[Teresa Margolles : Assassination changes the world] Mourning or defacement of the deceased?
Teresa Margolles’s exhibition Assassination changes the world at James Cohan Gallery, conjures great remorse for our indifference to what may be happening on the other side of this continent. Margolles, a Mexican artist making her solo debut in New York, takes us to scenes of violence resulting from “social exclusion and political corruption” at the both sides of US-Mexican border. To some, they may seem remote of everyday life, but they are everyday life for people living it.
Passing through dark curtains, I encountered three mannequins standing apart from each other. The dim lighting of the room — just bright enough to see the works — brought out the hand-embroidered patterns of 24 karat gold bullion and glass pieces on the velvet garments. This series, El Brillo (2020) is composed of two chest pieces and a full-length dress made from shards of car window glass, arms and bullet shells. The materials come from shootings that happened in El Paso, Juarez, and Culiacan. The artist collaborated with three New York based designers to work on these beautiful garments. Turning the remains of fatal violence into high fashion is disturbing. It is even more unsettling that these traces of tragedy are almost unnoticeable.
In the next room are works that are central to the exhibition. Two benches, Dos bancos (2020), are aligned in the middle of the room. The benches are made of cement and embedded fragments taken from the ground where a person was shot dead in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Realizing this, I became hesitant to sit on them. Are we, by some chance, sitting on traces of someone’s death — perhaps their blood, their spirit or bone ashes?
On the wall facing Dos banco hangs a collection of ceramic pieces that the artist made in collaboration with local artisans in Mata Ortiz, Mexico over a period of 18 months. Located in the south of the Paquimé archaeological zone in Casas Grandes, a region now controlled by cartels, Mata Ortiz suffers from frequent violence. El Manto negro / The black shroud (2020) is a precisely aligned set of 2,300 black tiles made of materials from the mountainous region to commemorate the victims of murders that happened there. Each piece represents a victim. Made with a firing technique using smoke from burning cow manure, these small stone-like objects were rubbed by hand to achieve glossy surfaces. They are arranged on the wall in a giant rectangle that provides a moment of silence — a memorial work that mourns the victims.
By taking such vital subject matter and turning it into something ordinary and normal, Margolles introduces an emotional connection with the traumatic events. While the subject is compelling, her works raise moral questions by utilizing the remnants of death as artistic material and turning “death” into art. At first glance, her sculptures may seem to include ordinary pieces of shattered glass and broken cement, but what they are composed of embodies the aura, the spirit or even the last breath of the deceased. Although Margolles, through her work she may intend to commemorate and mourn the victims, her works may become degradation to them even begging the question of vandalism of ethics — what is it and where is the border line in deciding something is or something is not vandalism of ethics?
