Muscle Memory (books of David Alfaro Siqueiros)
video, sound
RT 4'33"
2010
Muscle-Memory (books of David Alfaro Siqueiros), responded to a commission to make a piece to be exhibited at the former studio of the famous Mexican muralist and communist activist David Alfaro Siqueiros. The artist studio is currently an art space bearing his name. For this video I got access to the vast political library and archive of Siqueiros composed by books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines and photographs. I selected some of this material and used as a prop for my video. In the recording I appear hitting a tennis ball against the four walls and ceiling of the gallery space. A camera follows the ball as it bounces against Siqueiros books and printed matter. The rhythmical sound produced by the ball hitting the books was used to punctuate the editing of the piece adding a subtle violence to the piece that reflects on the convulsive political history of Mexico in the XX century.