2008
Found painting, photograph, framed text
Photo 152.4 x 182.9 cm, painting 52.4 x 62.5 cm, framed text 64.1 x 56.2 cm
Variable installation
Unique
Moving a Mountain is comprised of a found painting stolen from a hotel in Mexico City by the artist, a photograph of a painting by a commissioned landscape painter to mimic the style of a kitsch hotel painting, and a framed text that reads like a prose poem. The piece stems from a 24- hour “one night stand” – a trip devised by the artist, in which she travels to a foreign city, walks around all night with no preconceived plan and returns home the following morning. The piece has been exhibited in multiple locations since it was produced for a solo project with the long shuttered gallery D’Amelio Terras in New York, moving the mountain farther away from its source than ever could have been anticipated.
The framed text reads:
It was the Day of the Dead, and the city was decorated with orange clusters of candles and marigolds. I took a walk down the Alameda to the Zocalo, and tried to find a restaurant my guidebook described as “inexplicably” decorated with pictures of mountains. I imagined an arrangement of several yellowing framed photographs, but when I found the address, it was closed. It was after midnight, and I decided to return to my hotel, a modest colonial-style accommodation on Avenida Bolívar. When I closed the door behind me, I heard two lovers in the room above. One was sighing gracefully in a distinct rhythm. I took down my ponytail, began to undress, and then looked at a painting hung between the beds. I marveled at the sounds as I stared at the painting, a snow-capped mountain with a lake and a field of pink flowers. I mused at how the mountain exists with beautiful indifference. The residue of the evening mingled with the lovers above me, and I moved closer to the painting, closer to its peak. Several months later, I decided to go back to Mexico City to take the painting, and replace it with another mountain—the one that I grew up with.
Texts
Moving a Mountain text (full version)link / pdf
Exhibition History
Notes From Underground, Kunsthall Trondheim, Trondheim, Norway, 2017Sunsets, Galerie VidalCuglietta, Brussels, 2012
Llama, Conduits, Milan, 2010
Archeology of Longing, Kadist Foundation, Paris, 2008
Moving a Mountain, Front Room Exhibition, D'Amelio Terras, New York, 2008
Reviews
O’Neill-Butler, Lauren. “Critics’ Picks: Moving a Mountain.” Artforum. May 2008. Web.link / pdf