Aguasmalas (Blackwater)
A multimedia installation by Patricia Villalobos Echeverría
November 22 – December 14, 2008
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 22, 6PM – 8PM
Artist’s talk: Tuesday, November 25, 6:30PM

Multichannel video projections onto parasitic, bomb-like sculptures activate MediaNoche’s architecture. Images of mass rallies and marching soldiers are juxtaposed to a man’s body, floating in dark, indeterminate waters. The sculptures act as bodies themselves, simultaneously inhabiting the physical space of the gallery and the projections of the sea, a dark field of liquid that alludes to contamination or oil. It should be noted that the English translation of Aguasmalas also references the private military company Blackwater, contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq.

The single, isolated body drifts, unattached, at the edge of an unidentified coast, and is interspersed with footage from the 2007 presidential inauguration of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. Clips of the recent uprising in Managua following municipal elections, and the bombing of Iraq, serve to reframe locally occurring issues within a transnational context.

According to artist Patricia Villalobos Echeverría "Aguasmalas questions the body's ties to location while overturning notions of stability for both site and body within the context of globalization and post-capitalism."

ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Patricia Villalobos Echeverría was born in Tennessee to Salvadoran parents and grew up in Managua, Nicaragua. Through a hybrid practice of prints, photos, videos and installations, she explores how reproducible forms of representation alter our notions of singularity and various states of flux that we enter and exit within the context of globalization and an increasingly transnational era. She received an MFA from West Virginia University (1990) and a BFA from Louisiana State University (1988).

Recent individual exhibitions include Aflujo•Afflux at Artist Image Resource (Pittsburgh) and Laura Mesaros Gallery, (Morgantown, West Virginia), 2006; Alamar (Asea) at PROYECTO’ACE (Buenos Aires, Argentina), 2006; Hoverings at Artist Image Resource (Pittsburgh), 2005. Notable group exhibitions include the Third International Biennale for the Artist’s Book 2008 (Alexandria, Egypt), 2008; EntreMuros / BetweenWalls (Miami and Guanajuato, Mexico), 2008; IX International Cuenca Biennial in Ecuador, 2007; Point of View at Gallery MC (New York), 2007; Falun Triennial at Dalarnas Museum (Falun, Sweden), 2007; International Print Triennial (Krakow, Poland & Oldenburg, Germany), 2006. Patricia Villalobos Echeverría lives in Pittsburgh, PA and is a Professor of Art at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. More information on the artist’s work can be found at www.patriciavillalobos.com.