Corpo Ranfla: Inter Rim

Abstract

Corpo Ranfla explored formal aspects of “body-ness” in relation to cruising: lowrider car cruising and gay cruising. Mario Ayala, Tanya Melendez, and I worked my body into a lowrider car by giving it a paint job using an airbrush machine. At the helm of this production was my interest in the history of anthropomorphism, particularly of Mexican-Azteca iconography that illustrates the relationship between humans and nature. Inter Rim is a collage composition that takes on some questions that remain boisterous even after Corpo Ranfla materialized on my body: How can a lowriding body move? What attributes of a car, a machine, might a body take on as its own? What is there to gather about my and other bodies, the street, a neighborhood, one’s city, and the spaces between destinations when becoming a lowrider car?