Karla Kaplun

SPORT/Becky Blast

Studying the body in movement, this series of drawings depart from Karla Kaplun’s work Aztec BLAST® Workout (AWB). Taking the form of a fitness training program, this work critically explores issues of cultural appropriation, focusing on the traditional “Conchero” Aztec dance. The Concheros dance—also known as the Chichimecas, Aztecas and Mexicas—is an important traditional dance and ceremony which has been performed in Mexico since early in the country’s colonial period.

The drawings SPORT/Becky Blast and SPORT/Cookie Blast feature bodies in abject and contorted poses. The work blends together movements from the traditional “Conchero” Aztec dance with bodybuilding gym routines and the aesthetic of wellness boutiques. For the artist, an important part of the process has been to observe bodies performing these physical activities in an attempt to subdue them in the partiality of their poses; to freeze them in order to replicate the movement of their effort. Kalpun highlights the consequences of cultural appropriation and whitewashing by portraying caucasian figures rather than bodies of indigenous people, incorporating images of Nike’s shoes, and assigning titles like Becky and Cookie. This body of work also addresses the Mexican government’s strategy, used in the post-revolutionary era, to instrumentalize the Conchero Dance as a propaganda tool to construct a ‘Mexican identity’.