Priscilla Monge, "Healing Surfaces," 2023, Polaroid with applied 23-karat gold leaf, 4 3/8 × 3 1/2 in. each (11 × 9 cm. each)
Read scholar Julia P. Herzberg's review of the exhibition El Dorado: Myths of Gold, curated by Aimé Iglesias Lukin, Tie Jojima, and Edward J. Sullivan, at the Americas Society, New York, in Arte Al Día.
"The thematic thrust of the exhibition addresses the myriad ways in which the aura of gold has undergirded creative endeavors, religious imagery, extraction of land, and destruction of human lives. The myth of El Dorado as an imagined golden kingdom filled with gold and precious stones took root when the Spanish conquistadors arrived: and, as improbable as it may seem, the power of gold on the collective imagination continues to galvanize artistic imagination. One of several objectives is to understand that the invasion of the continent served as a justification for the conquest of indigenous peoples as well as the destruction of their ancestral territories and the environment. The curatorial team posits the need to come to terms with the long-term sociopolitical and environmental effects of the long arm of colonialism. The curatorial aspiration of the New York exhibition together with the collaborative exhibitions at Foundation Proa in Buenos Aires and the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico is to advance an unfinished dialogue implicit to these exhibitions."
-Julia P. Herzberg
Visit El Dorado: Myths of Gold, which includes works created by HM&C Artists Freddy Rodríguez and Priscilla Monge.
"The thematic thrust of the exhibition addresses the myriad ways in which the aura of gold has undergirded creative endeavors, religious imagery, extraction of land, and destruction of human lives. The myth of El Dorado as an imagined golden kingdom filled with gold and precious stones took root when the Spanish conquistadors arrived: and, as improbable as it may seem, the power of gold on the collective imagination continues to galvanize artistic imagination. One of several objectives is to understand that the invasion of the continent served as a justification for the conquest of indigenous peoples as well as the destruction of their ancestral territories and the environment. The curatorial team posits the need to come to terms with the long-term sociopolitical and environmental effects of the long arm of colonialism. The curatorial aspiration of the New York exhibition together with the collaborative exhibitions at Foundation Proa in Buenos Aires and the Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico is to advance an unfinished dialogue implicit to these exhibitions."
-Julia P. Herzberg
Visit El Dorado: Myths of Gold, which includes works created by HM&C Artists Freddy Rodríguez and Priscilla Monge.
November 28, 2023
