Arlette’s rocky ride through love, faith and masculinity

As a child, you take the circumstances of your life as normal. Arlette was born in 1998 in Mexico City; a conservative, religious, masculine environment. Her father, José, taught her to work metal, leather and horses. In 2019, she moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins and experienced a sudden, profound and painful cultural shock. She struggled to fit in; few could relate to her upbringing.

She turned her frustration back on her father by making wearable artworks that featured exaggerated symbols of traditional masculinity: oversized belts and buckles worn like bandoliers, spurred cowboy boots which could pass as fetish clothing, and trucker caps branded with ironic, self-deprecating slogans. Artworks that were later worn by Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott. “I became rebellious and for a while I talked a lot about politics in my work,” she says, “but this exhibition is not that, this exhibition is more about emotions and about my sweet side.”

‘José’ at Rose Easton, London, is Arlette’s first solo exhibition. It explores the passage from innocence to maturity or, as she puts it, “the moment that you realise you became, or chose to become, an adult.” The art shown here evokes deeply personal memories and long-held values; “being grateful, being honest, loving, enjoying”. She says this exhibition reflects the experiences that have made her, and those that she wants to remember as she grows older. She describes ‘José’ as embodying her ‘personal religion’. Ultimately, it represents her recent reconciliation with her father, the man she has loved and fought and, over time, come to understand.

I ask what her father would think of all this. “My father…” she sighs, “I don’t see him here. I see him in every work but I don’t see him being in this space. We don’t speak about art, and we have never entered a conversation about galleries, but he carries a lot of culture.” Still, it’s easy to see glimpses of José everywhere. Arlette’s signature belt buckles are inspired by those that her father gave her on special occasions; her birthdays and when she won horse riding competitions. A metal plaque decorated with a rooster and sunburst – the only artwork Arlette can imagine her father actually having in his house, titled José – combines the religious icons that she and her father prayed at, with symbols of his dedication to protecting and caring for those he holds dear. “Something beautiful in him that I think people have lost is faith,” she says. She reads a phrase on the plaque and translates it, “If you knew how much I loved you, you would cry of happiness.”

A mechanical rocking horse stands to one side of the gallery. It’s the kind of coin operated children’s ride you’d find outside supermarkets and at funfairs. Put 20p in the machine and watch it rock, gently, back and forth. Only, the horse has been warped into a gleaming silver fantasy creature – half horse, half dragon. “This piece is how I imagined my horse to be,” Arlette says, patting the sculpture. “This is the core of a horse, you can see here the face and the wing.” The sculpture is embossed with phrases; ‘Reconciliation’, ‘My God Is Real’ and ‘I miss my innocence’. “There is this thing that says innocence can be lost,” she says, “but it can also be reclaimed.”

Across the room is an engraved silver mirror wrapped in a black basalt dragon’s tail. Materials take on an almost spiritual quality for Arlette. When she uses silver she’s reaching back to her father’s hometown of Zacatecas, which is renowned for its silver. The black volcanic basalt is found everywhere in Mexico – but particularly in Jalisco, where her mother is from – it’s used to make the molcajetes, the traditional Mexican mortar and pestle. Arlette understands these materials as, “a language to communicate what I know, and my thoughts and my questions.” Stone and steel are not tender materials, they resist change. “Metal is a material that does not give itself easily,” she says, “it turns so many colours and it can burn and it can look ugly. Getting it the way it looks here is a big conversation; it’s an intense, intense fight. It’s so physical, all of these engravings are made by hand and you get tired.”

On one wall of the gallery is a vending machine that dispenses Arlette’s wearable artworks; jewellery, hats and belt buckles. The idea for this came from practical necessity; the vending machine allows her to sell her artwork without having to directly handle the process. At the same time, there’s something deeply sentimental about it; it evokes the sensations of childhood that are sometimes forgotten by adulthood; hanging around at arcades and cinemas and the tense anticipation of sweets and treats. An inscription around the machine reads, ‘Todo lo que deseas para mi, que Dios te lo multiplique’ (Everything that you desire for me, may God multiply for you). It’s a common blessing in Mexico, but taken out of context could easily read as a mocking comment on the art world, which all too often likes to pretend it’s above commercial transactions. Arlette seems above pretension, she speaks directly and honestly and from experience.

For Arlette, personalities are built on experience. She knows this: she has experienced a lot, she knows how quickly and suddenly lives can be changed and she knows that, whatever you may think, people aren’t set in their ways. So, what does she hope people will experience here? “I just want them to give them the opportunity to wonder. It’s a space where they’re encouraged to ask themselves ‘what is precious to me, what is my space of reflection’. There’s this mirror, over here it says ‘take a coin and relive your worst memory’… I think people are made of experiences and memories. So… relive your worst memories.”