Alka domo & Flowing Like Waterfalls
Seba Calfuqueo PICA welcomes you to Seba Calfuqueo: Alka domo & Flowing Like Waterfalls, co-presented with Converge 45 as part of its 2023 citywide exhibition Social Forms: Art As Global Citizenship, and curated Christian Viveros-Fauné.
15 NE Hancock St. Portland, OR pica.org
August 24 - September 24, 2023 Alka domo Opening: August 26, 12:00 – 4:00 pm Gallery Hours: 12:00 – 6:00 pm Thursday and Friday / 12:00 – 4:00 pm Saturday and Sunday Flowing Like Waterfalls Performance: August 26 at 3:30 pm Seba Calfuqueo with Malcolm Peacock, Vo Vo, and moderator Derek Franklin Panel Discussion: August 29 at 6:00 pm
SEBA CALFUQUEO: ALKA DOMO & FLOWING LIKE WATERFALLS Seba Calfuqueo (b. 1991, Santiago, Chile) is an internationally celebrated artist of Indigenous Mapuche origin. Their work appeals to their Indigenous inheritance to propose critical reflections on the social, cultural, and political status of the Mapuche subject in contemporary Chilean society, Latin America, and the world. Calfuqueo’s work marshals, among other elements, installation, ceramics, performance, and video art to explore the cultural similarities, differences, and stereotypes produced by the melding of Indigenous and Western ways of thinking. Their work often starts from the broad field of performance and extends into video. Calfuqueo’s ongoing research proposes to make visible issues connected to feminism and sexual dissidence. In addition to their artistic practice, the artist belongs to the feminist collectives Mapuche Rangiñtulewfü and Yene Revista and has collaborated in publishing texts in the Mapuche language, working towards its stimulation and preservation.
Alka domo, 2017 Video installation FULL HD 17 minutes Seba Calfuqueo’s Alka domo is a performative video work that recontextualizes a story about Caupolicán, the legendary toki of the Mapuche, Chile’s largest Indigenous community. A toki symbolizes strength and perseverance in the face of adversity. Caupolicán was elected military leader by the Mapuche people of Chile after successfully completing the challenge of holding a log on his shoulders for two days and one night. Caupolicán led the Mapuche army in the first uprising against the Spanish conquistadors from 1553 to 1558. Today, the name Caupolicán is a symbol for Native American resistance. In Alka domo, Seba Calfuqueo holds a hollowed-out tree trunk above their head at various public sites. The wood used in this performance is coihuea, an ancestral wood from Southern Chile. The word hueco (hollow) is the derogatory term Chileans use to refer to LGBTQ+ people. During this performance, the artist wore seven different pairs of high heels to refigure Caupolicán’s masculinity—each pair representing a single color of the LGBTQ+ flag. The locations for the performance symbolize the complexity of the interaction between Mapuche and Chilean culture, along with places associated with Calfuqueo’s own biography.
Flowing Like Waterfalls, 2022 Performance, 20 minutes Blue lights, voice recording, bronze kaskawillas (created by Pablo Kollil), blue costume (created by Lupe Abaca), blue ceramic balls, incense sticks, blue enameled ceramic copihue Seba Calfuqueo’s performance Flowing Like Waterfalls considers both the idea and the fact of the waterfall, emphasizing its sonority and visuality as interpreted by the artist’s body. In this performance, Calfuqueo imitates the sound of the waterfall through the use of kaskawillas, a Mapuche instrument made of bronze bells. Kaskawillas link the Mapuche tale of the copihue—Lapageria rosea, Chile’s national flower—with stories that represent the Mapuche worldview. According to Calfuqueo, “the performance speaks the sound” of the copihue in the voice of the kaskawilla. This is because “the flower catches the sound of rain and the trayenko (waterfall), which is the source of life.” Flowing Like Waterfalls proposes that we consider water as a fluid power, one that is linked to the body, gender, and sexuality, while underscoring the historical relation water has to life, the forest, and all-natural ecosystems. This performance appeals to the spectators’ senses, making the story—including its sounds and smells—the central axis of the exchange between the artist and the audience. Panel Discussion: Alka domo & Flowing Like Waterfalls Join us on August 29 at 6:00 pm for a panel discussion with Seba Calfuqueo, artist Malcolm Peacock, and radical educator Vo Vo. Moderated by Converge 45 Artistic Director Derek Franklin.
