Frieze NY 2023

blank projects and Proyectos Ultravioleta present a dual presentation by Kemang Wa Lehulere (b.1984, Gugulethu, South Africa) and Edgar Calel (b.1987, Chi Xot, Guatemala).

The presentation takes the form of a conversation between the two artists whose practices are concerned with revisiting the narratives of history through a decolonial lens, drawing on indigenous or ancestral knowledge to inform their artistic, and social, activism. A standard methodology in their work is the act of ‘excavation’ – at times literally – to reveal subjugated histories buried through colonization, racism, or oppression. Reaching back in time to engage with past generations of cultural producers and practitioners and even close family members, Calel and Wa Lehulere bring the work of these figures into dialogue with their own to speak about collective trauma and grief. In so doing, their practices can be seen as intervention or collaboration with time and history itself, offering nuanced perspectives into each of their individual contexts.

In a two-walled booth, the artists will each present works that investigate ideas around the concealment and unearthing of history, memory, and tradition. Seen together, the presentation raises specific questions about the commonalities and contrasts in the stories of marginalized peoples and cultures from different geographies within the Global South.

Coinciding with Jaguar Stone, his newly commissioned show at SculptureCenter opening on May 6th, Calel will present a new series of works titled Runojel xa xti jotayimpe, Runojel xa xti tzolimpe, chuech ri ruach’ulew (Everything Will Blossom, Everything Will
Reappear Before the Face of the Earth). In these canvases of varying scales, the artist -in conversation with his family- have painted a series of landscapes, objects, relics, concepts, and experiences, which are of spiritual importance to them and to the wider Maya Kaqchikel community. The paintings are then covered almost entirely with clay collected by the family in a forest surrounding their hometown Chixot (San Juan Comalapa) which they consider to be sacred, revealing only some minor brush strokes to the viewer’s eye, but not enough to make out the images altogether. And it is Calel’s intention for the earth in the paintings to fall off bit by bit over time, only revealing the depicted images -and the knowledge embedded within- when we are ready to fully grasp its significance.