Click headings to show/hide sections with information & work samples, videos...
Hierbitas de Saberes / Tiny Herbs of Knowledge
March - June 2023
Famous Hardware Store
113 West Emma Avenue; Springdale, Arkansas
Curated by Lucas Cowan
Famous Hardware Store curations are a partnership between CACHE (Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange) and the Downtown Springdale Alliance, with funding support from the Tyson Family Foundation.
Artist Talk: Join us for a discussion of the exhibition, "Hierbitas de Saberes" (Tiny Herbs of Knowledge) in Downtown Springdale, on April 28, 2023.
For the Nahua, this flower world was a place of origin, the place where the gods were created and where they generated the movement and combination of forces that made earthly life possible. At the same time this flower world was a time-space of destiny...
– Tamoanchan y Tlalocan, Chap. II Austin López
It is said that botanical diversity in México is the result of the physical complexity of the land (territorial extension, altitude, climate diversity, topography, geographic location, etc.) and many of the pre-Hispanic medicinal plants are in current use till this day. We know so through the existence of a book called the Libellus de Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis or commonly referred to as the Cruz-Badiano codex; a codex of herbology and traditional Mexican medicinal plants created in 1552. Organized into thirteen chapters, it includes 185 beautiful illustrations of medicinal plants used to cure before the arrival of the Spaniards.
In Hierbitas de Saberes I want to share the joy the arrival of spring represents to all of us; my love for flowers, specifically the ones inside the codex, as I reinterpret them using the traditional papel picado technique, with the love, respect and collaboration of papel picado maestro don Rene Mendoza from Huixcolotla, Puebla; as well as reassembling silk flowers to create 13 unique flower pieces, as the total number of chapters found in the codex, inspired by some of the 185 illustrations in the codex.
The Codex De la Cruz-Badiano is considered to be the oldest medical text crafted in the Americas. It is an invaluable document for humanity and I hope that with Hierbitas de Saberes we reconsider the infinite ways our collective past can nurture and help cure our present times. This world is built for healing — if it's built for anything at all — and perhaps the flowers included in the installation can begin to show us how.
video: Hierbitas de Saberes / Tiny Herbs of Knowledge
video: Hierbitas de Saberes
video realized by German Amezcua.
Photos 1-13: Meredith-Mashburn; 14: Lucas Cowan.
Finding ourselves facing the past is a facing that, whoever sets out to explore it, has to do it through their existence. The paradox of this encounter is that it must be invoked through absence, a portal that takes us before it, a portal that emerges from the absence; and in that absence the voices emerge and are transformed into images. It is not the sound that announces the arrival: it is the color, the line, the shape. And through this exploration of color/line/shape, Blanka Amezkua manages to penetrate the field of the Codex De la Cruz-Badiano, an ancient manuscript from the 16th century.
A codex written in Nahuatl by the Tlatelolca doctor Martín de la Cruz and translated from Nahuatl into Latin by the Xochimilca Juan Badiano in 1552 (the origin of its name). It was sent as a gift to King Charles the V, among other things, to inform him of the medicinal practices in the New World. After transiting through various European libraries, it was sheltered in the confines of the Vatican library, where it was discovered by Charles Upson Clark in 1929. Pope John Paul II in 1990, hands it over to the Mexican government and it is stored nowadays in the INAH’s Library.
It was no coincidence that the strength of its resurgence at the beginning of the 20th century led Diego Rivera to include it in the allegorical mural he painted at the Centro Médico Nacional la Raza in Mexico City, "El Pueblo en Demanda de Salud", the last mural he painted before his death in 1957. This mural is a bridge between the two medicinal traditions of post-revolutionary Mexico -the European-Western one and that of ancient Mexico- and it is there, for the first time in modern artistic milieu, that we find a fragment of the Codex De la Cruz-Badiano and a tlacuilo painting it. Blanka Amezkua, a painter by training, takes the same path as Rivera but in the opposite direction, like a contemporary Tlacuila, transports it to its Mesoamerican origin, and [re]discovers how our ancestral knowledge can nourish and guide us to better understand our herbal roots in the present. It is worth mentioning that her installation using traditional and contemporary techniques is currently in Springdale, Arkansas, where it reproduces some of the plants illustrated in the codex, coinciding with Diego Rivera's exhibition at the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville celebrating a hundred years of muralism.