Time-Released PICA welcomes you to Time-Released, a new member of the TBA family. From now through the end of November, PICA will present programming from local, national, and international artists ranging from installations, exhibitions, workshops, performances, discussions, gatherings, and so much more! Developed with artists and you in mind, Time-Released reimagines how we come together in the name of curiosity, inquiry, and the expression of new ideas. Save the dates for the full lineup of programs: August 24 – September 24 Seba Calfuqueo, Alka domo (co-presented with Converge 45) August 26 Seba Calfuqueo, Flowing Like Waterfalls (co-presented with Converge 45) August 29 Seba Calfuqueo with Malcolm Peacock, Vo Vo, and moderator Derek Franklin, Panel Discussion September 23 – November 5 / Performances October 6, 7, and 8 Will Rawls, [siccer] October 10 – November 10 Allie Hankins and Hannah Krafcik, By My Own Hand, Part 3: THE ACHE November 17 and 18 Andrew Tay and Stephen Thompson, Make Banana Cry Release Dates Coming Joseph Keckler in collaboration with Holland Andrews, Cove of Harmony, Episode 1 DB Amorin, long shadow (co-presented with Third Angle New Music)
Land Acknowledgment PICA acknowledges that Portland is on the traditional homelands of the Multnomah, Oregon City Tumwater, Watlala, Wasco, Kathlamet, Cowlitz, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other Indigenous peoples both recorded and unrecorded. People from these lands were relocated to the Grand Ronde Reservation under the Kalapuya etc., 1855 ratified treaty (also known as the Willamette Valley Treaty) and are now part of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The Grand Ronde people maintain a connection to their ancestral homelands and continue their traditional cultural practices. Our region’s Indigenous community now includes people from over 380 Tribes both local and distant. PICA respectfully offers this acknowledgment as a small step on a path towards recognition and repair, with the understanding that acknowledgment is not a substitute for action. To learn more about land acknowledgments visit usdac.us.
About Converge 45 Converge 45 is a non-profit arts organization that produces a Contemporary Arts Biennial in Portland, Oregon. In collaboration with a dynamic community of artists, organizations, galleries, corporate partners, alternative venues, and a guest curator, Converge 45 develops a citywide exhibition across the metropolitan area every two years. The biennial intersects regional, national and international perspectives around art and the futures it seeks. Outside of the biennial program, the organization works in continued collaboration with community partners to support Portland’s creative ecosystem by promoting the work of artists and organizations in the Pacific Northwest and improving access to broader art discourses within our communities. More information can be found at converge45.org.
About Portland Institute for Contemporary Art Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) acknowledges and advances new developments in contemporary art, fostering the explorations of artists and audiences. Since 1995, PICA has championed the practice of contemporary artists from around the world, driving vital conversations about the art and issues of today. PICA presents artists from visual and performance backgrounds and embraces those individuals who exist at the borders of genres and ideas. Through artist residencies, performances, public programs, exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and the TimeBased Art Festival, PICA constructs a broad platform for contemporary art. More information can be found at pica.org.
PICA Staff Roya Amirsoleymani Carol Atkinson Jakob Dawahare Erté deGarces Erin Boberg Doughton Arminda Gandara Molly Gardner Madison Hames Jeff Hu Kristan Kennedy Samantha Ollstein Van Pham Reuben Roqueñi Ashley Schmidt Leslie Vigeant
Special Thanks PICA would like to thank Converge 45, especially Artistic Director Derek Franklin and Curator Christian Viveros-Fauné. Thank you to our Time-Released artists who will present work over the next four months and our audience and community members who mean so much to this organization. Thank you also to our board members, past, present, and future, and our donors and funders; this would not be possible without you. And, a very special thank you to Victoria Frey.
Thank You The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Business Oregon The Collins Foundation The Ford Family Foundation The Jackson Foundation James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation The Kinsman Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Oregon Community Foundation Regional Arts & Culture Council
Alka domo & Flowing Like Waterfalls staff Dan Bouthot Rory Breshears Alan Cline Saibi Khalsa Allison Knight-Blaine Urks Kurt Hannon Welch Mat Larimer Nathan Norris Liz “L” Quezada Crimson Ravarra