'Photographic Memory and Other Shots in the Dark'
Through May 11, Galería de la Raza

THEY'RE TRAMPING THROUGH the wilds of suburban Los Angeles, hunting for tribal Caucasians. Well, not really, but Chicano artists Richard Lou and Robert Sanchez like to imagine themselves as intrepid scientific adventurers – à la Marlin Perkins or Steve Irwin – who track and study "the colorless." Dressed like wild-game hunters, they pose for a picture with their captured quarry. Their faces are deadpan, but the photos are intended to be humorous, and the captions are even funnier. They also raise serious questions, however: Is there something inherently racist about the way traditional anthropological documentarians use cameras to record what they do? How does this kind of picture taking reinforce established cultural power structures? And whose activities are really being documented in these pictures, anyway? Oscar Muñoz, another artist in this group show, takes a subtler but equally imaginative approach to image making in his work Aliento (Breath), a series of mirrorlike steel discs hanging on the gallery wall. As you gently exhale onto each surface, a latent image of a deceased person suddenly becomes visible then gradually fades away. It's a neat trick and a powerful metaphor – it feels like you're literally breathing life into these people as their faces blend with your own reflection into a spooky combination of alive and dead, present and past, warm flesh and cold steel. Look into the mirror, Muñoz seems to be saying, and you'll see not only your own image but also bits and pieces of your past and the collective memories of your culture. Also featured in the show are digital and photographic works by Bay Area artists Claudia X. Valdez, Armando Rascón, Francisco Dominguez, Pedro Lepe, and Susie Valdez. Tues.-Sat., noon-6 p.m., 2857 24th St., S.F. (415) 826-8009. (Lindsey Westbrook)