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Collections

Guillermo Bert
La Bestia2017

On view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 2
Vertical textile hanging with embroidered floral top panel, gray photographic center panel overlaid with a red pixelated QR-code-like motif, embroidered bird-and-flower bottom panel, multicolored striped borders, and a bottom fringe of small figurative fabric dolls
Mixed-media composition featuring a central QR code-like geometric pattern in red cross-stitch embroidery with blue and gold accents, layered over a faded black-and-white photographic background. Bordered at top and bottom by strips of multicolored woven textile with striped patterns.
Textile border with dense multicolored embroidered floral and geometric patterns above a rainbow-striped woven band, from which six small handmade figures hang as pendants, each dressed in miniature woven skirts and huipiles in bright stripes with painted wooden faces and wrapped head coverings.
Artist or Maker
Guillermo Bert
Chile, Santiago, born 1959, active United States, California, Los Angeles
Title
La Bestia
Date Made
2017
Medium
Wood, acrylic paint, gesso, synthetic fiber, cotton
Dimensions
60 1/4 × 34 × 2 in. (153.04 × 86.36 × 5.08 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Kelly and Steve McLeod and Michael and Frances Weber through the 2020 Decorative Arts and Design Acquisitions Committee (DA²) in memory of Peter Loughrey
Accession Number
M.2020.133
Classification
Textiles
Collecting Area
Decorative Arts and Design
Curatorial Notes

A Chilean-American artist working in Los Angeles, Guillermo Bert has created the multimedia series "Encoded Textiles," which conveys powerful messages about immigration, displacement, and the nature of belonging. These works examine not only the circulation of people, but also the movement of ideas and traditions. Each textile in the series has a QR code integrated in the center that viewers can scan to listen or see related footage or audio. La Bestia, which is part of the Encoded Textiles series, depicts the notorious freight train ("La Bestia" or "The Beast") that traverses Mexico going north. Latin American immigrants take this dangerous journey riding the roof of the train, often with deadly consequences. The QR code links to the testimonial of Manuel Balux, a Guatemalan immigrant who settled in Los Angeles (the film is viewable at http://mayala.work/video/la_bestia.mp4). The recorded audio describes Balux’s harrowing journey by bus, foot, truck, and La Bestia from his hometown Santa Catarina Ixtlahuaca to the United States. The photograph of the train appears as a faded black and white image on a textured beige canvas. The brightly colored QR code is made of laser cut squares of brightly colored woven fabric. The panels of flowers and birds above and below the image were woven in the Guatemalan town of San Martín Chiquito. Bert has worked with the Long Beach-based nonprofit Xela AID to train and support the indigenous weavers there. The dolls suspended from the bottom of the piece are a traditional craft object given to people about to embark on a trip. By ingeniously combining emerging technology with traditional craft and embedding a story that touches so many in Los Angeles, Bert imbues La Bestia with extraordinary resonance.

Bobbye Tigerman, Marilyn B. and Calvin B. Gross Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2020