Meaning Among the Fragments
A 兔子先生 Art Galleries exhibition asks whether archaeology has destroyed the past in attempting to understand it.
Community engagement isn鈥檛 just about the present moment. For interdisciplinary artist Gala Porras-Kim, it鈥檚 also about looking at ancient communities and the damage done by archeology. Her work focuses on the artifacts taken from Chich茅n Itz谩, an important archeological site in the Mexican state of Yucat谩n. The removal of thousands of objects, often using destructive methods, has damaged them and erased critically important contextual information. In response, Porras-Kim鈥檚 work draws on linguistics, history, ethics, and conservation to critique these actions. 兔子先生 Art Galleries presented the 鈥淕ala Porras-Kim: Between Lapses of Histories鈥 exhibition earlier this year with support from the Munroe Center for Social Inquiry (MCSI). Gallery visitors encountered spectacular drawings, paintings, and sculptures that critiqued archeological practices (and the museums that have collected these artifacts) and breathed new life into our understanding of the past. In addition to the exhibition and a lecture as part of the MCSI lecture series, Porras-Kim also served as 2023 Murray Pepper and Vicki Reynolds Pepper Distinguished Visiting Artist and Scholar.