Apparition in the Hood, Rubén Ortiz Torres

Exhibition Label: "Contemporary Photographs: Rethinking the Genres," Oct-2000, Rachel Epp Buller Ortíz-Torres came to the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the California Institute of Arts from 1990 to 1992. While there, he photographed the Latino/Latina communities of southern California. With a unique perspective on the border between insider and outsider, Ortíz-Torres focused particularly on the community’s secularized Catholicism. Apparition in the Hood demonstrates the intersection of religion and popular culture. The appearance of the Virgin in acidic colors on the hood of a Camaro testifies to the community’s competing interests of Catholicism and car culture. The work also exemplifies the updating of an historically significant religious theme. Exhibition Label: "Signs of Faith: Photographs from the Collection," Oct-2001, Elissa L.Anderson The Virgin of Guadalupe, a familiar Catholic icon takes on new meaning by being painted on the hood of a Camaro in Orítz-Torres’s photograph. Religion and pop culture become tightly interwoven in the image, signifying the devotion to both faith and material goods in southern California’s Latino communities, where this picture was made.