FEATURE
waters to claim the natural resources that lie beneath them, Cortada planted a green flag at the North Pole to reclaim it for nature, and in so doing launched a global reforestation eco-art effort.
“It would be really meaningful to me if chapters would follow this brother’s ritual and download the PDFs online. In the chapter room have 24 guys come together and do the Longitudinal Installation. Have them get a sense of our global neighbors and how much we are all affected by global climate change, whether in Rwanda or Rhode Island. At the same time, how powerful to have every chapter house plant a tree, a green flag, a native tree to help show and lead a model that hopefully other chapters and other commuters on campus will do as well. Planting trees in areas that are going to cast shade upon someone, years after someone graduates, those are rituals that grow and take on a life of their own.” The Longitudinal Installation Cortada’s Website
Cortada’s multitude of other projects include: coastal reforestation efforts in Miami (2006), and an urban reforestation campaign in St. Petersburg (2009).
Parallels of Art and Lambda Chi Alpha This Epsilon-Omega brother has been commissioned on projects for the White House (2002), the Florida Supreme Court (2004), Miami Art Museum (2001), the Museum of Florida History (2003), the World Bank (2003), and the Frost Art Museum (2008). “One thing I must tell you is a lot of the stuff that I did at the North and South Poles are very closely related.... They’re called ritualistic installations.” Cortada admits that his art and installations are ritualistic experiences in themselves. His art utilizes a shared experience by the viewers to teach a lesson and encourage activism in a manner very similar Lambda Chi Alpha’s Learning Model (experience, reflect, make meaning, and shareTM), pre-Initiation, and Initiation Ritual. “Some people may ask why we have to engage through ritual. Why can’t we just read through the ritual book? There’s something about repetitive meditation -- these processes where you solve and reflect and act on things that are important. I think it helps remind you and helps create a memory that you can wrap an idea around.”
The closing of one of Xavier Cortada’s latest exhibits on a late November night was immediately followed by a 7 a.m. flight to the Mexican Riviera. Not for business or art, this sacrifice of normal sleeping patterns was for the marriage of one his Fraternity brothers. This sense of fellowship and brotherhood Cortada has held close to his heart since the day he moved into the chapter house and began this lifelong journey of True Brotherhood.
Cortada asks his fellow brothers to learn more about his “ritualistic installations” and to even take part as a group or chapter. www.crossandcrescent.com
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Cross & Crescent December 2010