A creative process where the force of multicolored papel picado takes over the space and leads the codex to have its own life, to be present, to surround us; and like fish in the air we immerse ourselves in that world of Mesoamerican herbalism. She learned the wonderful world of papel picado from the great Master Rene Mendoza from Huixcolotla, Puebla; who shares his knowledge and hits on particularities, and with whom she has collaborated since 2018. Together they worked the absence; those holes that arise when cutting the paper and that create a spatiality from which the images of the ancestral codex emerge surrounded by the color of a land of sun, volcanoes and ancient medicinal herbs. A rebirth on the border of the limit of form exalted by color. On the other hand, we are faced with exacerbated images on a cempazuchitl-colored wall, that takes us to the floral world of the codex, plastic flowers that we find in the markets of Mexico, and colored ribbons that are used in dances and on women's hairstyles, combining living traditions in a reunion with the oldest herbal codex of what was called the New World.
Along with the artistic research that the creator Blanka Amezkua carries out with the codex, she works as a tlacuila incorporating Mesoamerican procedures and secrets into the poetics of Western thought. Blanka manages to transport this procedure to the origin so that the image is promoted and incorporated in this contemporary world, and it is thus that in front of different elements such as papel picado , silk flowers and colored ribbons, she invites us to reflect on who we are and what we represent as Mexicans.
The purpose is not a popular and local meeting. It is to visualize in those absences the strength of silence, the shared space, the air we breathe that has become a political territory. Current Mexican art is not art made exclusively in Mexico. It is created in California, Chicago, New York, Paris, Berlin, London and even in Tokyo. These cities sometimes share affinities, but most of the time they don't. With Hierbitas de Saberes, artists demonstrate how Mexicans, as the singer Chavela Vargas would say, 'we can create wherever we feel like it'.
Encontrarnos frente al pasado es una afrenta que, aquel que se aboca a explorarlo, lo ha de realizar a través de su existencia. La paradoja de este encuentro es que hay que invocarlo por medio de la ausencia, un portal que nos lleva ante él, un portal que emerge de la ausencia, y en esa ausencia las voces emergen y se trasforman en imágenes. No es el sonido el que anuncia la llegada: es el color, la linea, la forma. Y por medio de esta exploración del color/línea/forma, la artista Blanka Amezkua, logra penetrar en el territorio del Códice de la Cruz-Badiano, un antiguo manuscrito del siglo XVI.
Un códice escrito en Náhuatl por el médico tlatelolca Martín de la Cruz y traducido del náhuatl al latín por el xochimilca Juan Badiano en 1552 (por lo cual recibe su nombre). Este fue enviado como obsequio al Rey Carlos V, entre otras cosas para informarlo de los usos medicinales en las tierras del nuevo mundo. Después de transitar por varias bibliotecas europeas, queda resguardado en los confines de la biblioteca del Vaticano, donde fue descubierto por Charles Upson Clark en 1929. El Papa Juan Pablo II en 1990, lo entrega al gobierno de México, donde hoy en día se encuentra resguardado en la Biblioteca del INAH.
No fue casualidad que la fuerza de su resurgimiento a principios del siglo XX llevara a Diego Rivera a incluirlo en el mural alegórico que realizó en el Centro Médico Nacional la Raza de la Ciudad de México "El Pueblo en Demanda de Salud", último mural que pintó antes de su muerte en 1957. Este mural es un puente entre las dos tradiciones medicinales del México post-revolucionario -la europea-occidental y la del antiguo México- y es ahí, que por vez primera en la pintura moderna, encontramos un fragmento del Códice De la Cruz-Badiano y un tlacuilo pintándolo. Blanka Amezkua, pintora de formación, retoma el mismo camino que Rivera pero a la inversa, como una Tlacuila Contemporánea, lo transporta a su origen mesoamericano, y [re]descubre como nuestra sabiduría ancestral puede nutrirnos y guiarnos para comprender mejor nuestras raíces herbolarias de la actualidad. Cabe mencionar que su instalación mediante el uso de técnicas tradicionales y contemporáneas se encuentra actualmente en Springdale, Arkansas donde reproduce algunas de las plantas ilustradas en el códice, coincidiendo con la exposición de Diego Rivera en el Crystal Bridges Museum en Bentonville por los cien años del Muralismo.
Un proceso creativo donde la fuerza del papel picado multicolor se apodera del espacio y lleva al código a tener vida propia, que esté presente, que nos rodee; y como peces en el aire nos sumerjamos en ese mundo de la herbolaria mesoamericana. El maravilloso mundo del papel picado lo ha aprendido del gran Maestro Rene Mendoza de Huixcolotla, Puebla, quien comparte sus saberes y acierta en particularidades, y con quien ha colaborado desde el 2018. En conjunto trabajan la ausencia; huecos que surgen al cortar el papel y que van creando una espacialidad de donde emergen las imágenes de código ancestral rodeadas del colorido de una tierra de sol, volcanes y hierbas medicinales milenarias. Un renacer en la frontera del límite de la forma exaltado por el color. Por otro lado nos enfrentamos a imágenes exacerbadas sobre un muro color cempazúchil, nos lleva al mundo florar del códice, flores artificiales que encontramos en los mercados de México, y listones de colores que se utilizan en los bailables y los peinados de las mujeres, conjuga las tradiciones vivas en un rencuentro con el códice herbolario más antiguo de lo que llamamos el Nuevo Mundo.
