"In a city filled with buses, subways, cabs and pedicabs, there's a new kind of transit in town-but you can't ride this one, just admire it. A 30-foot pink carriage drawn by white plastic horses carrying Hello Kitty backpacks now sits in the middle of Times Square as part of an art installation by Yvette Mayorga called Magic Grasshopper. The striking piece-decked out with smiley face designs, pink suitcases and lowrider gold rims-also includes painterly scenes of migration as a way to challenge European art historical tropes."
"Part float, part fantastical vessel, Mayorga's work intends to transports viewers across borders and historical eras. The piece offers a tribute to the physical and personal journeys humans have historically undertaken in pursuit of the American Dream. And it offers a layered critique of the systems that shape that dream."
"Drawing on her mother's background as a baker, the Chicago-based Mexican-American artist applied thickened acrylic through pastry bags making the trim on the carriage look more like the detail on a wedding cake. A charming visual spectacle, that design choice also references the histories of women's work and immigrant labor. An act of resistance, a sugary shield and a portal to a hopeful future. The aesthetic embodies Mayorga's self-coined concept of "Latinxcoco" (a mix of Latinx and Rococo aesthetics) by blending Versailles-inspired grandeur with Mexican symbolism-plus the chaos of a Y2K-era teenage bedroom."
Yvette Mayorga installed Magic Grasshopper, a 30-foot pink carriage, in Times Square near the Red Steps (Broadway and 47th Street) through December 2, viewable free 24/7. The carriage is drawn by white plastic horses and loaded with Hello Kitty backpacks, smiley-face designs, pink suitcases, and lowrider gold rims. Painterly scenes of migration challenge European art historical tropes while honoring journeys toward the American Dream and critiquing systems that shape that dream. The work blends Versailles-inspired Rococo grandeur with Mexican symbolism and Y2K-era teenage bedroom chaos under the self-coined concept "Latinxcoco." Thickened acrylic applied through pastry bags references a baker mother and evokes histories of women's work and immigrant labor, while Times Square Arts calls the piece an act of resistance, a sugary shield, and a portal to a hopeful future.
Read at Time Out New York
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