Amor Prohibido: Pau Pescador at Tyler Parker Presents
- artandcakela
- 9 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Barbara Patterson
Trans femme artist Pau Pescador's latest exhibition, Amor Prohibido, at Tyler Parker Presents explores the volatility of becoming visible in a public space that criminalizes the existence of queer people. As anti-transgender legislation increases and security technologies evolve, the visibility of gender-nonconforming individuals becomes more precarious. A 2015 report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology describes how "intruders" in gender-segregated areas can be detected using facial recognition software. Using a camera — the primary instrument of surveillance — Pescador liberates images of her trans experience that evade the singular, cisnormative image that our legal system and supporting surveillance systems regulate.
Across 118 photographs and a video artwork, Pescador creates a photomosaic of identity. Polaroids transcribe a piecemeal observation of the artist's body in the privacy of her bed; grids of photographs document the artist as she constructs bodies out of props in public; and a video artwork documents her collision with a public space that insists upon a legible, cisnormative identity. By fragmenting the body across a multiplex of frames, Amor Prohibido refuses the visual coherence that our social and legal systems demand to render transgender people submissive and governable.
Through graphic moments of humor, Amor Prohibido laughs at the very idea of identity as a transparent or governable unit. How do you solve a problem like… fractures our perception of the body in photographic grids that track the artist as she playfully forms anthropomorphic figures out of heaps of props. Though the linear display of procedure registers as a coherent activity, the absurd props — pool noodles as arms, an avocado costume as a torso, a clown mask as a face — poke fun at the regulation of a publicly appropriate body. When the figure in How do you solve a problem like… (2) leaves the grasp of the artist and collapses in the final frame, so does the singular, stable identity that we construct non-normative identities against.
Moving from public to private space, the eponymous photographic series Amor Prohibido features a line of close-cropped Polaroids that physically transcribe images of the artist in her bed. With eyes half the size of her face, the artist stares directly at the camera wearing a cartoonish mask in Amor Prohibido (3), distorting the face beyond the grasp of facial recognition technology or a paranoid observer.
A blend of found footage, clips from the artist's life, and text segments, The body becomes space… forms a semi-narrative that explores the consequences of being deemed illegible in a paranoid, hostile public space. Pescador narrates undergoing constant checks for deceit and legibility: a man at a grocery store exclaims that she is a "man in heels," and customs agents question whether she should be allowed across national borders when they cannot interpret an alleged biological truth. Between text segments, clips play of the artist implanting Polaroids of her private space into public. Though illegible to passersby, these physical interventions refuse to censor Pescador's presence from a public space that mercilessly persecutes transgender people.
In a time where our legal and social systems treat transgender people as inherently deceitful and incoherent, Amor Prohibido reveals the incoherence of those very systems.
Amor Prohibido closed on July 18th
Tyler Parker Presents 560 N. Western Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90004
Barbara Patterson is a writer and legal professional based in Los Angeles. Originally from the Coachella Valley, she moved to LA to study comparative literature at UCLA and fell in love with the LA visual arts scene. She is interested in how visual art inherently implies community in its meaning-making process and is committed to developing the cultural conversation around art by including artistic and critical perspectives that have historically been excluded from its ambit.
Photography Courtesy of the Artist and Tyler Parker Presents
"Amor Prohibido" at Tyler Parker Presents Pau Pescador, How do you solve a problem like… (5), 2026, Grid of 16 4 x 6 inch C-prints, 14 x 27" Pau Pescador, How do you solve a problem like… (3), 2026, Grid of 16 4 x 6 inch C-prints, 14 x 27" Pau Pescador, How do you solve a problem like… (6), 2026, Grid of 16 4 x 6 inch C-prints, 19 x 27" Pau Pescador, How do you solve a problem like… (2), 2026, Grid of 16 4 x 6 inch C-prints, 19 x 27" Pau Pescador, How do you solve a problem like… (4), 2026, Grid 20 4 x 6 inch C-prints, 18.5 x 33.5 Pau Pescador, The body becomes space… , 2026, Single channel video, 11:45
