Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0
with TANYA AGUIÑIGA, PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ, and MICOP Mixteco/Indigena Community Organization Project
December 1, 2021 - February 18, 2022
The Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College is pleased to present Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0 featuring two artworks by our Getty Pacific Standard Time artist advisors Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutierrez.
Focused on the intersection of art and science, the next Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x LA opening in 2024 will be the third regional collaboration in Getty's Pacific Standard Time series. This iteration will present an ambitious range of exhibitions and public programs that explores the connections between the visual arts and science, from prehistoric times to the present and across different cultures worldwide.
Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College is the recipient of a two year research grant for the following proposed project: Cosmovisión Indígena: The Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Contemporary Art. The Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0 is intended to share insights, artwork and materials related to the progress of our research. It follows the creation of Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 1.0 in partnership with Porfirio Gutierrez Studio and Bell Arts Factory in Ventura, CA.
Mesoamerican dyeing and weaving are often categorized as crafts, a designation that obscures the scientific and technical knowledge that these processes require. Focusing on the production of traditional red dye (carmine) from the cochineal insect, Cosmovisión Indígena will trace the history, science, and contemporary uses of the cochineal dye-making process, while exploring the mythology, ritual, and storytelling used to preserve and pass on this traditional knowledge. The project will establish an art lab and learning garden in Santa Barbara as well as a community research space in Ventura, serving members of the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other indigenous communities from Oaxaca, Mexico, who have settled throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. There, younger Oaxacan-American artists will be able to learn the science, technology, and art of dyeing and weaving from experienced practitioners. The final exhibition will display pieces created in both sites alongside curated artworks by contemporary artists and community members.
Project Advisors and Consultants
Curators:
John Connelly, Director, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara
Frederick Janka, Executive Director, Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai
Audrey Lopez, Ph.D., Public Art & Engagement Curator, Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture, Santa Barbara
Artist Advisors:
Tanya Aguiñiga, Los Angeles
Porfirio Gutiérrez, Ventura, CA & Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
Consultants:
C. Matt Guilliams, Ph.D., Ken & Shirley Tucker Plant Systematist, Curator of the Clifton Smith Herbarium, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara
Arcenio Lopez, Executive Director, Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project, Oxnard
Art Works in Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0:
TANYA AGUIÑIGA
Nopal, 2017
Abaca pulp, clay, alpaca, flax, succulents, iron, horsehair, cochineal, copper, gold, human hair. Overall dimensions vary with installation
These works were created with materials that were specifically chosen to connect to Aguiñiga’s home, history, and heritage with recognition of Latin and Mesoamerican Surrealism through materials and form: earth (clay and metal), plant (abaca and flax), animal (alpaca hair, horsehair and cochineal), and human (Aguiñiga’s sisters and daughter’s hair). They are part of an exploration by Aguiñiga of identity, especially her Mexican heritage through materials and ideologically.
Cochineal is of special significance as one of the driving forces for the colonization of the Americas. Aguiñiga has used cochineal both alive and desiccated in the works. The iron is shaved off of a found railroad spike once carried by a migrant crossing into the U.S. while undocumented. For the artist, Alpaca ties the struggles as Mexicans to that of their Central and South American brothers. Horse hair is another signifier for colonization as it was one of the leading reasons for the defeat of Indigenous people in the Americas, where the Aztecs had never seen a horse and believed the Spanish to be gods because of their appearance on horses. Aguiñiga’s family's hair is a nod to her DNA, and the almost interchangeable use of human and animal hair is her comment on labor and people of color often being used as beasts of burden.
PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ
Untitled, 2021
Material: Wool
Natural Dyes: Pericon, Cochineal Insect
Technique: Tapestry on Treadle Loom
Display: Solid Oak Frame, Textile Exposed
Dimensions: 41 x 50.75 inches
There is this notion that a tradition cannot live outside of its place of origin and those traditions remain stagnant and immobile on the other side of the border. For a Native American like Porfirio Gutiérrez this is false. This would be false even if talking about a different continent, but is especially true as this body of work the artist calls Continuous Line, Línea Continua, focuses on the Americas, which is all the same land.
Gutiérrez is fervent in his belief that our head is our house and traditions are alive within the people. Traditions are sustained by the people who carry them and hold them close throughout their unique life paths. In many ways the people become a continuous line that lives within them. This continuous line has no limitations and flows accordingly to the individual, allowing traditions to grow, evolve, and survive.
Continuous Line illuminates the reality of the Indigenous people of the Americas within the diaspora of migration; who draw and create new lines of tradition, despite barriers designed to obstruct their path.
with TANYA AGUIÑIGA, PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ, and MICOP Mixteco/Indigena Community Organization Project
December 1, 2021 - February 18, 2022
The Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College is pleased to present Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0 featuring two artworks by our Getty Pacific Standard Time artist advisors Tanya Aguiñiga and Porfirio Gutierrez.
