TIEMPOANIMAL [TIMEANIMAL] 2022-
Tiempoanimal explores the relationship between the perception of time, language, materiality and the politics of the liberation of the body. The neurons that encode language evolved from older cells that record the visceral sensations of a body in motion in space. Therefore, language is not only rooted in the flesh, but also neurobiologically connected to the perception of time and movement, evidenced by several physical-cognitive ties, such as the relationship between blinking and the perception of the passage of time modulated by dopamine torrents.
Seen in this way, the mind/body division that underlies much of Western thought can be considered illusory and even violent. Addressing this gap, I use materials that illustrate the circularity between cognition and flesh. Bones, for example, share common minerals with the earth (calcium, phosphorus). Creating stamps from discarded cow bones, I find in their shapes a resemblance to letters, and use these to create scores and poems for performance, movement and sound. Pulverizing the bones, I use the ashes to create pigments, adding earth minerals to reestablish material ties between diverse bodies -mineral, plant, earth, celestial and human.
The resulting works are poems / scores made with calcium and bone ash, and in some cases colored with cochineal and indigo; dyes that changed the perception of color through complex and violent colonial histories that tie our territories in Guatemala to Europe and North America, resignifying again and again the relationship between consciousness and material through symbologies of power. Some of the resulting works are large enough to become tactile stages, dance floors, or paths.The works are activated through different tactics, including sound meditations, movement and collaborations with other artists working across media.