Tanta piedrita me asfixia
The stones, collective signifiers colloquially used to name pre-colonial fragments, seem to emerge from everywhere: a patio is dug in Tlatilco during a home renovation and suddenly two ceremonial masks appear; a longitudinal cut is made in the Yucatecan landscape to build a new road and it reveals a gigantic, hitherto unnoticed Mayan complex. If for many the plundering of Mesoamerican lands in the past was ruthless, for the people today, so too is the endless proliferation of stones, sprouting from the ground and traveling in all directions. The words that title this exhibition come from a conversation that the historian Mario Rufer recorded in Atzayanca, Tlaxcala, during a National Summit of Community Museums. They reflect the dissonance between the scientific and aesthetic desire for the material heritage of the ancestral communities and the evident disinterest experienced by their members in the present.
Aurora employs a wide variety of media, reflecting the vitality of the worlds she traverses in her research, to connect heritage forms with contemporary manifestations (what we now call art, design, and craft). She also acknowledges the inevitable processes of transformation that allow both these materials and their makers to situate themselves in the present. This work begins with the study of the Leonardo Patterson collection, a pre-colonial assembly largely created through processes of plunder, looting, forgery, export, and illegal trade. Aurora investigates different objects, which she unfolds, rationalizes, mixes, and reconfigures. In this process, she integrates contemporary artisanal production practices, such as synthetic fiber weaving, cabinetmaking, and upholstery, alongside artistic expressions like performance, collage, video, and installation.
Here, the stone is no longer an inert relic flooding landscapes and museums, but rather part of a material ecology that acknowledges its geographies, peoples, and cultural lineages. Aurora's work proposes an affective and cultural ethic of reconnection, which re-establishes material links and affinities between the heritage object and the heirs of the cultural practices that gave rise to those materialities. This is a form of reconnection that operates from the margins and the gaps opened by the ideological boundaries of the social sciences and the outdated reactions of heritage legislation. The latter not only acts belatedly but also fails to recognize the subjects who should be receiving restitution.
For this reason, All these tiny stones are suffocating me is also a collaborative effort. Aurora's significant body of work engages in dialogue with an archival intervention by Colectivo Bloque, a two-part choreographic performance by Natasha Barhedia, and a conversation with the situated research of Mario Rufer. Each of these processes offers additional paths for exploring Aurora's work and the questions that guide her research and material production.
—David Ayala-Alfonso.
Time unfolded
Folding screen - Caja totonaca
Folding screen - Hombre con jaguar
This series is based on the study of clay objects from Mesoamerican cultures, which are subsequently transformed into interactive sculptural pieces. First, the artist practises a graphic rationalization of the object, which is expressed in geometric shapes, silhouettes, and distinctive contours. Then, the object is “fragmented” by making several cross-cuts that divide it into more or less proportional parts. Each of these new parts is manufactured as a modular fragment of a new sculpture, which is attached on one side to the previous fragment and on the other to the next fragment, until a single articulated piece is formed. The final work, which functions as a folding screen, features details in various techniques, like cabinetmaking, painting and upholstery, and recalls the cultural intersections that occurred between the American colonies and the colonies of Southeast
Mesoamerican fables
Jóvenes olmecas
Celosía 3. Mujer de Nopiloa con sombrero
Celosía 4. Mujer colombiana desnuda
Using large-format amate paper, compositions of various pre-Hispanic motifs are created, such as humanoid figures, details of mythical figures, latticework, and patterns. These motifs are cut out of the paper, and the resulting spaces are filled with silhouettes made from materials like fabric, pigmented amate paper, leather, and synthetics. The final result is a polychromatic composition, inspired by Mesoamerican graphic representations, where the surface develops three-dimensional values by imbuing the figures with the colour and texture of the materials used in this grafting work.
Wound, absence, reparation
Comal 1
Vasija florida
An object is selected and reproduced on a real scale. The resulting replica is carefully broken to preserve recognisable fragments. Later, the object is reconstructed using techniques that highlight the operations carried out during technical restoration processes: missing fragments are made visible by leaving them blank or by mounting the object on a surface, leaving spaces between the fragments in accordance with museum conventions. These objects are then intervened upon by three-dimensional manifestations of the motifs that decorate them: for example, the tentacle of a Moche octopus interrupts the smooth surface of the comal where it is represented in drawing, or a clay pot is intervened upon by flowers emerging from the restored wounds of the object, imitating the floral motifs that decorated the original pot.
Jewels, tools
Collar tumbaga
Pre-Hispanic motifs from different cultures are selected and reproduced in plastic using 3D printing. The resulting objects become part of different assemblages: for example, a sequence of spherical owls is linked by chains in a long line, resembling a large-scale piece of jewellery; other objects are assembled with existing pieces, such as a fragment of furniture or a small branch, creating new relationships between objects, materials, and contemporary spaces. Assembling objects from different periods traces invisible connections between the past and the present, not only through form but through the techniques used in their manufacture, ranging from traditional craftsmanship to digital media.
The ones coming back
12 repatriada
13 repatriada
16 repatriada
This is a series of objects that studies pre-Hispanic representations of animals and utilitarian and decorative objects, and reproduces them on a large scale, using the contemporary Mexican craft technique of weaving plastic fibres. This technique, which refers to the artisanal production of the Acapulco chair, uses metal structures to which lines of fibres of different colours are tied. As the fibres are stretched between the metal outlines, patterns are generated that resemble fabrics used today to make handcrafted objects. The result is a sculptural object whose manufacture draws connections between the vernacular crafts of the past and present, and reconfigures the heritage object within the living tradition of crafts.
All these tiny stones…
Falsas grecas - Hôtel Drouot 1
Falsas grecas - Hôtel Drouot 2
Tanta piedrita - Olmeca jade verde
Tanta piedrita - Olmeca jade negro
Falsas grecas -Christie’s 1
Falsas grecas -Christie’s 2
Tanta piedrita - Olmeca acuclillado
Tanta piedrita - Xipe totec sentado con piernas cruzadas
Fragmented images of pre-Hispanic objects are inserted onto a pressed amate paper. These objects are depicted on paper, coloured, altered and then cut out to resemble fragments of stone and clay found in archaeological excavations. The different parts of the objects are distributed over the surface of the amate paper without forming the original figure, and are then accompanied by other images, including bones, buttons, and plastics. The final composition resembles the way in which different types of waste fall to the ground and gradually become trapped among the fragments of heritage.
Yaa Dzeque. Ñuñadas
The study of painted ceramics and pre-Hispanic codices reveals the existence, among pre-Hispanic peoples, of a complex system of hand gestures employed by Mesoamerican communities to communicate with one another. These gestures are not a comprehensive sign language, but rather a specific code that enabled diplomatic and commercial relations and also imbued certain ceremonial practices with ideas and meanings that transcend oral languages. In a choreographed video performance, Aurora employs these gestures to communicate with a three-legged vessel, which is central to her research on heritage and which, over time, has become a non-human presence for the artist. In the video, Aurora practises these gestures as part of a choreography, while the vessel moves through space and reacts to the artist's communicative gestures.