¿Quién medirá el espacio, quién me dirá el momento?, 1 (columna alfarero)

2015 - Sculpture (Sculpture)
430 cm

Mariana Castillo Deball

year born: 1975

gender: female

nationality: Mexican

Taking archaeology as her departure point to examine the trajectories of replicated and displaced objects, “Who will measure the space, who will tell me the time?” was produced in Oaxaca for her exhibition of the same title at the Contemporary Museum of Oaxaca (MACO) in 2015. The sculpture, employing the technique of traditional Atzompa pottery originating from Oaxaca, Mexico, is an examination of the way in which archaeological heritage is remembered in the earthenware made by Atzompa potters today. Accompanied by the publication ‘Ixiptla Vol. 3’, the edition examines imposed meaning on replications in the form of the plaster molds, photographs, drawings, scale models and facsimiles made by archaeologists in the effort for conserving lost objects. The artist’s selection of shapes and forms reference her research in the permanent collection held at Rufino Tamayo Museum and is the basis for imagining a series of stories relating to Atzompa history. In that sense, the columns contain fictitious or historical figures, weaving together an intricate network in which they coincide in space and converse in time (snake, pochote and ceiba – a subtropical tree, warriors, mother earth or pottery are just a few examples). “Who will measure the space, who will tell me the time?” is a sculptural exquisite corpse, a form of an infinite column that offers a temporal space for interpretation and reflection.

The practice of Mariana Castillo Deball (b. Mexico City, 1975) is centered on intensive research. In weaving together perceived facts and legends, the artist deconstructs how we understand tradition, liberating content from imposed ideological legacies. Mariana Castillo Deball’s collaborative research—in particular in the domain of science, geology, archaeology and literature—is manifested and synthesized into her multimodal sculptural practice. The archive is a significant aspect of the artist’s practice, whereby the research conducted in the creation of her sculptures is culminated, catalogued and preserved. Deball is not only interested in traces of the past, her multidisciplinary approach allows her to study the different ways in which a historical object can be read today.

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