A Vehicle for Healing: Guadalupe Maravilla’s “Mariposa Relámpago” at The Contemporary Austin

Guadalupe Maravilla, “Mariposa Relámpago,” 2023. Bus, volcanic rock, steel, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist’s original migration route. 110 x 108 x 420 inches. Commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Installation view, “Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago,” The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, 2024. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photo: Alex Boeschenstein

At 8 years old, an unaccompanied Guadalupe Maravilla made the treacherous two-and-a-half month journey through Central America and across the U.S. border to escape El Salvador’s civil war and rejoin his family in America. Now, 40 years later, Maravilla works as a multidisciplinary artist and healer, whose practice revolves around his immigration journey and experience growing up undocumented. 

In the 2010s, Maravilla was diagnosed with colon cancer–a disease he believes to be the physical manifestation of the trauma and stress that he and his family experienced as undocumented immigrants. This illness has been a central theme in his artwork ever since. During his healing process, Maravilla came upon ancient, non-Western healing practices and natural medicines that helped him recover — one being sound therapy, which is now a key element in his practice. 

There is an inherent spiritual essence to Maravilla’s work, which simultaneously looks like an ancient relic from the past and a futuristic object from another universe. His sculptures have the visual language of a ritual altar or shrine, fusing motifs from his pre-colonial Central American ancestry with contemporary, everyday objects that hold greater meaning for him. His recent series of large-scale sculptures titled Disease Throwers combines a plethora of symbolic items and materials, including healing instruments. Maravilla activates these instruments through sound bath performances.

Commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston in 2023 as part of his Disease Throwers series, Mariposa Relámpago takes the form of a metallic school bus — the artist’s largest sculpture to date. The bus traveled to Ballroom Marfa where it was on view from November 4, 2023 through March 16, 2024, and then to The Contemporary Austin in April, where it is currently on view.

Guadalupe Maravilla, “Mariposa Relámpago,” 2023 (detail view). Bus, volcanic rock, steel, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist’s original migration route. 110 x 108 x 420 inches. Commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Installation view, “Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago,” The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, 2024. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photo: Alex Boeschenstein

Directly translating to “butterfly lightning,” Mariposa Relámpago is decked out in hundreds of objects. Silver butter knives line the border of the bus’s front windshield. An anatomical model of a child sits at the front of its hood, surrounded by stones carved to resemble pre-Columbian glyphs. Metal butterfly wings jut out of the sides of the bus and giant grasshopper legs are attached near the rear. A small carousel and several of its horses are placed on top of the bus. The former school bus was salvaged and imported directly from El Salvador, having made its own immigration voyage mirroring Maravilla’s. Mariposa Relámpago is a shrine — to Maravilla himself, his journey, to any and all immigrants, to his community and communities everywhere.

A view from Maravilla’s sound bath session at The Contemporary Austin in April 2024. Photo: Ally Moreno

Giant gongs (some are as big as 60 inches) are attached to the sides of the bus and on top. Maravilla, along with several other sound healers, performed several sound bath ceremonies for the community when the exhibition opened in Austin. Hundreds of local visitors showed up, laying down blankets around the bedazzled bus. Although the healers started off primarily activating the gongs on the bus, they eventually began weaving their way through the crowd with smaller instruments in hand. The sounds of the gongs rang thunderously throughout the sculpture park on that warm spring day.

Mariposa Relámpago is, quite literally, a vehicle for healing. Maravilla’s artwork confronts immigration, war, disease, and systemic abuse, all while putting community healing at the forefront.

Portrait of the artist for “Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago.” Artwork commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. Installation view, “Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago,” The Contemporary Austin – Laguna Gloria, 2024. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photo: Alex Boeschenstein

Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago is on view at The Contemporary Austin’s Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria through November 3, 2024. The sculpture will then travel to the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston during the Spring of 2025.

Emma S. Ahmad is an art historian and writer based in Dallas, TX.