Juan Capistran has a message for his wife from beyond the grave: “I’m alright.”
Here’s the thing, though: Both Capistran and his wife, Hazel Mandujano, are very much alive in Los Angeles. In fact, their work is the latest showcase on display at the University Art Gallery.
The showcase, titled “me and you…let’s get away…” is a deeply personal exploration of Capistran and Mandujano’s life together over the past 15 years. Although the way that Mandujano describes it, their marriage has felt more like a lifetime.
“It’s always very romantic between the two of us and our collaborations,” Mandujano said. “We’ve been together a long, a hundred years now.”
The exhibition features four displays all symbolizing death, grief, and loss; with a hint of love for the memories. The University Art Gallery hosted a public reception on Sept. 26 to officially premiere the exhibit.
“The artists themselves are very friendly and nice,” said Kasandra Perez, an art student who has worked for the past three years as the gallery’s receptionist.
Capistran and Mandujano first collaborated in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, at a project space in Inglewood that operated for four years.
“In that project space, we worked with other artists and doing exhibitions and producing like multiple editions,” Capistran said. “Then we did a couple group shows that we were in.”
The couple also worked together on “takeaways”—printed pieces inspired by their exhibitions that viewers can take with them—for 15 years.
At the reception, visitors could take home lenticular postcards featuring a pair of winking eyes and the phrase “smell you later” in the center.
“The both of us have been dealing with issues of just death in our work over the past few years,” Capistran said. “This idea of, like, death and rebirth and what does that mean—like, literal and metaphorical death.”
“A little bit of ceremony, a little bit of remembrance,” Mandujano added. “A lot to deal with memory and the pinpoint moment where it just snaps.”
Capistran said he struggled to decide what to show the world during a time of uncertainty and great loss. He ultimately chose to create a highly personal exhibition and convinced Mandujano to join him.
“For me, it’s always [been] like a key of being an artist,” said Capistran. “To question and disseminate ideas visually and aesthetically.”
Labors of love, life, and death
The exhibition includes carefully arranged artwork, lighting and titles that contribute to a temple-like atmosphere.
In one piece, titled “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe…,” a silk rug lies beneath a canopy tent, with a cartoon illustration of the couple looking down at Capistran’s grave. Above the rug, two projectors display a looping, five-second clip of a pair of eyes looking around, accompanied by the first three seconds of the rock band Spacemen 3’s song “It’s Allright.” The piece serves as a personal message to Mandujano.
Capistran said he incorporates personal elements into his work that are meaningful specifically to Mandujano, ensuring that each piece contains something intended for her.
“In everything that I do, there’s always one thing that’s always aimed at her specifically,” he said.
Although Mandujano described the exhibition as a mausoleum and a space to reflect, she told The Bulletin that she and Capistran incorporated their respective interpretations of grieving through light humor and love.
“I know it feels really sad, but there is some joy hidden,” Mandujano said. “Maybe that’s what is hidden in the show… the joy of love, of messaging from beyond back and forth.”
The exhibit explores themes of loss and hope, according to Mandujano. The hope, she said, is that viewers see the “spark” in each piece and relate to it.
Another piece, “Simple refusal to accept the world as it was handed down. The break of a wave. Get into the groove,” features a horizontal X-ray portraying a person sleeping in an accordion-style book with a leather belt on the bottom. The belt, as well as the piece itself, serves as an homage to Mandujano’s late father.
“I think that there’s things happening with people around you no matter what,” Mandujano said. “Even though you might feel like it’s just you in that moment…there are people in it with you.”
Sculptures on display represent multiple individual stories of grief and loss coming together into what Mandujano described as a complex experience that people can relate to. LA culture also plays a significant role in the artwork, which is rooted in the couple’s experiences.
Capistran said it’s important for his work to not only speak for itself, but stay “rooted in LA.”
“There’s no way of avoiding or escaping it,” Capistrano said. “But at the same time, you have to be able to kind of expand on it…and open it up to an audience that’s outside of LA.”