RAID Projects Los Angeles

While in the border town of Mexicali (BC, Mexico) for the 2006 MexiCali Biennial, I met a young artist.  Shortly after returning to Los Angeles, I began to receive (and save) e-mails from this artist.  The exhibition “Esta loco, pero no es pendejo.” (He’s crazy, but he ain’t stupid.) or David uses this e-mail archive as its launching point.  

A usual e-mail from David Rodolfo Fajardo Benítez will include attachments of assorted images (porn, cartoons, pictures of the artist, pictures of the artist working at KFC, pictures of Salvador Dali, picture of a dog picking up his own shit), YouTube clips (nature films, porn, music videos), PowerPoint presentations on the dangers of alcohol, eBay suggestions (penis enlargement kit), and pictures of his drawings and paintings (Matta/ Gorkyish).  The images are curiously labeled and cryptic messages can found in Spanish, English, and a jumbled mixture of both, or neither. 

These documents are pregnant with questions of sanity, the illusions of interaction, the boundaries of acceptable social behavior, the dangers of pharmaceuticals, linear thought versus fractal thought, language as a deceiving mask, and the essential desire for honest human connection. 

My encounters with David Rodolfo Fajardo Benítez, while including some Harpo Marxist non-verbal sparring, was primarily punctuated by shrieks of joy.  After one such outburst, the director of the space turned to me and said, “Esta loco, pero no es pendejo,” which loosely translates into “He’s crazy, but he ain’t stupid.”       

Numerous artists, including Brian Bosworth, Spencer Douglass, Ed Gomez, Roger Herman, Luis Hernandez, Gustavo Herrera, Katie Herzog, John Knuth, Ryan Lamb, Kristi Lippire, and Archie M. Purvis, will be analyzing the archive and responding to its content.  The exhibition will be composed of the archive itself, work based on, or in conversation with, the archive, and feature the paintings and drawings of David Rodolfo Fajardo Benítez.