Diego Ramírez





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The Monster Problem 

IN PRE DEVELOPMENT

Available For Opportunities 
Manuscript, Various Mediums , 202X


The Monster Problem is a long term project with two components: 1) a manuscript and 2) an exhibition. This endeavour humorously draws from Ramirez’ trajectory as an artist, writer and gallery director, combining these disciplines in an ambitious outcome.

1) The manuscript is a series of chapters about a Gallery Director, who returns to his hometown of Guadalajara after a period of diaspora. On the way to a local exhibition opening called The Monster Problem, a vampire bites him. Every chapter onwards recounts dangerous encounters with the underworld that continually frustrate his attempts to visit the exhibition. This plot is humorously framed by the local artist kindly opening their exhibition for the diaspora Director at night, only to be stood up, in every chapter. The literary device of vampirism, with its avatar of immortality, is an opportunity to explore the criminal occurences that make Mexico one of the most dangerous countries in the world.

2) The exhibition component actualises The Monster Problem, the show that the Director fails to see in every chapter. The Monster Problem as a speculative installation is comprised of humorous objects that evoke vampirism, an ongoing concept in Ramirez’ practice that looks at difference and extraction. He will progress this enquiry with black wax referencing castle candles and buried/unburied film (degrading the image) that mimics how vampires rise from the grave after burial. His aim is to establish a parasitical relationship between these elements, where one material appears to consume the other, in a vampiric dynamic.

The Conservatives

IN PRE DEVELOPMENT

Available For Opportunities 
 Video, 202X


A white cishet couple—Dabria and Cain—return to his apartment after a successful date, where Dabria begins to spot traces of a sinister ideology (right wing extremisism), before Cain discovers that she hides a dark secret of her own (ancient vampirism). Alba, an Anglo woman with a Mexican dad, crosses their path by chance to become the only witness to the extremely gory murder of Cain.

This film shows the moment two white cis hetero lovers kiss for the first time, only to discover one of them carries a ‘sonic virus’ that distorts hearing upon the sharing of saliva. Located within the vampire genre, this work trades in the aesthetics of right wing extremism: a white man in his mid 20s, who unbeknown to his date is a white supremacist, touches lips with a white woman of similar age, who is a vampire. This encounter takes place in his apartment, where she slowly discovers objects that suggest the male kisser is a covert extremist. Once infected with the dark gift from the female kisser, he suffers from an extreme form of cognitive distortion, which manifests on the screen as an experimentation with sound and image. In ‘The Conservatives’, the vampire is a fascist ideology and transmission is radicalisation. Thus, the work purposely trades in a couple that epitomises the target of identity politics. 

This work is based on Ramírez essay The Monstrous Kiss and Its Perversions, which looks at the history of kissing as a community practice in early Judeo-Christianity, where he discusses media that disrupts this legacy, by turning kissing into an act of division rather than union. The vampire’s bite epitomises this perversion as an osculation that inverts values of social harmony.  

Snowflake 

IN PRE DEVELOPMENT

Available For Opportunities
Various Medius, 202X


This suite of works reference idioms with materials, such as ‘losing one’s marbles’, to depict emotional states of mind. The artist situates this interest in the Right’s accusation that the Left is made of snowflakes, taking this contempt as a point of departure to investigate emotional sensitivity. A typical work in this series consist of a modified frame containing marbles that have been coated with resin, to immortalise a fleeting moment of perfect turmoil. Since 2021, Ramírez has conducted several  experiments in this vein, which he has released as individual works for group exhibitions. 

This project is motivated by Ramírez’ prose writing, which often incorporates pathos through a comical lens. Seeking to translate this creative senbility into his arts pratice, he began employing marbles for their ability to simultaneously convey humour and distress. It is also an opportunity to explore the melancholic dimension of his key interests, such as the gothic suffering associated with the vampire. While connecting it with his work in the area of cultural criticism. 
Ramirez acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Land where he lives and works, the Wurundjeri people. He pays his respects to Elders past, present and emerging of the Kulin Nation.