Meaning Among the Fragments
A Pitzer College Art Galleries exhibition asks whether archaeology has destroyed the past in attempting to understand it.
Community engagement isn’t just about the present moment. For interdisciplinary artist Gala Porras-Kim, it’s also about looking at ancient communities and the damage done by archeology. Her work focuses on the artifacts taken from Chichén Itzá, an important archeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán. The removal of thousands of objects, often using destructive methods, has damaged them and erased critically important contextual information. In response, Porras-Kim’s work draws on linguistics, history, ethics, and conservation to critique these actions. Pitzer College Art Galleries presented the “Gala Porras-Kim: Between Lapses of Histories” exhibition earlier this year with support from the Munroe Center for Social Inquiry (MCSI). Gallery visitors encountered spectacular drawings, paintings, and sculptures that critiqued archeological practices (and the museums that have collected these artifacts) and breathed new life into our understanding of the past. In addition to the exhibition and a lecture as part of the MCSI lecture series, Porras-Kim also served as 2023 Murray Pepper and Vicki Reynolds Pepper Distinguished Visiting Artist and Scholar.
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