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Solo Exhibition of William Cordova “este futuro es otro futuro”
09.08.2023
In “este futuro es otro futuro”, william cordova’s work continues to invest in a cultural, ethnic and Racial synthesis, as a method of disrupting, challenging and reassessing the influences of the history and practice of Western secular architecture, modernism and theory. For cordova, it has been a continuous process of illuminating and connecting historical evidence of ritual labor and its theory to modern examples. His process is an attempt to reconsider how the abstracted evidence of cultural matter plays a large role in the modern world.
Cordova’s objective is to recover the encoded traces of Andean, African and Asian influences in our transcultural landscape. The coexistence of ancient spiritual spaces and their contemporary secular counterpart. Site specific sculpture, “cumbemayo (o el puente despues de Marley Marl, MC Shan y Babalú-Aye)”, is a constructed concrete waterway outline of the actual Kalasasaya courtyard in Tiwanaku, Bolivia. The proposed waterway structure functions as a reflective celestial mirror when doused with water or chicha morada. But it is also the purple color that plays a consistency in Peruvian historical narratives from Andean (Chicha morada) to el Señor de los Milagros (El Mes Morado) and Babalú-Ayé’, the Orisha (saint) in Santeria and Yoruba celebrated with the color purple.
“tonos polirrítmicos (o el balcon de Pedro Dalcón)” utilizes metal scaffoldings and custom framed drawings made with organic pigments, Cacao and Coffee. The installation refers to the process of constructing or deconstructing a structure, a mural, an idea or a movement akin to rhythmic gestures dictated by spatial temporal alterations within a confined environment. El bacon de Pedro Dalcon is a ghost monument oscillating like la Cumanana… calling and responding.
The artist wants to cast a light on the evidence of things not seen directly, motifs, Sanskrit, etched designs, textile patterns, encoded into matter. These are considered the basis of abstraction in ancient civilizations, often appropriated by modern art but rarely given credit or allowed to be part of a dialogue. His objective is to reconnect this evidence as a way of revealing the euphonic, spiritual and astrological connections imbedded in our formal and secular landscapes.
“badussy (or Machu Picchu after Dark)”, is a super 8MM film that alludes to certain rituals and oral traditions that reflect our contemporary use of abstraction and minimalism. The traditional concept of a linear narrative is intentionally collapsed in this piece to imply fluidity of past, present and also magic realism. In the grainy color film, the performer, artist, Crystal Z. Campbell, of Afro-Filipino descent, is dressed in late 1970s, early 1980s outfit, weaves rhythmically with her hands, echoing past rituals and traditions. Analogue Kodak super 8MM was used to construct this imagined reflection of a past. The Kodak Corporation introduced Super 8MM film in 1965.
The audio in “badussy (or Machu Picchu After Dark)” is sampled from Aguirre The Wrath of God (1972), an unconventional film by German filmmaker, Werner Herzog. Herzog loosely retells the surreal story of Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish conquistador who brutally used Andean and African slaves to unsuccessfully search for the mythical city of El Dorado in the jungles of Peru (1560s). In Herzog’s film, an Andean slave pulls out a flute and begins to plays freely while “Aguirre” played by Klaus Kinski, observes in a moment of realization. The Andean slave, despite being his property, finds liberation through music.
“contra el mundo (pa’ Edgar Valcárcel)” an improvised wooden platform serves as a makeshift vessel for improvisational electroacoustic music the late Peruvian composer, Edgar Valcárcel, created during his Guggenheim Fellowship at Columbia University (1965-1967). Valcarcel’s “Canto Coral A Túpac Amaru II” is streamed and amplified through a “shaker.” A device normally applied to the interior of vehicles to magnify the bass levels of low acoustic instruments. Thrusting abstract rhythms that reverberate more as distant rumbles or faint heart beats frequencies.
The title for this exhibition, Este Futuro es Otro Futuro is a riff on José Ignacio López Ramírez Gastón’s publication, by the same title, on the development of electronic music in Peru. Ramirez Gastón is Director of Innovation and Technology Transfer at the Universidad Nacional de Musica, Lima, Peru.
Cordova’s objective is to recover the encoded traces of Andean, African and Asian influences in our transcultural landscape. The coexistence of ancient spiritual spaces and their contemporary secular counterpart. Site specific sculpture, “cumbemayo (o el puente despues de Marley Marl, MC Shan y Babalú-Aye)”, is a constructed concrete waterway outline of the actual Kalasasaya courtyard in Tiwanaku, Bolivia. The proposed waterway structure functions as a reflective celestial mirror when doused with water or chicha morada. But it is also the purple color that plays a consistency in Peruvian historical narratives from Andean (Chicha morada) to el Señor de los Milagros (El Mes Morado) and Babalú-Ayé’, the Orisha (saint) in Santeria and Yoruba celebrated with the color purple.
“tonos polirrítmicos (o el balcon de Pedro Dalcón)” utilizes metal scaffoldings and custom framed drawings made with organic pigments, Cacao and Coffee. The installation refers to the process of constructing or deconstructing a structure, a mural, an idea or a movement akin to rhythmic gestures dictated by spatial temporal alterations within a confined environment. El bacon de Pedro Dalcon is a ghost monument oscillating like la Cumanana… calling and responding.
The artist wants to cast a light on the evidence of things not seen directly, motifs, Sanskrit, etched designs, textile patterns, encoded into matter. These are considered the basis of abstraction in ancient civilizations, often appropriated by modern art but rarely given credit or allowed to be part of a dialogue. His objective is to reconnect this evidence as a way of revealing the euphonic, spiritual and astrological connections imbedded in our formal and secular landscapes.
“badussy (or Machu Picchu after Dark)”, is a super 8MM film that alludes to certain rituals and oral traditions that reflect our contemporary use of abstraction and minimalism. The traditional concept of a linear narrative is intentionally collapsed in this piece to imply fluidity of past, present and also magic realism. In the grainy color film, the performer, artist, Crystal Z. Campbell, of Afro-Filipino descent, is dressed in late 1970s, early 1980s outfit, weaves rhythmically with her hands, echoing past rituals and traditions. Analogue Kodak super 8MM was used to construct this imagined reflection of a past. The Kodak Corporation introduced Super 8MM film in 1965.
The audio in “badussy (or Machu Picchu After Dark)” is sampled from Aguirre The Wrath of God (1972), an unconventional film by German filmmaker, Werner Herzog. Herzog loosely retells the surreal story of Lope de Aguirre, a Spanish conquistador who brutally used Andean and African slaves to unsuccessfully search for the mythical city of El Dorado in the jungles of Peru (1560s). In Herzog’s film, an Andean slave pulls out a flute and begins to plays freely while “Aguirre” played by Klaus Kinski, observes in a moment of realization. The Andean slave, despite being his property, finds liberation through music.
“contra el mundo (pa’ Edgar Valcárcel)” an improvised wooden platform serves as a makeshift vessel for improvisational electroacoustic music the late Peruvian composer, Edgar Valcárcel, created during his Guggenheim Fellowship at Columbia University (1965-1967). Valcarcel’s “Canto Coral A Túpac Amaru II” is streamed and amplified through a “shaker.” A device normally applied to the interior of vehicles to magnify the bass levels of low acoustic instruments. Thrusting abstract rhythms that reverberate more as distant rumbles or faint heart beats frequencies.
The title for this exhibition, Este Futuro es Otro Futuro is a riff on José Ignacio López Ramírez Gastón’s publication, by the same title, on the development of electronic music in Peru. Ramirez Gastón is Director of Innovation and Technology Transfer at the Universidad Nacional de Musica, Lima, Peru.