The Westmoreland Museum of American Art is preparing for the opening of its exhibition – Border Cantos I Sonic Border (May 30-Sept 5). The art show is a collaboration between American photographer Richard Misrach and Mexican American sculptor/composer Guillermo Galindo. They began collaborating in 2011, after both artists had created bodies of work inspired by the Mexican-American border region and its human impact.
Misrach’s large-scale photographs beautifully capture the various types of landscapes, textures, and experiences found across the almost 2,000-mile dividing line. But, by showing moments of disruption on the land, they also introduce a complicated look at policing the boundary.
Galindo’s installation Sonic Border is an original score for eight instruments, created out of discarded objects found and collected at the border. The composition embraces the pre-Columbian belief that there was an intimate connection between an instrument and the material from which it was made, with no separation between spiritual and physical worlds. Based on the Mesoamerican “Venus calendar,” Sonic Border plays for a total of 260 minutes and is separated into 13 cycles of 20 minutes. Within these cycles, the instruments play in small groups of two or more, or all together as an orchestra.
Related events taking place alongside the exhibition include:
- Virtual Sonic Border Performance and Q&A with Artist Guillermo Galindo – May 28
- Virtual Screening: Art21 Borderlands – June 16
- The History of the Mexican-American Border with Dr. Pilar Herr Lectures – July and August
- Border Cantos Dinner – August 7
- Mother Sauces: Virtual Cooking Class – August 13
For details on the events related to this exhibition click here. To learn more about the museum’s Covid policies click here.
