Yoshua Okon
Coyoteria, 2003
DVD video installation with objects, edition 1 of 3
Museum purchase with funds provided through prior gift of Lois Outerbridge

In Coyoteria, young Mexican artist Yoshua Okon revisits Joseph Beuy's legendary 1974 performance "I like America and American Likes Me" during which Beuys spent a week living in a New York gallery with a coyote with only a felt blanket and a cane to protect himself as a meditation on the relationship between nature and culture. In his update of the performance, Okon evokes a post-colonial version of the coyote by employing a human "coyote" from Mexico City - a man known for trickery, greed and exploitation who is hired by average citizens to mediate between themselves and the government. In Coyoteria, Okon interacts with the "coyote" armed only with a blanket and a police nightstick. The coyote, dressed in a flashy suit, taunts Okon, growling and pacing in the space, taking on the mannerisms of his animal counterpart. Not only does Okon's Coyoteria revisit Beuy's examination of man's relationship to nature, he also addresses issues of class, corruption, and the subjugation of man by man.