Los Cuidadores 2013 (The caretakers)
West Hollywood Mural, Sept 2013
The City of West Hollywood through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission presents The Caretakers (Los Cuidadores), a new art installation of painted workers installed as a series of figurative murals in West Hollywood Park by Ramiro Gomez, a local artist who lives and works in West Hollywood.
Ramiro Gomez is known for making visible the “invisible” workforce of westside communities by installing life-size cardboard cutouts of nannies, gardeners, valet workers and housekeepers in and around West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and other westside locations.
Ramiro Gomez sees the City of West Hollywood as a diverse blend of people from many different ethnic and social backgrounds, connecting specifically with the many people who work in various domestic and service-oriented jobs in the city. “I am constantly walking around or finding inspiration in the various, brief situations I come across, such as the nanny pushing a stroller, a housekeeper waiting for the bus, a gardener trimming a hedge, or a valet waiting in front of restaurants and stores around Melrose Place,” he says, when asked about his inspiration. “These seeming unremarkable scenes of people who work here are in actuality significant representations of the labor that enables this city to operate. There is glamour and luxury in West Hollywood,” he says, “but there are people who are needed to maintain that luxury.” It is at the intersection of glamour, luxury, and labor that Gomez sees beauty.