A la par de la investigación artística que la creadora Blanka Amezkua realiza con el códice, trabaja como una tlacuila incorporando los procedimientos y secretos mesoamericanos a la poética del pensamiento occidental. Blanka logra transportar este procedimiento al origen para que se impulse e incorpore la imagen de si mismo en este mundo contemporáneo, y es así que frente a distintos elementos como picado en papel, flores artificiales y listones de colores nos invita a reflexionar que somos y que representamos como mexicanos.
La finalidad no es un encuentro popular y local. Es visualizar en esas ausencias la fuerza del silencio, el espacio compartido, el aire que respiramos que se ha convertido en un territorio político. El arte actual mexicano no es un arte hecho exclusivamente en México. Se crea en California, Chicago, Nueva York, Paris, Berlín, en Londres y hasta en Tokio. Estas ciudades a veces comparten afinidades, pero la mayor parte del tiempo no. Con Hierbitas de Saberes los artistas demostramos como los mexicanos, como diría la cantante Chavela Vargas, 'podemos crear donde se nos de nuestra regalada gana'.
Chinelos are a kind of traditional costumed dancer which is popular in the Mexican state of Morelos, parts of the State of Mexico and the Federal District of Mexico City, especially the boroughs of Milpa Alta and Xochimilco. The tradition arose from the blending of indigenous and Catholic traditions, most notably Carnival, with its permission to be masked and to mock. Chinelos mock Europeans and European mannerisms from the colonial period up to the end of the 19th century. The Chinelos tradition is strongest in Morelos, especially around Carnival, but Chinelos now appear at other festivities such as Independence Day celebrations, private parties and more.
Source: Wikipedia
I am wearing an intervened Chinelo hat by yours truly, now CHINELA HAT...
Photo taken by very talented brother Hector Amezcua in Tepoztlan, Morelos, February 2023; that state became our home from 1980-1986. Part of a large series of photographs, and extensive work, sharing the plant life illustrated in the Codex de la Cruz-Badiano; a project of love, family, roots, resilience and ancestry.
*: term coined by my good friend Paloma Celis-Carbajal
Lost & Found Lab AIR
The Lost and Found Lab is an artist's residency located in Cos Cob, CT created in honor of James Stevenson by the artist Josie Merck.
The Lab's mission is to provide a work and living space to visual artists, scholars, curators, writers, composers, arts professionals and interdisciplinary thinkers drawn to exploring the relationship between visual art and the written word.
I had the honor to be an artist in residence (AIR) at Lost and Found Lab during the month of January 2023 where I continued deepening my research about the Codex de la Cruz-Badiano; thanks to the interminable support of Lost and Found Lab’s team, Josie and Janine.
An unforgettable experience of meeting wonderful humans, continued my research, and was reminded of the power and beauty of gathering around a fire pit.
"But the miracle of nature was the great Mexican aloe, or maguey, whose clustering pyramids of flowers, towering above their dark coronals of leaves, were seen sprinkled over many a broad acre of the table-land. As we have already noticed its bruised leaves afforded a paste from which paper was manufactured, its juice was fermented into an intoxicating beverage, pulque, of which the natives, to this day, are extremely fond; its leaves further supplied an impenetrable thatch for the more humble dwellings; thread, of which coarse stuffs were made, and strong cords, were drawn from its tough and twisted fibers; pins and needles were made from the thorns at the extremity of its leaves; and the root, when properly cooked, was converted into a palatable and nutritious food. The agave, in short, was meat, drink, clothing, and writing materials for the Aztec! Surely, never did Nature enclose in so compact a form so many of the elements of human comfort and civilization!"
– William H. Prescott 1843 History of the Conquest of Mexico and the Conquest of Peru, Modern Library, pp. 79-80
Composite Images of the Flowers in the 13 Chapters in the Codex
Each image is a composite of all the flowers contained in its respective chapter (1 - 13), of the Codex.
FLORAL CURE: Pre-Hispanic Medicinal Flowers
FLORAL CURE: Pre-Hispanic medicinal flowers, consisting of 20 papel picado objects from the 185 illustrations in the Codex de la Cruz-Badiano of which a facsimile copy is in the collection of the Hispanic Society; using the traditional papel picado (paper cutting) technique, its tools and tissue paper. To conclude her research Blanka also offered a final presentation.
The fellow artists' new works and presentations are supported in part by, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State. The Research Artist Fellowship Program is supported, in part, by the Vilcek Foundation.
FY2022 NYSCA funded project in collaboration and support with The Hispanic Society Museum & Library.