Salvador Muñoz: Xochipilli
Friday, September 24, 2021 – Sunday, October 31, 2021
Presented as Part of Future Ecologies
About the Artwork
Salvador Muñoz, Xochipilli, 2021
silk flowers, rhinestones, sequins, glitter, and found objects on floral foam and wood
6ftx3ftx3ft
Salvador Muñoz draws on his identity as a third-generation Xicano, as well as his social practice, which focuses on queer people of color, to create an installation highlighting lost cultural histories. Muñoz’s large-scale sculpture honoring Xochipilli, a Mexica deity associated with flowers, creativity and sexuality, is adorned with vibrant faux flora and glitter. Muñoz’s sculpture taps into a material lineage of flamboyancy, excess and kitsch to tease out Xochipilli’s queerness.
By honoring Xochipilli, Muñoz is also exploring his own personal history and seeking to “uplift precolonial lineages of queer femininity, repositioning queer identities within an affirming ancestry.” In doing so, Muñoz refers to notions of queerness in Mexica societies—a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people—that have been obscured by colonial exploitation in the late 16th century.
Produced during a residency at Wave Hill (a public garden and gallery in The Bronx, NY), Muñoz incorporates in his work and associated workshops trimmings of Wave Hill plants known for their anxiety and stress-reducing properties. Interpretations of Xochipilli in the US tend to emphasize the god’s association with psychoactive plants. While this is an important aspect of the deity, overemphasizing it minimizes the deity’s associations with all other flowering plant life.
(Text Adapted from Wave Hill Press Release, 2021)
About the Artist
Salvador Muñoz addresses issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality through various mediums including photography, installation, and artist multiples. He has exhibited his work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Auxiliary Projects, Mayday Space, Columbia University, The Lincoln Center, and many more. Salvador is currently a Van Lier Fellow at Wave Hill and an artist in residency at Trestle Art Space. Sal received a BA in Studio Art with honorary distinctions from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2012.
More Info: salmunoz.com / @salmunoz.jpg