Dia de Muertos - photographs from Oaxaca, Mexico by Gary Bricklebank

About

The dead are brought back into everyday life. Lost love ones are commemorated throughout Oaxaca with food, drink, music, dancing, & enjoyment. Children play in cemeteries after midnight. Mariachi bands boogie by tombstones. Young women (& some men too) wear slinky dresses & with deadpan expressions on their painted skull faces. Giant puppets & stilt walkers cast strange shadows.

A fantastical mix of ancient Mexican cultural heritage, blended with Spanish colonial Catholicism, and sprinkled with plenty of anarchic hedonism. Never morbid, this is a total celebration of Life.  

Gary has worked as a photographer, run an open access darkroom and print workshop. His varied artwork has been shown in the Whitechapel Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. This is his first solo show.  

Gary is excited to present Dia de Muertos Photographs as part of the exhibition programme at the Magus and the Fool Art Cafe.  Owners Federico Arceri from Italy and Caroline Souza from Brazil have created a lively, multicultural atmosphere – an apt setting for these dramatic pictures.