Bullet
2021 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
10:00 minutes (looped)
Maya Watanabe
Maya Watanabe’s video installation Bullet unfolds within the context of the Peruvian justice and forensic systems. During the Peruvian internal armed conflict that occured between the subversive group Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) and the Peruvian military from 1980-2000, approximately 21,000 people, civilians, and guerilla fighters were killed. Most of the killings that were perpetrated by the military during this period of political upheaval were later deemed extrajudicial acts, and almost all of them were carried out with firearms. To evade any potential judicial proceeding against the military, the victims were hidden or disappeared to avoid their identification. Many remains have been found since the conflict, but have not been identified, pending under the status “N. N.”, meaning “No Name”. Resulting from a collaboration with the Peruvian Forensic Archaeologist team, Watanabe’s video documents one of the unclaimed bodies. Specifically, the video examines a bullet wound in the skull of an unidentified person killed by the Peruvian Armed Forces in 1986. The video is an indictment of these extrajudicial killings and a critique of the corruption and negligence that has led to so many unresolved cases. Bullet is an attempt to reconsitute the cultural and political significance of these erased murders, in the hopes that more cases will be solved so that the families and civilians affected by the conflict can mourn appropriately and see through the healing process.
Drawing on her background in theater design and direction, Maya Watanabe is known for her multi-channel video installations that explore the relationship between language, collectivity, identity, and space. Considering words, silences and the interweaving of the two, her videos are often slow, controlled, and cyclical in nature. Earlier works incorporate references and methodologies from cinematographic language, often involving one or several actors performing a script and interacting with the camera through choreographed movements. The texts narrated by the actors are either borrowed quotes from movies or modified poems and scripts, which become untethered when taken out of their original context. The ambiguity and lack of narrative that results reveals the imprecise nature of perception and the images and memories that we rely to construct identity. Recent works examine the landscape, exploring their tendency towards the fantastical and ability to conjure memories. With particular attention to the legacy and history of Peru, her work considers the fragmented, uprooted, and mutable past of a place, and how issues of historical instability can take centuries to resolve.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KQED
Charles Lee at SF Camerawork: Black Cowboys and Their Horses | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer The Do List SF Camerawork Show Honors the Relationship Between Black Cowboys and Their Horses Nia Coats Dec 13 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link An installation view of Charles Lee's show 'sweat + dirt' at SF Camerawork...
© » LITHUB
How Alien We Seem: On Being Blind and Obsessed with Photography ‹ Literary Hub Craft and Criticism Fiction and Poetry News and Culture Lit Hub Radio Reading Lists Book Marks CrimeReads About Log In Literary Hub Craft and Criticism Literary Criticism Craft and Advice In Conversation On Translation Fiction and Poetry Short Story From the Novel Poem News and Culture History Science Politics Biography Memoir Food Technology Bookstores and Libraries Film and TV Travel Music Art and Photography The Hub Style Design Sports Freeman’s The Virtual Book Channel Lit Hub Radio Behind the Mic Beyond the Page The Cosmic Library The Critic and Her Publics Emergence Magazine Fiction/Non/Fiction First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing Future Fables The History of Literature I’m a Writer But Just the Right Book Keen On The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan New Books Network Read Smart Talk Easy Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast Write-minded Reading Lists The Best of the Decade Book Marks Best Reviewed Books BookMarks Daily Giveaway CrimeReads True Crime The Daily Thrill CrimeReads Daily Giveaway Log In How Alien We Seem: On Being Blind and Obsessed with Photography M...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
The ArtsEquator Logo Challenge: How Well Do You Know Your Southeast Asian Capitals? Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints January 22, 2019 Hands up if you’ve ever wondered what the ArtsEquator logo symbolises! 🙋 Few can identify all the Southeast Asian capitals represented by the red dots on the logo...
© » GALERIE MAGAZINE
5 Museum Exhibitions to See in Miami During Art Basel - Galerie Subscribe Art + Culture Interiors Style + Design Emerging Artists Discoveries Artist Guide More Creative Minds Life Imitates Art Real estate Events Video Galerie House of Art and Design Subscribe About Press Advertising Contact Us Follow Galerie Sign up to receive our newsletter Subscribe Installation view of "Hernan Bas: The Conceptualists" at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
10 Art Books to Add to Your Shelf This December Skip to content Kareem Khubchandani's Decolonize Drag , Sonya Clark's newest catalogue, and more books we're reading this December (photo Lakshmi Rivera Amin/ Hyperallergic ) If you’re shamefully counting the titles you didn’t get around to reading this year, know that you are not alone...
© » KADIST
Carolina Caycedo
2014YUMA o la tierra de los amigos (YUMA, or the Land of Friends) by Carolina Caycedo is a large mural containing a series of satellite photographs mounted on acrylic...
© » KADIST
Clarissa Tossin
2012In Fordlândia Fieldwork (2012), Tossin documents the remains of Henry Ford’s rubber enterprise Fordlândia, built in 1928 in the Brazilian Amazon to export cultivated rubber for the booming automobile industry...
© » KADIST
Olga Grotova
2022Our Grandmothers’ Gardens by Olga Grotova is based on the history of Soviet allotment gardens, which were small plots of land distributed amongst the families of factory workers to compensate for poor food supply in a country that was over-producing weapons...
© » KADIST
Curtis Talwst Santiago
2017Curtis Talwst Santiago has been creating intimate and performative environments within these small spaces for several years; the artist used to carry them around to show visitors one on one, opening up a scene in the space of his hand...
