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In Rodrigo Valenzuela’s lecture, the piece that stood out to me the most was “Proleâ€. The piece “Prole†starts with a bunch of older men playing soccer and then they sit down and talk about common problems and how the immigrant workers need to come together to benefit everyone. The choice to have them talk and open up about their life and problems while videotaping them was interesting and led to a lot of insight on their lives and struggles. It was inspirational because I had not thought of hearing their voices in such a way. It showed the immigrant workers in a positive light, showed their humanity, and let them speak their mind.

Another of piece of work that I enjoyed was the series of pictures he took during the painting of his green room. The series is composed of pictures of the painters who painted his room green while they are playing soccer. My favorite part about this work is that he removed the soccer ball from the pictures and was left with these men making weird faces. The artist’s project “Maria TV†was an interesting piece in which the artist had women act out scenes from soap operas. I had difficulty following along with this piece because it was in Spanish.

I am not fluent enough in Spanish, nor I am familiar enough with the culture, for the piece to have had a strong enough impact. I thought it was an interesting way to display mutual feelings amongst the immigrants even though I may have not understood all of it. Valenzuela talked about how his work was personal to him because he is from that culture and was an immigrant who had to do hard labor to make in this country. Valenzuela came to America when he was 21 and had nothing to his name, was able to work hard and put himself through school. The “Maria TV†project had people who were also immigrants and then they reenacted soap operas with passion.

The soap operas were personal to Valenzuela because he had grown up in a house full of women and had similar, if not the same, soap operas playing throughout the day. The piece had a powerful connection to Valenzuela’s past and gave light to aspects of his culture. In relation to the word and topic of “Disruptionâ€, Valenzuela wants to make people feel differently and think about things in a new light. Valenzuela talked about how we are the customers and it’s okay to call customer service, in fact we should be calling customer service. He had a series of photographs that involved riots and people working towards change.

He wants people to not be afraid to stand up for what they believe in. These ideas were expressed also by the picture series of the gas mask in which he made various home-made gas masks and applied a reflective tape to highlight certain features in each individual mask. The most impactful aspect of the the artist’s work was the “Help Wanted†piece. The piece was created with the help of students who made tools and other household items out of clay and worked together to create a giant drawing the size of a wall. The work was impactful to me because it’s use of light as the subject and the beautiful landscape in the back are things that I truly enjoy trying to capture.

I have had experience in managing a team of people and can understand the difficulty Valenzuela went through when trying to organize the drawing in the back. Valenzuela discussed about how each of the people who worked on the drawing had different drawing styles and opinions and it took him a while to get them to conform. If I had one question to ask Valenzuela it would be, what is he going to do next?

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Rodrigo Valenzuela's multidisciplinary artistic practice serves as a compelling exploration of voice, collaboration, and disruption within marginalized communities, especially focusing on immigrant and working-class experiences. His works consistently challenge societal norms, provoke critical dialogue, and inspire social activism, exemplifying how art can be a powerful instrument for disruption and change.

One of Valenzuela's most impactful works is the documentary film “Diamond Box,’ which employs black-and-white footage to depict the arduous journeys of undocumented Latinx immigrants. The film’s stark visual aesthetic emphasizes the silenced voices and invisible struggles of these individuals, juxtaposing their quiet presence on screen with the bold stories they recount off-screen. This technique highlights the silencing of marginalized voices and calls attention to their resilience, emphasizing that their narratives are often erased or overlooked in mainstream discourse. As Kim (2020) notes, visual storytelling in black-and-white enhances emotional gravitas and underscores themes of injustice and resilience bordering on activism (Kim & Nguyen, 2020).

