New Article by Micha Cárdenas in No More Potlucks

iMAP Student Micha Cárdenas has published a new article in the art journal No More Potlucks. The journal is based in Montreal, Quebec. The article can be read here:

http://nomorepotlucks.org/site/watering-the-dirt-micha-cardenas

Dirt is what you build home with. That was what I thought as we carried the dirt in from the car. After months of being unhappy with Los Angeles’s excessive urbanity, the noise, helicopters, concrete, and speed of it all, you started gardening. I thought you were finally making a home for yourself here, finding something soothing to spend your time doing, shaping a space that made you feel comfortable. You walked around the neighborhood stealing clippings of succulents from all the rich people’s mansions in the Silver Lake hills and came home and planted them in dirt.

In the song “Dirt,” by Submission Hold, on the album What Holds Back the Elephant, Jen Thorpe’s voice hauntingly soars, backed by long vibrato notes on strings, punctuated with aggressive hits of drums and guitars together: “She is a survivor / She is a survivor / Testifying. She is a survivor / Death defying.”

A body lies on the table, covered in dirt. In Regina José Galindo’s performance Alud, which translates as landslide or avalanche, she lies on a metal table with raised edges, conjuring an image of a morgue, with her entire body covered in dirt. It is caked on her skin, seeped through her hair, and lies in large chunks in some areas. The audience is invited to clean her with a hose and small cloths, and they do.

Image:  Alud. Courtesy of Regina Jose Gallindo by Eleftheria Kalpenidou