Juan L. Gomez-Perales

The Hunger of the Starlings

I first tasted moonshine in 1982, out of a Coca-Cola bottle, in a little shack in the Amazon jungle. Some time after moving to Montreal I became aware of a rich underground sub-culture comprised primarily of aging immigrant men - urban moonshiners. As an academic, I was intrigued by the fact that no one appeared to be studying or documenting this group. Their oral traditions seemed to be on the verge of disappearing, as their children were no longer interested in carrying on the old ways. As an artist, I was interested in the aesthetics of the process, mechanics, craftsmanship, vocabulary and science of this cultural phenomenon. The following examples selectively reflect about ten years of my artistic research. For more on The Hunger of the Starlings see the included essays.