Gabriel Rico: La inclusión de mi raza (The inclusion of my race)

Presented by the Biennial of the Americas with Artistic Direction by Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum

Denver's Tail Tracks Plaza

1550 Wewatta Street, Denver, CO 80202

September 1-November 13, 2022

Admission: Free

Review by Laura I. Miller

When I arrived at La inclusión de mi raza (The inclusion of my race), which is on display in downtown Denver between two buildings at Tail Tracks Plaza, the facilitator offered me an iPad to view the augmented reality (AR) elements of the installation.

Gabriel Rico, *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. Image by Third Dune Productions, courtesy of the artist, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and the Biennial of the Americas.

On the screen, I saw virtual animals and human figures walking among the five sculptures or totems as they’re referred to in the exhibition’s description. In the world of the AR, “race” refers to “the human race,” the facilitator said, not the physical traits used to categorize people. This idea quickly became evident, as the AR humans don’t have skin; they’re presented as biological systems, the skeletal and circulatory, for example. And the human are on equal footing with the animals (which include a brown bear, fox, moose, and mountain lion).

A viewer interacting with Gabriel Rico’s *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. View of the AR as seen through an iPad. Image by Third Dune Productions, courtesy of the artist, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and the Biennial of the Americas.

Mexican artist Gabriel Rico is well known for his found-object-based sculptures, but this exhibit represents new aspects of his work with the use of augmented reality and the large scale of the totems. Created from materials donated by Denver-based organizations, the totems tell the story of Denver’s complex culture through everyday and novel objects. The AR introduces a digital layer and strengthens the theme of inclusion.

Gabriel Rico, *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. A view of a totem with various objects including a kayak, mannequin, bench, and skis. Image by Third Dune Productions, courtesy of the artist, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and the Biennial of the Americas.

Created specifically for the space, the totems draw on Rico’s architecture background. [1] Carefully balanced objects defy gravity and find renewed purpose. Some of the items Rico employs, such as kayaks and skis, are emblematic of the Denver experience. Others—a plastic slide, a metallic mannequin, a coffin, a drum kit—have more universal uses. Amidst towering office buildings and concrete walkways, the sculptures evoke surrealism and playfulness.

“Objects have the power to tell us stories,” Rico said in an interview with Black Cube Executive Director and Chief Curator Cortney Lane Stell. [2] “[T]his project tries to mix them up without losing the coherence attached to their diversity of form and the material they are made of.”

In the same interview, Rico calls attention to the history of totems as artistic representations of sacred spirits created by Indigenous tribes native to Colorado such as the Ute and Apache. Rico’s totems honor the Indigenous tradition of animism—the belief that everything, including objects, contains a spirit—while also modernizing the practice and calling for collaboration between cultures.

“The first time I started working with the totemic figure as a principle to work with different objects, I realized at some point that objects were the key to open my work to possible collaborations with other people,” Rico said.

Gabriel Rico, *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. A totem with various objects including a child’s bicycle, a child’s toy basketball hoop, a watering can, and a traffic cone. Image by Laura I. Miller.

This project is presented by the Biennial of the Americas with artistic direction by Black Cube, and includes donations from the Regional Transportation District, Art Students League of Denver, Global Livingston Institute, Tivoli Student Union, Youth on Record, Visit Denver, Denver Parks and Recreation, Denver Broncos Football Club, and several other local organizations and individuals. The process of inclusion speaks to the larger themes of the exhibition that are also evident in the AR.

Gabriel Rico, *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. A human skeletal system in AR in front of a totem sculpture. Image courtesy of the artist, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and the Biennial of the Americas.

Like many of us, Rico spent more time in front of a computer over the last two years. Physical and digital realities became increasingly blurred. This new perspective served as the inspiration behind the AR component of La inclusión de mi raza.

Gabriel Rico, *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. A moose and human bodily system in AR. Image courtesy of the artist, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and the Biennial of the Americas.

In the AR, I first noticed a skeleton walking around the plaza, leaning down to pet a fox. Then I saw animated renderings of human cardiovascular, nervous, and muscular systems, as well as a moose, a brown bear, and a mountain lion. The AR figures interact with the sculptures and with each other. In this world that Rico has created, people have more similarities than differences and exist in harmony with the animal kingdom.

“I think seeing ourselves as one helps us build a better functioning relationship with nature and also to rebuild the damaged relationship that exists among humans,” he said.

La inclusión de mi raza is an impressive feat, from scale to scope to theme to location. Everything from the use of the totem form to the choice of materials to the AR challenges the viewer’s expectations. And viewers can choose how they want to engage, either passively reveling in the totems’ imagination and novelty, or going deeper and visiting the on-site Black Cube shipping container to learn more about the artist’s process, the history of totems, and to discover another layer of meaning in the augmented reality.

Gabriel Rico, *La inclusión de mi raza* (*The inclusion of my race*), 2022, installation and augmented reality. A human circulatory system in AR. Image courtesy of the artist, Black Cube Nomadic Art Museum, and the Biennial of the Americas.

The totems will be on display until November 13, but through the artist’s app, the skeleton and the fox, the moose, and the circulatory system will continue to live on. [3] All of Rico’s AR figures will forever wander the Tail Tracks Plaza like ghostly apparitions from another realm.

Laura I. Miller is a Denver-based writer and editor. Her reviews and short stories appear widely. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona.

[1] Gabriel Rico received a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO), Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2004.

[2] You can find the interview here: https://blackcube.art/gabriel-rico-interview.

[3] Download the app at: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/gabriel-rico-estudio/id1633199344.