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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty: When walls speak and we listen > Mexican restaurant, Denver, Colorado, 2007
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08-JUL-2007

Mexican restaurant, Denver, Colorado, 2007

This mural, painted on the outside of a colorfully painted Mexican restaurant, is a fantasy speaking of an idyllic culture and place. An Aztec altarpiece, a dancer in flowing pink dress, the inevitable guitar player wearing a sombrero, and even an Aztec temple, lure prospective diners to the pleasures of a Mexican dinner. The reality, however, is expressed in the bike rack just below it. I made this image early on a Sunday morning, and its hard-pressed workers arrive by bicycle, not by car. Each bike is shackled to steel bars embedded in concrete.

Leica D-Lux 3
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Phil Douglis03-Mar-2008 00:10
Thanks, Cyndy, for noting the expressive qualities of light in this picture. The mural -- a fantasy -- is dimly perceived because it is in shadow. The bikes -- a symbol of reality -- are brilliantly illuminated by the sun.
Guest 02-Mar-2008 09:21
Very nicely put, Phil. Reality and fantasy. I like the way the mural is in shadow, and the bikes are in full sun. Very symbolic.
Phil Douglis11-Jul-2007 17:46
Thanks, Celia and Mo, for your thoughts on the role of bikes in this image. I would not have made the picture if those bicycles were not lashed to those posts at the base of that idyllic mural. The mural is fantasy. The bikes are reality.
The people who work here do not come in cars and that tells us much about the socio-economic nature of this particular local culture. And yes, the bikes, while chained to the posts, seem to live in synch with the music of the mural, with even their shadows playing a role.
monique jansen11-Jul-2007 14:07
This is something un-American obviously, no one would bat an eyelid at seeing bikes parked in front of a restaurant, so actually you are describing local "culture" to us.
Cecilia Lim11-Jul-2007 10:32
Even if reality shows that life for workers at this Mexican restaurant here is not at all glamorous or flamboyant - having to get to work on a modest bicycle, and chained to a workplace for hours - perhaps the essence of the Mexican culture is still not completely elusive. Their bicycles seem to lean and sway to the rhythm and music of the restaurant mural. It appears that they haven't forgotten their rich and often festive, colourful roots despite their hardships!
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