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Hugo Crosthwaite and The Carpas

Brad Cushman, Gallery Director and Curator
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
National Public Radio

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Hugo Crosthwaite’s art installation for the California Pacific Triennial was inspired by theatre troupes known as carpas.

As narrator, Crosthwaite uses stock characters to create monumental banners supported by wooden poles and industrial metal stands.

The trickster or “Urban Bumb” represents the pennyless hero. In this case he is the undocumented immigrant.

The young girl represents inocence. She is seduced by the empty promises of mafia controlled beauty contest.

And, the corrupt government authority bares a stricking resemblance to Jan Brewer, the govenor of Arizona.

Crosthwaite’s sideshow banners are punctuated with graphic black and white imagery of a bourgeois society, which wraps around the walls of the main lobby of the Orange County Museum of Art.

In Mexico and the Southwestern United States, tent theater known as carpas flourished during the 1920s and 30s. Like its American counterpart vaudeville, performances were varied, including comedic sketches, political satire, acrobatics, and dance.

- Brad Cushman, 2013