Acknowledgments
2019

Acknowledgments 2019 was the first workings of the 1892 NYT article “She Tired of Convent Life”. This initial iteration aims to contend with the violence of borders and notions of private property, and connects stories of capture and cultural erasure through means of poetry, iconoclastic gestures, and orientations of the body to patterns and time. The work consists of the original article’s text split across several pages, a video of the horizon, 2 Judd replica chair sculptures, a printout of US/Mexico border wall prototypes, and a temporary tattoo. I instructed viewers to enter the space as the sun was setting. Judd is referenced in this work as I found that his Marfa complex was formerly the de-accessed military post, Fort D.A. Russell, which served as the original US/Mexico border in the early 20th century. Marfa, TX, and surrounding areas are the lands of the Jumanos, Mescalero Apache, and Ndé Kónitsąąíí Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache). 

Kayla Anderson writes: “In my mind, she was preparing for flight. The wall was her horizon, a launching pad into the unknown, which for her was the only location of freedom. To broaden one’s horizons means to exceed the limits of one’s prescribed plight. While her moment of escape might be fleeting, her flight would be eternal. 

The story was printed as one long horizontal line, the pages placed along a window ledge, beyond which the sun was starting to set.

The setting sun is sometimes used as a metaphor for the end of an empire. It signals a final, inevitable, collapse. I have been waiting so long for this sun to set. Since before I was born. When I see your horizon, I close my eyes and I tell myself that it is near. It is so near.

But before then (as we saw that day) there will be many fires. I pray that their intensity will call down the sun. 
When it does, remember that the sun loves you.”  
Read Acknowledgments 2019 timeline

Watch a video walkthrough of the installation Acknowledgments

Image list

©Yani aviles 2024
🧑🏽‍🎨👁️🌬️🧿🌊⌕🌟🫂🍯🤲⛰️🌱🧧🌻🪙❤️‍🔥🗺️