Zona de Guerra, from the series El Gráfico,

2008

This series takes its name from a Mexico City tabloid that has achieved dubious renown for reporting in lurid detail on the drug and gang related violence gripping Mexico. Each drawing from the series is anchored by a more or less faithful copy of one of the tabloid’s covers—in this case, one with the headline “Zona de Guerra” (War Zone). Below a scene of carnage, a caption describes the killing of two people and the injury of 132 the day before. In his reproduction the artist preserves the original cover’s perverse juxtaposition of violence and erotica, asking us to question the intertwined commodification and spectacle of these subjects.