Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio examines local histories of materials linked to pre-Hispanic cultures in Central America, particularly his family’s homeland of El Salvador. Tracing the cultural and technological knowledge embedded in historical uses of rubber, amber, and clay, his work lingers on materials that rely on non-western technological inventions that are mined by corporations today. Many of the materials Aparicio employs are organic or found, and his work underscores inextricable links between environmental and social justice. At Art Omi, Aparicio will produce a new site-specific work–his first outdoor installation on the East Coast–centered around the Wardian case, a nineteenth-century device of colonial extraction, continuing his exploration of amber, migration, and modes of survival.
Image: Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Holbein En Crenshaw (Washington Blvd., LA, CA), 2018. Rubber, sulfur, tree and paint residue, wood glue, latex paint, acrylic paint, strings and found cloth quilt. 138 x 150 x 5 in. Courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.