Arturo Kameya: Drylands

The Dordrechts Museum presents Drylands, the first museum solo exhibition of Arturo Kameya. The artist connects the everyday, within the (urban) culture of his native Peru, with larger storylines across time and space. Kameya, who has lived outside Peru for a long time, looks at his homeland from a distance. Far away from home, objects and rituals take on a different meaning, or perhaps lose it completely.

Rituals from everyday life

Arturo Kameya’s work is rooted in personal stories and in the history of the urban subculture of Lima, the Peruvian capital, and Japan. His native Peru has traditionally had a large community of Japanese migrants. He reflects through paintings, music and objects on apparently insignificant experiences, memories and rituals from everyday life. His work thus touches on major and current themes such as migration, loss and change. Imagining the past and the future also play a significant role in the artist’s practice.

Ceramics and found objects

The works of art consist of a combination of found or appropriated objects, paintings, ceramics and installations. In one of the paintings in the exhibition, the artist combines the visual language of an altar – a common phenomenon in the streets of Lima – with a contemporary mural. Where these street altars normally depict a saint, in this work that figure has been replaced by a scene of a crowd burning dolls of famous people and politicians. A custom that returns every turn of the year.