Apariciones/Apparitions
Aug. 17, 2019–Feb. 17, 2020
Huntington Art Gallery
Apariciones /Apparitions is a nine-and-a-half-minute video work by acclaimed Los Angeles artist Carolina Caycedo that reconceptualizes several iconic Huntington spaces through Afro-Latinx and indigenous spiritual practices. Choreographed by dance artist Marina Magalhães and shot by videographer David de Rozas, the piece is centered on brown, black, and queer bodies haunting The Huntington's iconic and traditional spaces—such as the great double staircase of the Huntington Art Gallery, the sweeping sculpture-lined North Vista lawn, and the rare book reading room in the Library building—in sensuous movements informed by the spiritual rituals of an Afro-Brazilian deity. In much of the powerful, captivating piece, the dancers look directly at the camera.
Apariciones /Apparitions debuted in 2018 at The Huntington as part of the institution’s contemporary arts initiative called “/five,” when The Huntington and the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM) at East Los Angeles College invited Caycedo to create work in response to The Huntington’s collections. The Huntington purchased the video jointly with VPAM, with the support of The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation.
Apparitions - Apariciones (Excerpt), 2018
Sensuous movements are informed by the rituals of Oxum, a Yoruba Orisha (or deity) representing water, sexual pleasure, fertility, and love. The body of the dancers, or phantoms, become sources of knowledge, and their gaze holds the viewer accountable, something that is too often missing from history and art; holding space in historically white spaces in ways that they have never been inhabited before.
With: Marina Magalhaes (Choreography), Isis Avalos, Samad Guerra, Celeste Tavares, Bianca Medina, Jose Aviles, Natali Miciche
Cinematography: David de Rozas