1986.06.08. DORMIMUNDO CASITA / SAN BARTOLO / MEXICO.
Not noticing the lack of animal noises or the light of day, I usually awoke not knowing the time of day. I never ate before noon. The midday heat stopped at the walls of the room. A long period of sleep passed. During my waking hours I opened the door, lit the lamp and made drawings. I found many new materials in place.
From these materials, usually entirely organic, I made various kinds of tools and drew all kinds of survival equipment. I then started producing instruments which, by their sheer impossibility, are only fit for use in a kind of existence entirely different from our present one. In San Bartolo, I made a set of 61 tools to find light out of beeswax. Stronger and more suitable materials are presently available, but some day we may find our-selves in a situation where only one type of material may be available.
This type of work is a kind of preparation and adaptive training to life after disasters such as frost, heat, flood, drought, etc. In order to cope with the afore mentioned situations I have for instance made drawings of a cooling bag and refrigeration coat for desert use, innumerable rubber constructions to combat floods; and portable water bags for droughts. I tried to apply to the movements and techniques that the farmers used in their work to produce my own work.
The problem of finding light solved itself when in the middle of the summer the fire flies arrived. I immediately constructed a series of nine canvases depicting the power of the fire flies. The paintings were lit up by a system of cages for the fire flies. The tests were unsuccessful. The cages were too small and I learned that the flies need to fly to lighten up. The last work was drawings on paper where the flies were killed on a paper and their chemical substances therefore mixed well. The drawings stayed lit by themselves in the dark for approx. 8 hours. UR 1987
I stayed for a year in the small village San Bartolo Pareo, Michoacan, Mexico with farmers working together in the ”ejido” (communal ownership of the land). I was the first westerner that moved in.
All photos by the artist.
Dona Maria Velez communicating with her son Cleto. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Cleto digging their well deeper. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
The small plant has been replanted in it´s right placement in the field. The small plants are being watered daily from the well that Cleto dug. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
System of the plantations in the ejido (communal coop ownership) in San Bartolo Parreo, Michoacan, Mexico. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Cleto walking back home in the fields of the village San Bartolo Pareo, Mich, Mexico, 1986. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
The small corn plants. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Pulque plant. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Crepusculo (sunset) in my garden. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Melting and cleaning vaxpanels that I bought from local bee farmers. The vax cooling off. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
The dirt filtered from the raw bees vax. Local bees returning to retrieve lost honey. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
The production of the 1986 LIGHT SEEKERS in my garden at night, when it´s cooler. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
1986 FIELD OF VISION (triptych). Each painting 58 x 94 cm.Gesso and pigment on lines of egg on old lottery ballots from Loteria Nacional. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
1986 LIGHT SEEKERS. Variable dimensions. Sisal rope and local beesvax. 1986 LIGHT PAINTING. Undocumented size. Beesvax, fluorecent light and drawing on paper. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
1986 LIGHT SEEKERS. Variable dimensions. Sisal rope and local beesvax. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Packing up the work. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
1986 SPIRIT LIGHTS. Undocument size. Plastic, lamp, cables, para rubber and garlic harvested from Don Bartolo and Cletos new field. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
Small box to keep the luziernagas (fire flies) safe while gathering them for the fire flies painting made out of beesvax, mosquito net and wood. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
1986 LUZIERNAGAS. Each painting H 58 x W 94 cm. Fire flies painting with each little cage lit up by each Luziernaga contributing to lightning up the painting. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
1986 LUZIERNAGAS. 8 hours exposure in my pitchblack bedroom. The Luziernagas (fireflies) lights up this painting. Polaroid print H 85 x 108 mm.
