Piñatas of Earthly Delights

Synopsis

A self-described “queer, half-breed South Texan artist,” Roberto Benavidez insists on calling his artistic creations piñatas – and not paper sculptures – one sign of devotion to the Mexican craft he loves. Beautiful, funny, and political, they are stunning, unlike any piñata you’ve ever seen, meticulous, colorful works of art. Inspired by Heironymous Bosch and medieval manuscripts, the delicate, fanciful paper mache forms – a giraffe, a hydrus being eaten by a crocodile, a figure on all fours with candy stuffed into his ass – are both Mexican and European, a blending of cultures, like Roberto himself. The piñata’s hidden history of sin and religious colonialism collides with Bosch’s Catholic obsession and Roberto’s queer sensibility. Genitalia and buttholes are represented the way Bosch presented them, though translated into three dimensions and covered in layers and layers of hand-cut paper. He hopes his pieces will push Mexican culture and the craft of piñatas forward in the art world canon.

Credits

Tom Maroney, Director
Tom Maroney, Writer
Tom Maroney, Producer
Roberto Benavidez, Key Cast