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BY REBECA ROMERO
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Rebeca Romero is an artist born in Peru and based in London, her work blends pre-Columbian iconography with modern technology to ask how new technologies can revive ancient belief systems erased from history. Rebeca was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. More recently, she was awarded the OGR Award for effectively conveying complex relationships between art, technology, and innovation.
IMAGE CREDITS: Photography by Rob Bartleby, courtesy of FACT Liverpool
Chrysalis (2024), is currently exhibiting at Cosmotechnics, FACT Liverpool until 26th January 2025.
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BY REBECA ROMERO
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Rebeca Romero is an artist born in Peru and based in London, her work blends pre-Columbian iconography with modern technology to ask how new technologies can revive ancient belief systems erased from history. Rebeca was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. More recently, she was awarded the OGR Award for effectively conveying complex relationships between art, technology, and innovation.
IMAGE CREDITS: Photography by Rob Bartleby, courtesy of FACT Liverpool
Chrysalis (2024), is currently exhibiting at Cosmotechnics, FACT Liverpool until 26th January 2025.
BY REBECA ROMERO
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Rebeca Romero is an artist born in Peru and based in London, her work blends pre-Columbian iconography with modern technology to ask how new technologies can revive ancient belief systems erased from history. Rebeca was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. More recently, she was awarded the OGR Award for effectively conveying complex relationships between art, technology, and innovation.
IMAGE CREDITS: Photography by Rob Bartleby, courtesy of FACT Liverpool
Chrysalis (2024), is currently exhibiting at Cosmotechnics, FACT Liverpool until 26th January 2025.
BY REBECA ROMERO
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Evoking a sacred totem, Chrysalis is a speculative future-ancient device. Shifting our attention to the magic and the power that resides in plant-life it takes the shape of a reimagined entheogenic flower in bloom.
The man-sized sculpture is activated through the movement of the visitors in the space triggering a projected animation, a vision that simulates the activation of the magic dormant in the artefact.
Its scale suggests that it was built to gather people around it, its expanding body connected to the earth, reaching towards the sky could be a invitation to our own mental expansion, our transformation.
After all at its root, working with entheogenic plants as a spiritual practice was and is all about connection: to the Earth, to each other, to the cosmos, and to our truest selves.
The work unravels in the intersection of pre-columbian cosmologies and post-humanist futures. How would placing divinity in the vegetal world affect our way to inhabit it?
The work was produced using pre-columbian totemic figures as references, as well shapes and forms found in nature.
Some of the technologies used for its fabrication were Ai, 3d modelling, animation and milling techniques.
It was important for me to push the work in terms of scale while being able to capture or emulate movement, I was aiming to recreate a cosmological performance.
After a few years of working with handheld objects this felt like a great opportunity to try something that a few people could experience together. This shared experience is a key part of the work.
Surrounding Chrysalis are Codex I and Codex II
Echoing painted books and records used by Mesoamerica cultures to document many aspects of their lives. These painted manuscripts contained information about their history, science, land tenure, tribute, and sacred rituals. Codex I: Spring Equinox and Codex II: Winter Solstice, play a similar role in the space, we can speculate that the UV printed metallic plaques are showing indications or serving as documentation of ceremonies or ritual activities that are yet to come.
As part of cosmotechnics I'm showing a new immersive installation commissioned by FACT.
The central piece of the installation is Chrysalis, a sculpture that echoes totemic figures present in pre-Columbian cultures - Chrysalis takes the shape of an entheogenic flower in bloom, grounded in the land and reaching to the sky- activated by the presence of the visitors in the space, a video mapped animation emerges from the sculpture, unravelling though the digital, the dormant/latent magic in the artefact. A set of 3 sculptures that take the shape of vessels; and 2 graphic tablets called Codex one and two complete the installation.
Through the reading we do of these artefacts in space, we access a future-ancient world where divinity is placed in plant life.
Chrysalis, the central piece of the installation was produced using different 3d modelling, animation and digital sound techniques. The three smaller sculptures that surround it are reconfigurations of pre-Columbian vessels, objects that take the shape of plants used in ancient ceremonies. Codex one and two - are inspired by Mesoamerican painted manuscripts- they inhabit the space working as graphic records for speculative future rituals.
The works shown here are an invitation not only to rethink our relationship with nature but to question which knowledges we recognise as valid.
By creating a link between technology and magical thinking an opportunity arises - a chance to imagine possible futures that carry an understanding of the world that was not meant to remain in the past.
I am a multimedia artist, born in Peru and based in London.
I explore the story telling potential of artefacts as a way to bend narratives, rewrite stories, and reimagine possible futures.
My research dives into pre-columbian cultural references, artefacts and iconography intersecting them with advanced digital scanning and printing technologies. Using a variety of materials that range from clay to plastic, I create sculptures, films and installations that question hegemonic ideas on intelligence, technology and knowledge.
Rebeca Romero is an artist born in Peru and based in London, her work blends pre-Columbian iconography with modern technology to ask how new technologies can revive ancient belief systems erased from history. Rebeca was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2021. More recently, she was awarded the OGR Award for effectively conveying complex relationships between art, technology, and innovation.
IMAGE CREDITS: Photography by Rob Bartleby, courtesy of FACT Liverpool
Chrysalis (2024), is currently exhibiting at Cosmotechnics, FACT Liverpool until 26th January 2025.