PRESENTATION: Guadalupe Maravilla-Sound Botanica

Several personal events in Guadalupe Maravilla’s life have had an impact on his art. In 1984, at the age of eight, Maravilla immigrated to the United States as a single, undocumented child. He was fleeing the civil war in El Salvador. As an adult, he was diagnosed with cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. To alleviate the side effects, he combined the treatment with other healing practices such as sound baths. The artist’s interdisciplinary practice constantly refers to experiences with exile and illness, migration and healing.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Henie Onstad Kunstsenter Archive

Presenting more than 30 works, “Sound Botanica”, the first solo exhibition in Europe by Guadalupe Maravilla’s first solo exhibition in Europe brings together new commissions with pieces from four major series from Maravilla’s body of work: “Tripa Chuca”, “Embroideries”, “Disease Throwers” and “Retablos”. These include sound baths, videos, sculptures, installations and performances that speak to the artist’s autobiography, his personal mythology and his perspectives on colonial history. The series of freestanding sculptures entitled “Disease Throwers” are created from found objects and materials collected while Maravilla retraces his migration journey. At the heart of each sculpture is a gong that is activated during sound baths; a collective, ritual, and meditative healing experience created by the artist. “Disease Thrower” are altar-like sculptures that looks like the skeleton of a mythical beast. It holds various medicinal objects, as well as metal ornaments and plastic anatomical models—including a dissected breast and a smaller, cylindrical, colon-like sculpture—that refer to the artist and his mother’s experiences with cancer. “Tripa Chuca” (Dirty Guts) is a reference to a Salvadorian game that Maravilla played during his childhood and along his migration route. The series is also represented in a site-specific work at the Henie Onstad, in which Maravilla “plays out” the game in collaboration with a previously undocumented person. In these drawings, Maravilla directly treats the topic of migration and his own immigration history. In his “Embroideries” series, Maravilla condenses the thematic elements of his drawings. On each embroidered work, disembodied limbs, hands, and clenched fists are stitched with dripping blocks of ice (a reference to ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), skulls, and a hand sowing seeds. These are fictive, contemporary emblems created by the artist to symbolise resistance against the persecution of and political pressure on undocumented immigrants. “Retablos” are devotional “ex-voto” paintings, a popular art form traditionally used to express gratitude for surviving dangerous events. In Maravilla’s retablos, and in the long inscriptions he has inscribed on each of them, the artist gives thanks and expresses gratitude for, among other things, a new chance in life after his cancer treatment, which has made it possible for him to continue as artist and healer. Maravilla’s work proposes care as a form of political work, particularly towards the healing of intergenerational trauma as well as trauma caused by migration. He frequently activates his artistic objects through performances and sound baths, a meditative experience where participants are “bathed” in sound frequencies meant to encourage therapeutic and restorative processes. Maravilla is also a teacher and mutual-aid organizer; his work extends beyond his sculptural practice to consider forms of community-based healing and regeneration. “I didn’t have all the obstacles that immigrants have now, I can’t even sleep at night sometimes because I understand how difficult it is. So this is why I am trying to do the work that I am doing” says the artist. Maravilla will also offer a series of healing sound baths to coincide with the opening weekend of the exhibition. After he was introduced to sound therapy, a healing practice that uses vibrations produced by gongs, sound baths form an important part of his artistic practice, creating an immersive and healing landscape within his installations.

Photo: Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #6, 2019. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

Info: Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sonja Henies vei 31, Høvikodden, Norway, Duration: 18/3-7/8/20222, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 11:00-17:00, Thu 11:00-21:00, https://hok.no