Disease Thrower #7

2019
Steel; luffa sponge; cotton; black foam claws; seashell; wood; pampas grass; cast resin; readymade objects; glass; metallic foil; plastic; horn; brass; nylon cord; straw; thread; twine; wire  

Discovering sound therapy during his cancer radiation treatment, Maravilla has since developed a series of vertical, large-scale, free-standing sculptures, titled Disease Throwers. Functioning as headdresses, instruments, and shrines, these towering sculptures serve as symbols of renewal, generating vibrational sound as medicine. The Disease Throwers’ structures incorporate materials collected during a process in which Maravilla retraces his original migration route across Central America and Mexico. The objects are chosen based on animist beliefs by the artist.   

Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla; mor charpentier, Paris and Bogotá; P·P·O·W, New York; Henie Onstad Collection, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Gift from the Lise Wilhelmsen Endowment  

Combining sculpture, painting, performative acts, and installation, Guadalupe Maravilla grounds his transdisciplinary practice in activism and healing. Engaging a wide variety of visual cultures, Maravilla’s work is autobiographical, referencing his unaccompanied, undocumented migration to the United States due to the Salvadoran Civil War. Across all media, Maravilla explores how the systemic abuse of immigrants physically manifests in the body, reflecting on his own battle with cancer.  

Maravilla has recently exhibited at: Henie Onstad Kunstsenter; MoMA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía; Miami Institute for Contemporary Art; and the 14th Gwangju Biennial   

Göteborg Konsthall