Guano turned into art...

11:48 p.m.

10/30/17 - Jennifer Allora (1974) and Guillermo Calzadilla (Cuba, 1971) have been working as a pair for quite some time, blending geo-political issues with history and culture. Always critics, they have both agreed to force traditional standards, as they did when they represented the US at Venice Biennial and sent an inverted war tank transformed into a walking machine used by a runner for training.

Now, at Lisson Gallery in London, they are presenting a series of sculptures that use guano as main material. The pieces work as speakers, strategically placed to reduce the echo, catching the acoustic energy by preventing the reverberation from walls and floor. The structure is based in the complexity of a ship’s motor, creating an analogy between mechanical and biological energies. While the motor allows the transportation of heavy loads from one place to the other, guano is used as an essential nutrient in agriculture.

But why guano? Here’s the reference always present in Allora and Calzadilla’s artworks: this material was one of the most important commodities in the economic history of the US, so much so that they took control of the producing islands to monopolize commerce. This was a situation against the constitutional accounts of the country.

Manifest, by Allora & Calzadilla, (2017)

Material: Bat guano, resin, wood and metal structure / Measures: 450 x 215 x 98 cm

Manifest, by Allora & Calzadilla, (2017)

Materials: bat guano, resin, wood and metal structure / Measures: 45 x 243 x 85 cm

Among other artworks, there’s a sculpture resembling a dead animal on the floor, which is the main piece of a performance held at the gallery: a ritual of voices, from gutural to lyrical, to gutural again. As with all the other pieces, there’s a political sense here too and it refers to what belongs and doesn’t belong, like the island of Puerto Rico, which was never integrated to the US, but still is considered as its possession.

This is an issue close to the artists’ heart, since Calzadilla’s father is a victim of the persisting economic issues of the island. The sculpture that looks like a dead animal was made with industrial waste and the performers that surround it as in a mortuary rite refer to the collapsed factories for the lack of contracts and excessive taxing.

The big unused machines and his father’s sorrow were the inspiration behind this artwork.