Day of the Dead Altar Project for 2008 Ofrenda Show in DC

This was my entry in the annual Ofrenda 2008 that was put on by Art Outlet (http://www.ArtOutlet.org) and was held on October 31-November 1 in Washington, DC. The theme is the traditional Mexican holiday El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), which is celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November, and the artists are encouraged to create works that reflect it. I did some research and I constructed a Mexican-style altar that is loaded with skulls and skeletons. I tried to remain true to the tradition as possible.

Since the holiday is supposed to honor the dead, I placed on the altar photos of two friends of mine--Julie and drex--who died three months apart. In some ways, constructing that altar helped me to come to terms with their untimely deaths. I strewn a few yellow and orange flowers around the surface of the altar. I also ordered a couple of Mexican sugar skulls online to place on the altar. The smaller skulls and skeletons are mostly Halloween toys and decorations that I purchased cheaply.

For the bigger skeletons, I had an inspiration after seeing photos of actual Day of the Dead skeleton statues on various websites and I noticed that many of them wore all types of clothes (including cowboy garb, top hat and tails, even a Virgin Mary outfit). I took a few of my dolls and placed skull masks (which I created by scanning in a skull graphic then printing it out on heavy paper) on their faces. (I kept the masks on their faces by using temporary Artists Tape.) I used ball-jointed dolls (including Volks Dollfie Dream, Fantasy Doll Tobias, Bobobie Sunny, Bobobie Sprite, Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo, Orient Doll Ji, Soul Doll Kimmy) and other articulated dolls (Pullip, Namu, Ellowyne Wilde, and Volks Dollfie Plus).

I created a photo collage out of the photos that I took of the altar and put it in the show. I included shots the photo collage, the photos I used in that collage, and outtakes that I wanted to use but couldn't because I didn't have enough room in the picture frame.

I also shot footage of the actual Ofrenda show that I posted at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B6MhEsJ1Og

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