Alicia Smith “Apparitions “

Ortega y Gasset Projects @ The Old American Can Factory

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Curated by Clare Britt and Eleanna Anagnos

Ortega y Gasset Projects present a solo presentation of Alicia Smith’s work curated by Clare Britt and Eleanna Anagnos. Smith’s work uses the abject and sublime to investigate the tension between greed and reverence and its impact on the environment, as well as our relationship to the female body. Through these processes she dissolves romanticized tropes that deny indigenous women their complexity, while at the same time demonstrating their beauty and strength. Being of mixed race heritage her relationship to the land and her body is complicated and something she unpacks through her work with the guidance of her ancestors.

In Smith’s words:

The Great Mother archetype makes her appearance during times of apocalypse as a warning of on coming devastation and as a promise that she will steward life back through. At OyG, Smith pres ents four tapestries representing Annunciation, Nativity, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. A fifth and final tapestry, Coronation, will be created by Smith during her performance on October 16, 2021. In her timely presentation and performance, all five tapestries will evoke feelings of hope and assurance. The history of our planet is marked by periods when life itself staggered toward oblivion. Yet every time it emerged again victorious, though transformed. “Apparitions” is an exhibition about these tran sitional periods told through omens of the archetypal Great Mother. Part warning of impending cata clysm and part assurance of survival. A strange sort of optimism and in the anthropocene, a plea for change.

When Juan Diego came to Tepeyac and saw the Virgin Mary, she appeared to him as an indigenous woman and spoke to him in Nahuatl. She commanded him to fill his tilmatli with roses from the hill and take them to the friar for proof of her identity. He did as instructed and when he let the flowers fall from his garment onto the chapel floor, her image was emblazoned on cloth. In this same spirit I have created four pieces which capture the miraculous manifestations and evolutionary moments in our planet’s life. The imagery shifts back and forth between the ancient and the present, demonstrating how it all has arrived to meet us here. Each tilmatli was hand dyed with cochineal, a beetle whose life cycle revolves around the nopal cactus and who were coveted by the Aztecs for the striking red dye it produces.

“Annunciation”, the first piece and first Joyful Mystery, marks the moment language is given to an internal knowl edge, the moment a pregnancy is confirmed. In this tilmatli I show stromatolite formations, mini reefs where cya nobacteria were first formed around hydrothermal vents. This is the beginning of life as we know it on our planet. There are two volcanos, representing Popocatépetl “Smoking Mountain” and Iztaccíhuatl “White Woman”, and above them in a frieze another sits, Nexpayantla “Place where the ash crumbled”, their volcanic ancestor.

“Nativity”, the second piece and third Joyful Mystery, marks the birth of angiosperms, or flowering plants and with them the formation of all fruits and vegetables. In this piece I place a Magnolia flower, bud and seed pod in the frieze. Magnolias are one of the first flowering plants to evolve on our planet. In Nahuatl they are called Yol loxochitl “Heart Flower” and used to assist physical, emotional, and spiritual matters of the heart. Beneath it is a chinampa, a traditional Aztec floating garden, with Bonpland Willows or Ahuehuetl “Water Drums”, Corn, Beans and Squash. Beneath them swims Axolotl salamanders which were once abundant in Lake Texcoco but now are endangered in Xochimilco. Above it all flies two vampire bats, representing the story of Xochiquetzal, who was bitten on the vulva by a vampire bat while she slept in paradise and when her blood spilled onto the earth (the first menstruation) all flowers emerged.

“Crucifixion”, the third piece and fifth Sorrowful Mystery, marks the impact of the asteroid on Chicxulub in the Yucatan in Mexico and the death of the dinosaurs. In the image you see a crocodile, a species present at the time of the dinosaurs, jumping out of an estuary to capture a water bird, another living relic of prehistory, in flight. To gether, they create a crucifix, the flexing of the surface of the water reminiscent of a crater.

“Resurrection”, the fourth piece and first Glorious Mystery, marks the rise of the mammals following the cata clysm that wiped out 75% of life on this planet. The Juramaima, an ancient shrew, burrowed underground and scavenged for centuries and this resilient being is what all placental animals on this planet have evolved from.

“Coronation”, is the 5th piece, which will be created during the performance. In it I will walk into the gallery dressed in white as “La Llorona” plays and step onto a cloth that is covering a layer of roses on the floor. As I smash the petals into the fabric an image of Coatlicue, the Aztec Earth Goddess will appear. When I am finished, I will hang the garment on the wall and invite the viewers to leave an offering, gratitude, and pray to the land itself.

- Alicia Smith, 2021

Alicia Smith (She/her) (b. 1990, Waukegan, IL) is a Xicana artist and activist. She received her BFA in Fine arts with an emphasis in Contemporary Sculpture and Printmaking from the University of Oklahoma and her MFA at the School of Visual Arts. Her work is currently on view at Museo Cabanas, Guadalahara, Mexico and Accola Griefen, NYC. Smith has shown at Pulse, Miami, FL and at Untitled, San Francisco. She currently resides in Oklahoma City, Okalahoma. www.aliciasmith.work | @aliciasmithart

Clare Britt (She/her) is a photographer living and making in Chicago, IL. She founded the Nonprofit Arts Organization Fraction Work space in Chicago, IL (2003-2007). She is a freelance photographer traveling the country documenting various projects. She is a co-creator the virtual program Rendezvous and hosts Flat File Friday Insta Live on OyG’s IGTV. She is a co-founder and co-director of Ortega y Gasset Projects.
www.clarebritt.com | @clarebrittphotographer

Eleanna Anagnos (She/her) is a Greek-American artist and curator residing in Mexico City and NYC. Her curatorial projects have been featured in The New York Times, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, The New York Observer and Art Spiel. She has been a co-director at OyG since 2014.
www.eleanna.com | @eleannapaints