Erick Beltrán: The Fallen Tree
Resulting from his two-month residency at Kadist, The Fallen Tree is the North American solo debut of Barcelona-based artist Erick Beltrán (b. 1974, Mexico City). Presented as a two-part installation of wall-based diagrams and a contemporary arborglyph, the exhibition features a new body of work through which Beltrán attempts to map the dynamic relationships between discrete Californian mythologies. From the Gold Rush of 1848 and the Back-to-the-land movements of the 1960s, to John Muir’s spiritual experience of the wild and The post-mortem treatment of Ishi , the “Last Wild Indian,” Beltrán drafts a diagrammatic collection of ideological conditions and social constructs specific to this region, aiming to frame and question humanity’s connection to the natural world.