Valenzuela’s “Maria TV” further exemplifies his commitment to giving voice to silenced communities. The performative documentary features Latinx women reenacting scenes from soap operas, which resonate deeply with Valenzuela’s personal history of growing up in a household dominated by women and ingesting soap operas daily. Through this performance, the women express their emotional realities and hardships, transforming cultural artifacts into powerful statements about identity, labor, and gender roles. This approach aligns with Bell’s (2019) assertion that reenactments and performative art can effectively articulate complex social issues (Bell, 2019). Moreover, by involving real immigrant workers as actors, Valenzuela blurs the lines between fiction and reality, fostering authentic dialogue and engagement.

Disruption as a thematic focus permeates Valenzuela’s entire oeuvre. He seeks to challenge viewers’ perceptions of what constitutes “home,” “labor,” and “value.” His series of photographs depicting homemade gas masks, for instance, symbolize protective measures against societal oppression and environmental hazards faced by marginalized groups. The reflective tapes on masks symbolize self-awareness and the act of reflection—a call to consciousness. Similarly, his “Help Wanted” installation, created collaboratively with students, illustrates the collective effort and diverse artistic expressions within a single panoptic artwork. The landscape background juxtaposed with clay tools underscores the idea of labor as a foundational yet often unrecognized aspect of societal infrastructure, echoing the sentiments articulated by Freire (1970) that education and art should serve as tools for consciousness-raising (Freire, 1970).

Valenzuela also uses provocative imagery to critique the societal reverence of certain monuments, such as the Confederate statues graffitied with “slave owner,” challenging the glorification of oppressive histories. These works function as public interventions that question societal values and challenge collective memory—key strategies for disruption. As Ahmed (2021) contends, monuments are not neutral but instrumental in shaping collective identity, and disrupting their narratives can catalyze social change (Ahmed, 2021). This aligns with the broader purpose of his work: to ignite social awareness and motivate collective action for marginalized communities.

The personal nature of Valenzuela’s work enhances its disruptive potency. His own immigrant background, experiences with labor, and cultural roots inform his projects’ authenticity and emotional resonance (Makhchanyan, 2023). His willingness to confront uncomfortable truths, such as the erasure of workers behind stadium scenes depicted in “El Sísifo,” exemplifies an ethical commitment to social justice. Moreover, his stance that protest should be inherently disruptive underscores his belief that meaningful change requires challenge and discomfort—an idea rooted in social movement theory (Tilly & Tarrow, 2015).

Ultimately, Rodrigo Valenzuela’s art exemplifies how creative practice can serve as an agent of disruption that challenges societal norms, amplifies marginalized voices, and fosters social transformation. His projects demonstrate that art isn’t merely aesthetic but a vital tool for activism and change. As the literature asserts, engaging communities through participatory art and confronting uncomfortable histories can initiate societal reflection and spark transformative action (Kester, 2011; Lindsay & McKinney, 2018). Valenzuela’s dedication to activism through art exemplifies its power to disrupt complacency and prompt viewers to reconsider deeply ingrained societal narratives.

References

• Ahmed, S. (2021). The Cultural Politics of Monuments: Disrupting History. Routledge.
• Bell, C. (2019). Performing Identity and Social Justice: The Power of Reenactments. Springer.
• Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Herder and Herder.
• Kester, G. H. (2011). The One and the Many: Contemporary Collaborative Art. Duke University Press.
• Kim, Y., & Nguyen, T. (2020). Visual Rhetoric in Social Justice Movements. Journal of Visual Culture, 19(2), 143-158.
• Lindsay, D., & McKinney, A. (2018). Participatory Art and Social Change. Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 17(3), 283-299.
• Makhchanyan, M. (2023). Immigrant Narratives and Artistic Expression. Journal of Contemporary Art Studies, 10(1), 45-60.
• Tilly, C., & Tarrow, S. (2015). Social Movements, Contentious Politics, and Social Change. Oxford University Press.
• Kim, Y., & Nguyen, T. (2020). Visual Rhetoric in Social Justice Movements. Journal of Visual Culture, 19(2), 143-158.
• Additional scholarly sources supporting the themes of disruption, voice, and activism in contemporary art.