Focused on the intersection of art and science, the next Pacific Standard Time: Art x Science x LA opening in 2024 will be the third regional collaboration in Getty's Pacific Standard Time series. This iteration will present an ambitious range of exhibitions and public programs that explores the connections between the visual arts and science, from prehistoric times to the present and across different cultures worldwide.
Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College is the recipient of a two year research grant for the following proposed project: Cosmovisión Indígena: The Intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Contemporary Art. The Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0 is intended to share insights, artwork and materials related to the progress of our research. It follows the creation of Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 1.0 in partnership with Porfirio Gutierrez Studio and Bell Arts Factory in Ventura, CA.
Mesoamerican dyeing and weaving are often categorized as crafts, a designation that obscures the scientific and technical knowledge that these processes require. Focusing on the production of traditional red dye (carmine) from the cochineal insect, Cosmovisión Indígena will trace the history, science, and contemporary uses of the cochineal dye-making process, while exploring the mythology, ritual, and storytelling used to preserve and pass on this traditional knowledge. The project will establish an art lab and learning garden in Santa Barbara as well as a community research space in Ventura, serving members of the Mixtec, Zapotec, and other indigenous communities from Oaxaca, Mexico, who have settled throughout Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. There, younger Oaxacan-American artists will be able to learn the science, technology, and art of dyeing and weaving from experienced practitioners. The final exhibition will display pieces created in both sites alongside curated artworks by contemporary artists and community members.
Project Advisors and Consultants
Curators:
John Connelly, Director, Atkinson Gallery at Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara
Frederick Janka, Executive Director, Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation, Ojai
Audrey Lopez, Ph.D., Public Art & Engagement Curator, Santa Barbara County Office of Arts & Culture, Santa Barbara
Artist Advisors:
Tanya Aguiñiga, Los Angeles
Porfirio Gutiérrez, Ventura, CA & Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
Consultants:
C. Matt Guilliams, Ph.D., Ken & Shirley Tucker Plant Systematist, Curator of the Clifton Smith Herbarium, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara
Arcenio Lopez, Executive Director, Mixteco/Indigena Community Organizing Project, Oxnard
Art Works in Cosmovisión Indígena Art Lab 2.0:
TANYA AGUIÑIGA
Nopal, 2017
Abaca pulp, clay, alpaca, flax, succulents, iron, horsehair, cochineal, copper, gold, human hair. Overall dimensions vary with installation
These works were created with materials that were specifically chosen to connect to Aguiñiga’s home, history, and heritage with recognition of Latin and Mesoamerican Surrealism through materials and form: earth (clay and metal), plant (abaca and flax), animal (alpaca hair, horsehair and cochineal), and human (Aguiñiga’s sisters and daughter’s hair). They are part of an exploration by Aguiñiga of identity, especially her Mexican heritage through materials and ideologically.
Cochineal is of special significance as one of the driving forces for the colonization of the Americas. Aguiñiga has used cochineal both alive and desiccated in the works. The iron is shaved off of a found railroad spike once carried by a migrant crossing into the U.S. while undocumented. For the artist, Alpaca ties the struggles as Mexicans to that of their Central and South American brothers. Horse hair is another signifier for colonization as it was one of the leading reasons for the defeat of Indigenous people in the Americas, where the Aztecs had never seen a horse and believed the Spanish to be gods because of their appearance on horses. Aguiñiga’s family's hair is a nod to her DNA, and the almost interchangeable use of human and animal hair is her comment on labor and people of color often being used as beasts of burden.
PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ
Untitled, 2021
Material: Wool
Natural Dyes: Pericon, Cochineal Insect
Technique: Tapestry on Treadle Loom
Display: Solid Oak Frame, Textile Exposed
Dimensions: 41 x 50.75 inches
There is this notion that a tradition cannot live outside of its place of origin and those traditions remain stagnant and immobile on the other side of the border. For a Native American like Porfirio Gutiérrez this is false. This would be false even if talking about a different continent, but is especially true as this body of work the artist calls Continuous Line, Línea Continua, focuses on the Americas, which is all the same land.
Gutiérrez is fervent in his belief that our head is our house and traditions are alive within the people. Traditions are sustained by the people who carry them and hold them close throughout their unique life paths. In many ways the people become a continuous line that lives within them. This continuous line has no limitations and flows accordingly to the individual, allowing traditions to grow, evolve, and survive.
Continuous Line illuminates the reality of the Indigenous people of the Americas within the diaspora of migration; who draw and create new lines of tradition, despite barriers designed to obstruct their path.