Happy Shopping Days

 

Io Saturnalia (2010)

Ink and pencil on paper 9" x 12"

by Patrick McGrath Muñíz

 

As we get closer to the winter solstice of 2015, many people across the globe get ready to celebrate the holidays.  In the West and spreading around the globe, Christmas is the supposed birth of Christ widely celebrated by modern day Christians. But the Christian tradition of celebrating Christmas on the Winter Solstice in and around December 25th has its roots in pre-Christian times. From Yule and the  ancient Egyptian cult of Horus, to the ancient Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Mythra, the winter solstice celebrations have gone through many transformations from culture to culture and throughout time.  Even though Christianity may be the predominant religion in the Americas, we live in an age of Consumerism and the obsessive pursuit of Capital. It requires an unfaltering and blind faith from part of the people to enable the current capitalist system to exist and work even if it's just in the imagination of the masses. The fiction of money and the doctrines of consumerism are made real when people believe in them, just like religion.

 

 

Hercules and the Virtues (2013)

Oil and metal leaf on panel 36" x 28"

by Patrick McGrath Muñíz

 

In an age where any holiday becomes the perfect opportunity to sell and buy stuff in large quantities, the Christmas tradition inevitably becomes an ideal occasion to introduce new gods and new rituals to replace the old one. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the winter festivities in honor of the pagan gods still had a strong presence and significance in Roman society. Since it became nearly impossible to ban these pagan festivals, they were simply replaced by the new Christian celebration. This did not occur overnight but gradually, therefore many of the  rituals of the ancient pagan religions were adopted and are still alive in the Catholic Mass and Christmas celebration (such as the merrymaking parties, decorated trees and the family gift-giving derived from the Saturnalia in honor of the god Saturn).

 

 

The Uninvited (2013)

Oil and metal leaf on panel 36" x 28"

by Patrick McGrath Muñíz

 

A similar phenomena is occurring right in front of our eyes gradually taking over the Christian tradition and replacing it with the sacred ritual of consumerism that holds money as the supreme one eyed, all seeing and "all can do" god. Today, the image of Coca Cola's Santa Claus, candy canes and the Macy's parade have become just some of the many consumer culture symbols associated with the Christmas season in the U.S. In Latin America, scenes of the nativity and the three kings are even more visible but they are slowly being displaced by the American symbols that act as new colonizers spreading the gospel of the consumer/capital religion.

 

 

Adoracion Capital (2014)

Oil on canvas 30" x 30""

by Patrick McGrath Muñíz

 

The visitation of the Magi is a very well known image cherished throughout Puerto Rico, Mexico and the rest of Latin America. So are many of the icons and consumer culture elements depicted in the painting Adoración Capital. An “Old fashioned” Quaker Oats man and Aunt Jemima, well established corporate entities pose as the holy parents to a new generation of consumers driven by technology and non material goods existing in cyberspace. The protagonist child wearing a “Che Guevara” t shirt seems absorbed by the small screen, while a Burger King and a group of immigrant workers bring food and other presents. In the background scientists Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker from the Muppets suggest that the corn and other products carried by the fast food employees may have been genetically modified. Behind them a Santa pushes a shopping cart full of gifts out of a department store that uses a star as part of its logo. 

 

 

Adoracion Capital (detail)

Oil on canvas 30" x 30""

by Patrick McGrath Muñíz

 

The four emblems around the frame represent different aspects of consumer culture: technology, food production, energy and government subsidies.  The industrial wheels on the lower left side of the composition evoke the industrial age from where our current predicament emerged.  On the lower right side, a red bag that reads “Believe” puts forward a driving creed behind the whole capitalist construction. Derived from a Catholic prayer, the text framing the composition evokes the use of text in Spanish Colonial Iconography and it reads: “Señor Capital: Que a imitacion de los magos del Norte, Vayamos tambien nosotros a adorarte en tu casa, que es templo. Y no vayamos jamas con cuentas pobres o manos vacias, Que te llevemos siempre lo major del fruto de nuestro sudor.” (“Lord Capital: That as an imitation of the Magi of the North, we shall also adore you in your house, that is a temple. And let us not go with poor accounts or empty handed and that we may always bring you the best of the fruit of our labor”. 

 

Adoracion Capital (detail)

Oil on canvas 30" x 30""

by Patrick McGrath Muñíz

 

Adoración Capital serves as a testament to our times and where we are headed in history. Symbols in time are inevitably transformed by subsequent generations and cultures evolve adopting new practices and beliefs according to the spirit of their time. The original stories told again and again eventually end up having a whole new meaning. It happened with the old pagan traditions and it is happening today with Christianity. Future historians may look back at our times as the crucial moment when the Christian Winter Solstice called "Christmas" was gradually replaced by the Capital worship Winter Solstice that may be known in the future as "Happy Shopping Days".  Of course it should also be remembered as a precarious time of Earth-plundering economics when we decided to give free rein to our voracious consumer habits, completely ignoring it's impact on our fragile ecosystem.