poet. It also features an
installation focused on the iconic image of Che Guevara.

PEOPLE AND PLACE While Hendricks work focuses on people, his photographs
typically include evocative settings or objects. How does he capture a sense of place,
and how does that affect our understanding of his human subjects?
How does the exhibition confirm or contradict the image you previously held of Cuba
and its people? What aspects of Cuba were most surprising or intriguing to you?

THE FAMILIAR AND THE FOREIGN Hendricks subjects are undeniably Cuban, but
they are also undeniably familiar the child with the mobile phone, the soccer ball and
Nike sweatband, the selfie. How do works in the exhibition capture this sense of the
strangely familiar, and what does it tell us about Cuba and how we imagine it?
Write five questions that you would ask Cubans regarding their daily lives, their
economy, the Revolution, Fidel Castro, their political future, the relation between the
US and Cuba, or anything else that interests you.
In our Oxnard community, we are familiar with the culture and language of Mexico.
Owing to political reasons, Cuba is less familiar and accessible to most of us. Contrast
some aspects of life in Mexico and Cuba, as you perceive it now through this lecture
and exhibition.

THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL One of the stronger themes in the exhibition is
the complex way in which political ideas penetrate personal identity. How does
Hendricks explore this theme visually?
What balance of the political and the personal can be found in the images from Fidel
Castros funeral?
The installation explores the invention and subsequent history of the iconic image of
Che Guevara. Read the artists statement and look closely at the portrait of Korda,
the Cuban photographer who took the original photograph. Describe the expression of
the photographer, and try to imagine what he would say about the commercialization
of his portrait of a Marxist revolutionary.

FORMAT Hendricks displays his photographs in a unique manner. Printed at large size
on paper or vinyl and suspended from metal bars, the work has the scale and presence
of banners or street posters. Why does he use this format, and how does it affect our
understanding of the photographs?

YOUR RESPONSE Which photograph in the exhibition is the most thought-provoking

and why? Describe the photo and explain why you chose it. Make sure you use
your new skills in close looking, description, and analysis! Consider both form and
content. If you can include context (for example, the political history of Cuba), go for it.