header image

[Sign Up Now] to Receive Our FREE Daily SCVTV-SCVNews Digest by E-Mail

Inside
Weather


 
Calendar
Today in
S.C.V. History
March 29
1928 - Little dam victim, thought unidentified & buried in SCV, actually ID'd & buried in Chatsworth [story]
Newhall Cowboys


| Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Water drop
“Ilopango, The Volcano that Left,” a sculpture by CSUN Central American and transborder studies Beatriz Cortez, currently on display through Nov. 13 at the Storm King Art Center in New York’s Hudson Valley. Photo by Jeffrey Jenkins.


When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, California State University, Northridge Central American and transborder studies professor Beatriz Cortez, an internationally recognized sculptor, wondered about other pandemics and their impact on the world.

Her research led her to the sixth century Tierra Blanca Joven eruption by the volcano Ilopango in her native El Salvador, one of the largest volcanic events recorded in history. Ash from the volcano blanketed the earth, its name means “Young White Earth” in English, and obliterated the sun for about 18 months, causing catastrophic damage and contributing to what is believed to be one of the world’s earliest recorded pandemics.

Scientists have found samples of ash from Tierra Blanca Joven — which came from the sacred underworld of the Maya of Mesoamerica, all over the world,” Cortez said. “The particles of the Mayan underworld were migrants crossing lands, rivers and oceans. I started to think about how everything migrates. How everything is in motion — the mountains, the land, matter. I wanted people to know that we are all part of a culture, a world, that is in motion.”

Cortez created three site-specific sculptures that consider the experience of migration through the lens of simultaneity, recalling multiple spatial and temporal realities that immigrants experience at once.

Her work is currently on display through Nov. 13 at the Storm King Art Center in New York’s Hudson Valley. The 500-acre outdoor museum features large-scale and site-specific commissions under an open sky. Storm King is the world’s leading museum for modern and contemporary outdoor sculpture.

Cortez said her Storm King exhibition examines “geologic, human and cosmic conditions to imagine other forms of existence that transcend static definition.”

She said she wanted to move beyond colonized notions of time and space. Instead, she infused her work with “indigenous knowledge, spirituality, philosophy and the cycles of the planet to reorient one’s understanding of the past and present, and to imagine an alternative future,” she said.

Cortez works in steel and fashions her sculptures by hand, creating undulating surfaces and organic forms that reflect the surrounding landscape of the Hudson Valley.

A central piece in the exhibition is “Ilopango, The Volcano that Left,” a reconstruction of the ancient volcano.

Cortez grew up swimming in Lake Ilopango, a crater left by the volcano’s eruption. “I never knew I was swimming above a volcano that transformed the earth and killed so many people,” she said.

With “Ilopango, The Volcano that Left,” Cortez said, she imagined how the eruption’s resulting migratory patterns reverberate across time and reinforced nature’s disregard for boundaries or borders.

“Lava flows under the volcanic range that unites my two homes, Los Angeles and El Salvador,” she said. “The underworld is not divided by these borders.”

Another piece in the exhibition is “Stela Z, after Quiriguá, (Contrary Warrior),” which mirrors the form of a stela — a carved stone monolith — on the ancient Mayan site Quiriguá in present-day Guatemala. Welded-steel glyphs appear across its surface, charting a nonlinear chronology of the volcano’s journey throughout its creation and installation.

Her third piece is “Cosmic Mirror (The Sky Over New York)” — 11 boulders made of hammered steel nestled into the grass of the center’s Museum Hill like asteroids fallen to earth — a recreation of the constellation Orion, which sits in the night sky over El Salvador and the Hudson Valley. Like an ancient Olmec mosaic embedded in the ground whose true form can only be appreciated from the sky, “Cosmic Mirror” can only be fully comprehended from the height of a drone because of its scale.

True to its name, “Ilopango, The Volcano that Left” will leave Storm King in a performative departure in October. The sculpture will travel by boat up the Hudson River to EMPAC/the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, for the exhibition “Shifting Center.” The volcano’s journey will feature a weekend of collaborative programming along the river.

Cortez called the piece’s journey “a metaphor that allows you to see that everything is on the move.”

“Migration is not just related to humans and animals, everything on the planet is moving,” she said. “We just don’t realize or acknowledge it.”

 

Comment On This Story
COMMENT POLICY: We welcome comments from individuals and businesses. All comments are moderated. Comments are subject to rejection if they are vulgar, combative, or in poor taste.
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.

0 Comments

You can be the first one to leave a comment.

