FAMILIA-R: ¡AN INSTALLATION AT DUCKLER!
June 29th, 2025
Today’s installation is a small selection of photographs and artifacts from a larger collection of work Michael Papias is currently exhibiting across California, under the project title:
FAMILIA-R: THE VAQUERA/X/O THROUGH A MEXICAN-AMERICAN LENS
The entire collection of photographs, comprised of over 2,500 images, was built over the span of 4 years, shot entirely on 35mm and 120mm film. In 2021, Michael Papias returned to the land that was home to his earliest memories, the San Gabriel River Trails, a corridor connecting the largest hidden Latina/x/o equestrian neighborhoods of Los Angeles County’s San Gabriel Valley. This interconnected set of crisscrossing dirt trails is where Michael’s mother taught him how to imagine with no limits, his father taught him the reality of living within the cycle of life & death, and the horse taught him how to walk the line between both. Now equipped with his camera, Michael is attempting to archive his communities memories as they fight to keep the Latina/x/o horse riding practice alive—capturing the everyday and the special moments of community resistance.
The title of this collection arrives from a true orphan tongue, a mix of words that are born from the loss of all that grounds its speaker——in a stream of thought, familia-r came to capture the essence of a Mexican-American foster youth that is seeking to explain all the fast paced smells, images, sounds, and textures that clog his sinuses when we remembers all that he lost——that maybe the diaspora can still learn something from those with an orphan tongue, especially from those who can’t be held back by any of the rules they never learned. As the Pocho and Paisa will continue to fight and never let the Mexican-American truly rest, we can all agree the horse is the bridge, the long lost family member that allows two strangers to call each other prima/x/o’s.
For each viewer, the mash of photographs from different spaces and contexts, with no closed captions, prompts you to find all that is familia-r to you within the images: Brown skin, the colonial landscape, an unforgiving California sun, or the fight to stay alive—then try, like the Mexican-American tries everyday, to make any sense of it all. This collection of work was built prior to the ongoing June 2025 State Sanctioned Kidnappings of immigrant community members in Los Angeles—now, suddenly, these photographs physically sit in the epicenter of where many of these kidnappings have continued to take place (Los Callejones/Santee Alleys)———the context of this space is forcing us, more than ever, to reflect on the future of the Vaquera/x/o, the horse, and all that is familia-r.
Papias: ¡How a Mexican is Born, of Stone!
Papias: ¡How a Mexican is Born, of Stone! is a video installation made from a collection of VHS family archives that have recently been digitized by the artist. This set of moving pictures follows Pedro Papias’ adventures as he traveled/worked throughout the colonial territories in the early to mid 90’s.
Michael has held on to the VHS tapes since entering the foster care system over 15 years ago, allowing him to hear his parent’s voices again for the first time in over a decade. Inspired by the film essay work of other historically marginalized filmmakers (ie. Sky Hopinka, Marlon Riggs, etc.), and in conversation with a close friend and fellow filmmaker Jose Leon, Papias: ¡How a Mexican is Born, of Stone! is an early cut of a larger film essay currently in the works. Michael seeks to explore themes of Brown memory, non-linear storytelling, and the spiritual relationship Brown people have constructed with the everyday.
Today’s cut has been placed alongside the FAMILIA-R installation as part of a longer conversation on the importance of documenting Brown life, filling the gaps of our archives with the invisible Brown labor (from the green grape fields to child birth) that did take place, and peeking behind the curtain of Michael’s ancestral history of documenting through a lens based art practice.
