10/23/2024
Fernando Valenzuela (1960-2024)
RIP El Toro!
Did you know that the sculpture in front of the entrance to Cerritos College’s Kincaid baseball Field was inspired by Fernando Valenzuela?
In 2016, LA-based artist Gustavo Godoy generously donated one of his large cast concrete sculptures to Cerritos College, to be placed on permanent public display at the entrance to Kincaid Field, home base for the college's highly-successful baseball team. Godoy's Vacant Marker sculpture originated as one of a number of abstract pieces he produced for an exhibition entitled “Vacant Mounds and Markers” at notable Los Angeles art gallery, Honor Fraser. For this 2012 exhibition, Godoy created a new body of cast concrete sculptures he called "mounds and markers,” each piece meant to be ambiguously reminiscent of ancient altars, minimalist sculptures, futuristic architecture, and urban demolition sites. This series of sculptures not only alluded to ancient histories, but also referenced the artist’s own contemporary idols. The “Vacant Mounds” that originally encircled “Vacant Marker” (the piece that Godoy ultimately donated to Cerritos College) referenced the pitching mound from Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, a sacred space for Godoy. In 1981, Fernando Valenzuela, a Mexican pitcher for the Dodgers, quickly became an international phenomenon as he took his team to the World Series Championship and received baseball's most prestigious award for pitching, the Cy Young. Idolizing the pitcher as a child (and furthermore, the stadium), Godoy witnessed first hand as "Fernandomania" swept the country. For the Mexican-American population of L.A., the success of Valenzuela was especially meaningful considering the controversial history of Dodger Stadium. The stadium was built in Chavez Ravine, an area previously home to a vibrant Mexican-American community. In the 1940s, the area was particularly appealing to real estate developers, who saw the potential in the neighborhood's proximity to Downtown L.A. The residents were forcibly relocated to make room for new housing. Although the development never materialized, the land was sold to the Brooklyn Dodgers, creating a home for the newly christened Los Angeles Dodgers in Chavez Ravine. This recounting of fraught histories is prevalent in the “Vacant Mounds and Markers” series, as Godoy pays tribute to disenfranchised communities, the rise and fall of heroes, and the urban L.A. landscape. Los Angeles is an urban jungle comprised of a stream of traffic and construction set against a landscape of ocean, palm trees and mountains. This juxtaposition of nature vs. industry can be seen in the commonplace materials that Godoy uses to build his sculptures. Maintaining a relationship with the day laborers that build our environments, Godoy's work pays tribute to the true makers of our city. His embrace of quotidian construction supplies, readily found at any home improvement store, renders the objects familiar, yet the weight and stillness of the heavy material provides a solemn, cerebral experience. These concrete forms suggest permanence; a gesture of hope that the art object can capture and maintain the essence of time and social circumstance.
