January 24 - March 8, 2025
From the Visual Arts Center:
“Between 1835 and 1836, European colonists and the centralized Mexican government fought to control the Texas region. The Mexican government forced Maya men from the Yucatán Peninsula to fight alongside Mexican soldiers. During the 1836 Battle of Mission Refugio, a village located 150 miles south of present-day Austin, several of these Maya soldiers were killed and laid to rest. In Land Invention, artist Pablo Tut traces the journey of these Maya soldiers from the Yucatán to Texas and presents a monument to their legacy.
Central to Tut’s exhibition is an ancient Maya dagger (711 CE) unearthed in Yucatán that features the profiles of four Maya gods oriented in alternate directions. While the dagger’s original meaning and usage remain unknown to archaeologists and anthropologists, the dagger takes on multiple meanings and forms in Tut’s work. Using drawing, lithography, video, and steel, Tut places the dagger in the hands of Maya people across time, from the soldiers in Refugio to contemporary artists, historians, activists, and Tut’s family and friends living in Campeche, Yucatán. By recontextualizing the dagger and assigning it multiple uses, Tut challenges its status as a relic of the past, forging temporal continuity between ancient and contemporary Maya peoples. This continuity reaffirms the autonomy and political consciousness of the Maya people across time, landscapes, and everyday life.
Presenting support for Pablo Tut: Land Invention is provided through the St. Elmo Arts Residency. “
On View: January 24, 2025 | 12–5 pm
23rd and Trinity Streets
Austin, 78712 TX
512-232-2348
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