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Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) is pleased to present Sangre de Nopal/Blood of the Nopal:Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Contemporary Art opening on October 6, 2024, and on view through April 27, 2025. The exhibition features artworks by Tanya Aguiñiga, Wendy Cabrera Rubio and Mauricio Guillén with Clemente Castor and Antonio Ponce, Tania Candiani, Dario Canul (Tlacolulokos), Porfirio Gutiérrez, Edgar Jahir Trujillo, Candice Lin, Andy Medina, Jou Morales, Rufina Nava Flores, Sandy Rodriguez, Sarah Rosalena, and Dyani White Hawk.
The conversations and the artworks presented here center the aesthetics, history, and global impact of the Zapotec peoples’ cultivation of cochineal—a scale insect that lives exclusively on the nopal cactus (Opuntia cacti) and is the source of a red dye derived from its body. The beauty of cochineal hue has captivated people for centuries, not only in Mexico, but around the world.
The title Sangre de Nopal evokes the insect, the dyestuff, and the color red. Translated as “blood of the nopal,” it describes the bright red stain that appears when one squeezes the small, wax-covered insect.
The exhibition is interested in the history of cochineal and its intersection with contemporary art as a case study for Indigenous innovation and its global influences. As well as the role of language, the land, and plants in a deeper understanding of the comprehensiveness of traditional ecological knowledge specifically as it relates to the Indigenous Oaxacan Diaspora and contemporary art.
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