quetzlcoatl and the tree of life_review at mattie rhodes art gallery

8/3/2019 Quetzlcoatl and The Tree of Life_review at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery

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y Deon Harold, The Golden Saint, photograph.

Variations on 'The Tree of Life' and 'The Plumed Serpent'


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as Woodward, Non Est Ad Astra Mollis e Terris Via, mixed media print.

Mattie Rhodes Art Gallery919 W. 17th Street, KCMO 64108816-221-2349Quetzalcoatl and the Tree of LifeDecember 2, 2011-January 21, 2012

By BLAIR SCHULMAN

The Gods of the Underworld have morphed frommystical and spiritual world of Mayan lore into diz

physical manifestation at Mattie Rhodes Art Gallaudience should pause and reflect on theseinterpretations by the dozen or so artists whose wtraces the veneration of this spiritual juggernaut.

Literally meaning feathered serpent QuetzalcoaGod of Creation. With a title like that, its cult waswidespread through Mesoamerica, a region and in the Americas, where pre-Columbian societiesflourished before the Spanish colonization in the and 16th centuries.

The legend is that before the present one, there four suns or worlds. Each of these created anddestroyed in different ways. When the fourth sun

extinguished by floods, the gods wished to createworld and a new race of humans. The Mayans bas the year 2012 approaches, our world will end new one emerge. To hold this exhibition now is epunctual.

Zuni altars from Gene Emerson Friedman are vean inclusive presence; chameleon-like, with softelements of kitsch, they blend into the backgrounremaining boldly distinctive. Friedman sees anassociation with the Kachina of Zuni Pueblo as mthan coincidental in their relationship to the subjeQuetzalcoatl. The Kolowisi Kachina is also a featserpent and most Zuni believe their traditions arerelated to those of the Aztecs.

Inspired by cast-off or damaged statues, Friedmathe divine in all things. In Tree of Life, he cut up srather awful plastic picture frames to enhance tsanctity of the individual pieces through their relawith other found elements, including women's bean attempt to capture the beauty of both Aztec focrosses and Spanish Baroque decoration he issuccessful.

Quetzalcoatl descended to the Underworld, trickiMictlantecuhtli, the god of the dead in Aztec culturetrieved the bones of those perished from the fosun. These bones along with his blood gave life thumans of the present world. It takes stamina tooverthrow an underworld god and his potency is portrayed by Luis MerlosDuality(digital print) anHector PerezPower(acrylic paint). An undeniableand dominance in each shows a sexualized contof the spirit, its machismo coming through loud aclear. To swipe a line from a play by performancePenny Arcade, Sex sells candles.

The canvases, photos and Friedman altars contasingle color or lone idea. Instead, they are an unloop of stories that swirl and push breath into theof the legend of Quetzalcoatl, which seems to be


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Emerson Friedman, Altar Of The Santu Of Zuni, flanked on the left by Santo Of Father Grey RobesLives Among Usand on the right by Shrine for the Nuestra Senora La Limpa Concepcion.

point of his existence.

Prominent Mexican artists have presented depictaffirming the legend with their own interpretationsestablishing the Mexican Mural Renaissance, bein the 1920s. Diego Rivera (1886-1957), whose of murals were painted in the National Palace in City between 1929 and 1945, includes The LegeQuetzalcoatl. It depicts the feathered serpent brinblond-bearded white man to the Aztecs whom th

believed was a god, but turned out to be Hernan the Spanish Conquistador, which led to the fall oAztec nation.

Jose Clemente Orozcos 1932 fresco,CivilizatioArrival of Quetzalcoatland David Alfaro Siqueiro(1896-1974), whose art and politics were frequenintertwined, are among Los Tres Grandes (the BThree) of revolutionizing Mexican art. Ruffino Ta(1899-1991) also painted Quetzalcoatl as the brigfeathered serpent locked in battle with the dark jaTezcatlipoca in The Devil of Mexico (1952).

Alisha GambinosConsciousness(acrylic on canand Jacory Deon Harolds photographs reveal hi

interpretations of confusion and clarity. A theologimprint is placed on their meaning, leaving your mopen to concepts related to mysticism that accomlife itself.

Artisans replicating imagery from the prohibited sgrounds of Aztec and Mayan cultures, comprisessocial historians Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Racall invented traditions, thereby creating an invathese sacred territories. It can be construed that desire for tourists to possess these hand-craftedsymbols of ancestral spirits increased, the goverhad greater difficulty holding back the boundarieswhat was once off-limits and thereby speeding itsdemise. These intrusions could be held as the ve

that allows a disintegration of ones culture while room for a reborn symbolism.

Thomas LunasMandala and Pathway to the Skymedia) manifests an imagined language that unecatalyst to a higher dimension. Using gold-trimmlettering on found table and wood plank, it appeaconfusing and beautiful hieroglyphic.

Bridging modern thinking and the ancient Maya/Aiconography found throughout the gallery is ThomWoodwards Abstract mixed media printsNon eastra mollis e terris via(There is no easy way froearth to the stars). His Robert Delaunaystyle, regestures, and forms keep in mind an open-ended

interpretation of ideas and destinations. These palong with William WilmottsNeon Nicodemus(aeand oil paint on wood) presume that religious connot denied; the psychedelic-like flourishes howevfluid and free of piety.

Conversely, Woodwards graffiti-cartoony 2012(media) lays out a fear-based agenda that will no make its way into far too many newscasts over thcoming year. Polluted, cramped and cacophonoucould be a still from the 2006 dystopian thriller, Cof Men. The piece is hung high so viewers are noslapped in the face with this train of thought, but


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as Woodward, 2012, mixed media print.

conveys portent.

The belief is shared that life doesnt just end, butfaith in the duality of li fe and death. Taking on maforms,The Tree of Lifefor one; is considered the creation, taking root in the Earth and reaching upheavens.

A familiar scenario is an idea takes root in a sociits inhabitants bleed it dry until there is nothing le

Remnants of the old are carried away from the ototemic location to places all over the world, waitthe appearance of a savior, even if it means thathas to first destroy what remains. But I digress; sruminations might best be left for ethnologists to

Luis Merlo, Duality, digital print.


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a Gambino, Consciousness, acrylic on canvas.

Thomas Luna, Mandala and Pathway to the Sky, mimedia.


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Emerson Friedman, Altar For Quetzalcoatl And The Tree Of Life.


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m Wilmott, Neon Nicodemus, aerosol and oil paint on wood.

quetzlcoatl and the tree of life_review at mattie rhodes art gallery

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