Martine Gutierrez
b. 1989
Demons, Tlazoteotl ‘Eater of Filth,’ p92, 2018
Dimentions: 105.41 cm x 72.39 cm x 3.81 cm
Medium: C-print mounted on Sintra, hand-painted artist frame
Date Created: 2018
Martine Gutierrez is a Latinx and Indigenous transwoman who uses her work to comment on issues of identity as it relates to gender and heritage. Gutierrez’s Demons, Tlazoteotl ‘Eater of Filth,’ is as a page from her larger work “Indigenous Woman” which takes the form of a self-published fashion magazine focusing on such themes. In this photograph, we see a self-portrait of Gutierrez as Tlazoteotl the Aztec goddess of sin, filth, and purification. In her depiction of the goddess, Gutierrez highlights her own identity as an indigenous transwoman through the use of performative femininity embedded with Indigenous Latinx culture. This is seen primarily through her glamorous depictions of clothing, jewelry, and makeup which reference her indigenous ancestry. For example, her garment seems to use textiles woven into indigenous patterns while her use of gold jewelry might be seen as a reference to Mayan and Aztec culture as well as Spanish colonization. Finally, Gutierrez uses makeup to unconventionally depict Tlazoteotl who traditionally has a black mouth, representing the eater of filth, with gold lipstick. This could be read as a reference to her identity as a transwoman and a member of the LGTBQ+ community in that the change from black, in this case, associated with sin and filth, to gold which is associated with wealth, and power can be seen as a comment on growing acceptance and celebration of queer people and diversity as a whole.
