Hello Bunny Emerges

One of our favorite artist/photographers, Miami-based Alexander Guerra, has done it again. For those of you who follow his work, you know that he's been all over the world in the past year, creating a series of rabbit-masked, photographic self-portraits, in the guise of his alter-ego "Le Lapin".
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And now comes the latest incarnation of "Le Lapin", a new monster named Hello Bunny. We'd explain the new series, but Guerra can do it so much better himself:

Alexander Guerra:After killing the rabbits over the new year "metaphorically", I decided it was time to evolve the "brand" and start making my own masks. The Hello Kitty mask was just something that popped into my head earlier this week, so I decided to hop with it. I thought it would be a great way to take what I was doing and tie it in with something so well known and so mass produced. Hello Kitty is everywhere. It's like she multiplied like bunnies!

The concept behind the shoot was to take the iconic figure which is so girl relatable, and show how it too can be masculine, while throwing in my Rabbit/Bunny twist.

The mask is hand made, the pics are self portraits; it's an evolution to what I've been doing, and I can't wait to create more. People always ask me if I made the original masks, which I didn't; those are leather masks I purchased from another artist. Although, the pics and the setting will always be mine, the mask will never be just mine. This prompted the idea to make the masks myself which gave me control to create specifically themed masks for my sometimes crazy ideas. Problem is that I originally intended on selling the masks, but after working on them for so many hours, they (like the bunny) have become a part of me.

Oh, this series is titled "You Had Me at HELLO" a nod to the iconic figure and another nod to what happens to be, Valentines Day ♥ I've received a lot of love with the bunnies. People have really embraced them, and that's my Valentine!

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To read our previous posts about Alexander Guerra, click here.

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To see more of Alexander Guerra's work, go to http://www.alexanderguerra.com/,

and if you're going to be at Mardi Gras in Sydney, look for the Bunnies, they'll be there.

Into The Red

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Every great mind explores those deep, dark memories which are created in childhood and then tucked safely away in the subconscious, but great artists go one step further. They not only delve into that subconscious and extract those strange memories like a metal rocket tube pulling up Chilean miners, but then they put those memories on display and invite the entire world to witness.
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.Today is the birthday of one of those burgeoning artists, and one of our favorites, Alexander Guerra. And to celebrate his day, we want to share his "Red" series, which just knocks us out.
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In "Red", Guerra gives us a new take on the children's story, "Little Red Riding Hood". "Red" is a paen to the traditional aspects of the story: the innocent being pursued by the villain, (the universally understood conflict of Good vs. Evil), and Guerra adds a layer of homoeroticism with both main characters in possession of a beautiful musculature and very little clothing. But then the series gets really interesting when Guerra adds a third character, The Voyeur, complete with video camera. It's almost as if Guerra is playing with the idea that childhood stories are so familiar that we feel we've actually seen the characters, that we've "watched them" in our minds over and over, and The Voyeur is the personification of "watching" those familiar characters. But, of course, to others, the Voyeur conjures images of something erotic and "dirty", a peeping tom if you will, which means that he's there because something erotic in nature is about to take place between Red and The Wolf, which draws us in to watch, in effect making us the eager Voyeurs. One also can't happen but notice that Guerra is a red-head, which makes us wonder if the "Little Red Riding Hood" story was particularly significant to his childhood.
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But whatever the meaning of Guerra's "Red" series, it's an entirely intriguing and thought-provoking piece, and we absolutely can't wait to see what else can be plumbed from the depths of the mind of this gifted young artist.
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To see more of Alexander Guerra's work, go to www.PlastiqueHouse.com.

Welcome to Plastique House!

alexander guerra / self-portrait

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Here at East Village Afternoon, we love nothing more than to discover and present new, wildly creative artists. And, boy, have we found a great one!

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Alexander Guerra is the progenitor of Plastique House, a photography studio which imagines and produces some of the most exciting, original and thought provoking works of art we've seen in a long time.

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- www.plastiquehouse.com -

We asked Alexander to describe two of the photographs which caught our eye. In the photos one notices a mash-up of real human naked bodies, doll parts and toy animal heads.

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Alexander Guerra:

The idea of the "Furvert Line-Up" came to me a few months back while I was at an Erotic Art Expo here in Miami. I was showing my "Cirque Noir" series and I was overwhelmed with the attention one of my pieces was getting. The piece is called "The Magician's Rabbit", and he is dressed in a white bunny head, white gloves and a white cane. Here I thought my Clowns were going to be the stars, but the Rabbit stole the show. What fascinated me the most was the amount of straight men that would walk over with their girlfriends/wives to smile and admire the image. My imagination started to run, which means that I started to fantasize. I imagined all these straight guys buying or renting animal costumes, stripping down to nothing but the heads and paws and just exposing themselves to people. Like the animal heads made it okay for them to be naked.

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Fast forward and these Furverts have been captured for their Indecent Furversions.

"Which one of these animals flashed their goods at you Ma'am?" ...
For about 3 months, I would frequent the Goodwill Store looking for little animals I could use for parts. When I would find one, I would come home, cut it's head and paws off, and then presume to find it a suitor.

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The idea to add Lady GaGa to the mix came to me while I was on a plane to San Fran for the Folsom Street Fair. I was watching the "Paparazzi" video and at the very end you see GaGa in an amazing metal dress (by Dolce & Gabbana). In that very short scene, GaGa is acting up for the camera as she's being directed to take her mugshot. I knew then, that I had to add her to the mix. She was the missing ingredient in my Furversion Line-Up. She wasn't a Furvert but she embraces them as her little Monsters. I did struggle with whether or not she should have a penis poking out from under that hard metal, but in the end, I decided not to. The whole "Is GaGa a Tranny" thing had run it's course.

.The 2nd piece is the black one, and originally I didn't plan on creating it. I had just done the "Cirque Noir" series and I didn't want to go back to black, yet again. I did want to showcase each doll individually on a black background. I wanted to give them to the models as a gift of appreciation for stripping down and letting me shoot them in the buff. After seeing how amazingly they popped against the black, I had to line them up again and just go with it. In the end, I ended up creating one of my favorite pieces to date.

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We love your work, Alexander, but what should we know about you?

I'm 26, Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami, Florida. Held my first camera when I was 8 and I haven't been the same since.

Read more of my bio at:

www.plastiquehouse.com/About_the_Artist.html

and contact me at:

Alexander@plastiquehouse.com

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Thanks, Alexander, we love you, we love your work, and we can't wait to see more of both!