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Room E1 · 2022 — 2023 · cyanotype, herbal tone

Lo que dicen
esas paredes.

México + Guatemala Structural violence · cultural resistance KOIK Contemporary · 2023
01 — On the room

Four installations addressing the structural political-social violence of México and Guatemala — and the acts of cultural resistance that answer it. The danzantes, the wall writings, the family altars, the photographs of the disappeared.

The cyanotype here is doing two things at once: a record of what was found on the wall, and the wall itself. Paper that has been torn, paste-up that has been pasted over, image that has been written over with hand. The room collects these surfaces and hangs them so the act of inscription can be read alongside the act of erasure.

Prints on adhesive-backed polyester were applied directly to the gallery walls and floor — replicating the wheat-pasted surfaces of the original source images, collapsing the distance between the street and the room. The installation space became continuous with what it documents.

02 — In the room

What the walls,
the danzantes, the hands say.

Lo que dicen esas paredes — room walkthrough, KOIK Contemporary 2023
001Room walkthrough · Lo que dicen esas paredes · KOIK Contemporary, 2023
Lo que dicen esas paredes — install view, paste-up wall
001Aquí mataron · paste-up · paper, ink, brick wall
Torn cyanotype portrait piece, installed
002Torn cyanotype portrait · paper · stitched edges
Lo que dicen install view — wall fragment
003Install view · the wall in the room
03 — The film

The wall,
in moving image.

Lo que dicen esas paredes — film
AV03 · Experimental short · 2022 · Cadence Video Poetry Festival 2023

La Pared / The Wall.

A collaboration with Zapotec poet Irma Pineda and translator Wendy Call. The film carries Pineda's poem La Pared in three voices: Pineda narrates in Zapotec and Spanish; Call narrates her English translation, from In the Belly of Night and Other Poems. Structural political-social violence in México and Guatemala alongside acts of cultural resistance — the danzantes. The film made for this room.

04 — Material and process
Substrate

Cyanotype on bristol, paper, and reclaimed paste-up fragments. Some works are torn and re-stitched along the original tear; others are left as found. Additional works printed on adhesive-backed polyester were applied directly to the gallery walls and floor, replicating the wheat-pasted surfaces of the source imagery.

Process

Cyanotype chemistry coated on a Mexico City rooftop, printed in direct sun, washed in a bucket, hung to dry. Selected pieces are toned in herbal baths — green tea, black tea — to bring warmth back into the blue.

Format

Unique works and small editions. Some pieces remain installed on found surfaces; others are framed for transport.

Continue to the
next room.

The exhibition continues with Sublime — a posthumous homage to Don Ángel González, Puerto Rico after Hurricane María.

For institutions & collectors
Room E1 — works from Lo que dicen esas paredes are available for acquisition, exhibition loan, and institutional placement.