Leave a Comment


HIGHER EDUCATION LINKS
LOCAL COLLEGE HEADLINES
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
The College of the Canyons Athletic Department will host a dedication ceremony to unveil the Michele Jenkins Softball Team Room in honor of the longtime board member and ardent softball program supporter’s nearly 40 years of service to the district.
Tuesday, Mar 26, 2024
California State University, Northridge is partnering with the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians and the Tataviam Land Conservancy to battle the impact of climate change in disadvantaged communities throughout the San Fernando Valley by establishing “urban forests.”
Monday, Mar 25, 2024
The Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees will hold a special joint meeting with the Associated Student Government in open session from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2024
Holly Hitt-Zuniga has been selected to represent COC and the National Science Foundation’s Center for Renewable Energy Advanced Technological Education in Iceland.
Wednesday, Mar 20, 2024
When you enter the main floor of the west wing of the California State University Northridge library, you’ll soon notice a new mural blending art, nature and the Indigenous history that the campus sits on.
Keep Up With Our Facebook

Latest Additions to SCVNews.com
1928 - Little dam victim, thought unidentified & buried in SCV, actually ID'd & buried in Chatsworth [story]
Newhall Cowboys
Los Angeles County Public Works is updating the Los Angeles County Bicycle Master Plan.
April 16:  County Bicycle Master Plan Virtual Community Meeting
College of the Canyons mens golf got back on track during its return to conference play on Monday, carding a five-man score of 370 to top the eight-team field at Brookside Golf Course and maintain its unblemished conference mark.
Cougars Win Again, Keep Conference Streak
Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector, reminds property owners that the second installment of the 2023-24 Annual Secured Property Taxes becomes  delinquent if not received by 5 p.m. Pacific Time or United States Postal Service postmarked on or before Wednesday, April 10, 2024.
County Treasurer Reminds Property Owners of April 10 Due Date
Local nonprofit Fostering Youth Independence is seeking “Allies” to support Santa Clarita youth who are aging out of the L.A. County foster care system.
April 16: FYI Seeks Volunteers To Pair With Local Foster Youth
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health today unveiled the latest L.A. County Health Survey, which gathers vital data on health behaviors, conditions, neighborhood settings, and the needs of L.A .County residents, informing future public health policies and programs.
Public Health Unveils the 2023 L.A. County Health Survey Findings
Due to the projected rain forecast, Eggstravaganza will now be held indoors at the Canyon Country Community Center beginning promptly at 10 a.m. on March 30.
March 30: Eggstravaganza Now Being Held Indoors at Canyon Country Community Center
To support the mental health of California's young people, the California Department of Public Health awarded $25 million to 28 tribal and community-based organizations across the state.
California Announces $25 Million in Awards for Youth Mental Health
The College of the Canyons Athletic Department will host a dedication ceremony to unveil the Michele Jenkins Softball Team Room in honor of the longtime board member and ardent softball program supporter’s nearly 40 years of service to the district.
April 16: COC to Host Michele Jenkins Team Room Dedication Ceremony
PFLAG Santa Clarita has announced the establishment of the Peggy and Jeff Stabile PFLAG SCV Scholarship. The scholarship will provide financial assistance to LGBTQIA+ students pursuing higher education and committed to advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights and promoting diversity and inclusion.
PFLAG SCV Announces Stabile PFLAG Scholarship
1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
Bouquet Reservoir
The California Department of Public Health launched the “Never a Bother” campaign, a youth suicide prevention public awareness and outreach campaign for youth, young adults, and their parents, caregivers, and allies.
California Launches New Youth Suicide Prevention Campaign
The Santa Clarita Master Chorale invites the community to "Let the Sunshine In," a delightful evening of food, wine and song at the annual Cabaret & Cabernet fundraising benefit.
April 20: Santa Clarita Master Chorale’s Cabaret, Cabernet Fundraiser
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health cautions residents who are planning to visit the below Los Angeles County beaches to avoid swimming, surfing, and playing in ocean waters:
March 27 Ocean Water Warning
As an integral ingredient necessary to help the Santa Clarita Valley to flourish, feedback from the business community is the secret sauce for achieving great things.
SCVEDC Asks For the Business Community’s Opinion on Santa Clarita
Raise your heart rate while raising funds for the Santa Clarita Sister Cities Dollars-for-Desks campaign to provide school desks for students in Sariaya, Santa Clarita's Sister City in the Philippines.
April 13: Sister Cities Zumba-thon Fundraiser
Remo, Inc. is is the world's leading manufacturer and developer of synthetic drumheads and shells. They’ve been in business for 60 years
SCVEDC Company Spotlight: Drumming Up Big Business with Remo, Inc.
California State Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo (D-Chatsworth) and Assemblyman James Ramos (D-Highland) have introduced AB 3074 the "School or athletic team names: California Racial Mascots Act."
Schiavo Introduces Bill to Prohibit ‘Derogatory’ School Mascot Names
Los Angeles County’s Justice, Care and Opportunities Department  in collaboration with Local Initiatives Support Corporation Los Angeles is proud to announce the 2nd Annual Pitch Competition for the cohorts of JCOD's Incubation Academy.
March 28: JCOD Incubation Academy Helps Grassroots Non-Profits For the Second Year
Children’s Bureau is seeking foster families and now offers two virtual ways for individuals and/or couples to learn how to help children in foster care while reunifying with birth families or how to provide legal permanency by adoption.
April 18: Children’s Bureau Hosts Virtual Orientation
The Sunburst track was constructed in 1887 by the Southern Pacific Railroad and was a part of the main line running between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Enjoy Spring With a Ride On The Sunburst Track
California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond hosted a Personal Finance Summit today where he announced his support for Assembly Bill 2927 (McCarty), legislation that would require a personal finance education course for California high school graduation.
State Superintendent Announces Support for Personal Finance Graduation Requirement
1847 - Probable birth date of Pico Canyon oil driller Charles Alexander Mentry [story]
C.A. Mentry
SCVNews.com