Paloma Contreras Lomas: Ancestral Fears May Return

Contreras Lomas uses bright, baroque and sometimes stereotypical imagery to summon the ghosts of the Mexican Catholic middle class through her films and recent paintings

In Ancestral Fears May Return, Mexican artist Paloma Contreras Lomas (born 1991) delves into the intricate relationship between art and writing, showcasing her artistic practice through a novel, a collection of short stories and an album of images of her art. In this compelling work, she examines the complicity of the landscape in the violence that permeates Mexico, addressing the various facets of patriarchy in everyday life and its underlying power structures. The fears she portrays are experiences that transcend individual lives, inherited from generation to generation, carrying with them the ghosts of the violence that Mexico has endured since its formation. In this multimedia intervention, Contreras Lomas addresses subjects such as gender, violence, class segregation and postcolonialism. In her practice, geopolitical histories are interwoven with film noir fantasies and family narratives, creating speculative spaces where fear and imagination are equally present.