Yoshua Okón's Video Installations at Ghebaly Gallery Critique US Nationalism and Cultural Appropriation

Yoshua Okón presented two video installations at Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles from April 28 to May 26, 2018. The exhibition featured Oracle, a two-channel work filmed in Oracle, Arizona, collaborating with the nationalist militia Arizona Border Defenders. In this piece, militia members stage protests against undocumented Central American children, firing automatic weapons and waving flags while delivering threatening monologues. Another installation, The Indian Project: Rebuilding History, originated from a segment Okón directed for a Skowhegan, Maine television station, showing local chamber of commerce members awkwardly performing Native American ceremonies while discussing the town's history, omitting its genocidal past. Okón's approach frames his subjects through their own role-playing and pop-cultural influences, highlighting systemic issues rather than individual aberrations. The title Oracle references both the Arizona town and Oracle Corporation's CIA connections, suggesting broader geopolitical disconnects. The Mexican-born, US-educated artist's work explores how fragile self-images are shaped by cultural tropes, with white, elderly participants in both videos embodying misguided beliefs rooted in systemic structures. The exhibition was reviewed in ArtReview's Summer 2018 issue.