Andrew Roberts exhibition: 'Haunted'
Drawing elements from the horror genre and video game aesthetics, Andrew Roberts examines the violent aspects of cultural and economic systems. His multimedia work has recently focused on the geopolitical dynamics that have shaped the relationship between the U.S. and his home country Mexico, as well as the effect these forces have had on his familial history. In his first institutional solo show in the U.S., Roberts incorporates film, sculpture, and installation in a compelling tableau that transports viewers to a ghostly simulacrum of the fast-food franchise Jack in the Box. The artist’s new animated film, designed with video game software, presents the restaurant interior populated by spectral manifestations of the brand’s mascot in three forms: darkness, liquid rubber, and red light. Pulled from the artist’s childhood memories of visiting his father at a Jack in the Box on the U.S.–Mexico border, which also served as a gathering point for migrant workers and families separated by immigration policies, Roberts’ installation examines the haunting realities at the intersection of policy, corporate identity, and personal experience.
Haunted is organized by SCAD Museum of Art curator Ben Tollefson.
About the artist
Andrew Roberts (b. 1995, Tijuana, Mexico; lives and works in Mexico City) incorporates elements from gameplay, roleplay, and world-building into his multiplatform practice, recognizing in these mechanisms a cultural structure where consumption and production become one. Roberts has presented his work in solo and two-person exhibitions at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City; Pequod Co., Mexico City; House of Chappaz, Valencia and Barcelona; Best Practice, San Diego; and Delaplane, San Francisco. He presented Haunted Silicone Mass, a solo booth with Pequod Co. at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023. Significant group exhibitions include the Institut Culturel du Mexique, Paris; Quiet As It’s Kept, the 2022 Whitney Biennial, New York; the Institute of Mexico in Spain, Madrid; ECLIPSE, the 7th Athens Biennale; Museo Jumex, Mexico City; and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, among others.