Locations: Teotihuacan Archeological Site / Pyramid of the Sun, and Reforma Avenue / Torre Mayor, Mexico City.
Materials: athletic clothing, cochineal pigment (crushed insects), and a soccer ball.
Action: Tossing the ball into the air, letting it collide with the left side of my chest, then catching it. This action was repeated for approximately two hours in each location.
Description: I have been interested in Mesoamerican art and archeology since my first introduction to it during a college course with Peg Turner in 2007. Fusion became an opportunity to investigate the contemporary culture in relation to my study of its past and represents the culmination of my inquiry and observations into this diachronic relationship.
I tossed a soccer ball into the air, let it collide with the left side of my chest then caught it again. This action was repeated for approximately two hours in each location. The ball was saturated with freshly mixed cochineal pigment (water and crushed insects). The diptych photo draws correlations between ancient and contemporary cultures and invokes a dialogue about the relationship between live art and documentation. The Fusion project was the culmination of several months of research and eight weeks of travel in Mexico. The first location I selected was in front of the Pyramid of the Sun at the archeological site of Teotihuacan during the Spring Equinox. The second was in front of the Torre Mayor, the largest skyscraper in Mexico at the time. The action created for this project was inspired by nuclear/cultural fusion - the collision of two elements under the force of gravity/globalization. I was also inspired by the potential that fusion has for providing an abundance of power, a potential that would alter the course of socio-economic dichotomies around the world.
(Photos were taken by Sandrine Schaefer)
