This participatory sculptural installation is inspired by the outdoor market booths of the artist’s hometown, Mexico City, as well as indigenous gifting economies and modernist art and design. It is fabricated of five open grid panels, each equipped with hooks, shelves and hardware. On designated days during the run of A Pot for a Latch, members of the public will be invited to exchange their objects for others on display. The installation highlights the dialogue between vernacular and fine art aesthetics, and references an alternative economy that circumvents transactional commerce. Its title references the Native American gift-giving feasts of the Northwest coast.
Camil often transforms urban and industrial objects into handmade ones, suggesting the failing aspects of modernist culture and critiquing the appearance of decay often associated with the urban landscape in Mexico City.
Pia Camil: A Pot for a Latch was originally produced by and exhibited at the New Museum, New York. Her other solo exhibitions have included The Little Dog Laughed (Blum & Poe, Los Angeles); Entrecortinas: Abre, Jala, Corre (Galería OMR, Mexico City); Espectacular Telón (Sultana Gallery, Paris); and Cuadrado Negro (Basque Centre-Museum of Contemporary Art, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain). Camil’s work is included in Colección Jumex and Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, among others.
This exhibition was on view November 13 – March 19, 2017. Guest curator: Betti-Sue Hertz.
