Voladores Mama Spa Botanica solo show
Miami Dade College Koubek Memorial Center
2705 SW 3rd St, Miami, FL 33135
May 13 - June 10 2023

Quipucamayoc artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer presents Mother Mold monument retablos, Linea Negra photographs & Foliage Obscura paintings from the Mama Spa Botanica equatorial fertility traditions such as the Voladores Peruvian danzas & Gol land diving rituals in Vanuatu. are warning signs of our waning procreative culture in South Florida. The works offer upcycled refuse as a refuge during a season of violent policies and turbulent tropical storms that impact the artist and Miami Dade College's immigrant, diasporic community. Effigy figures hover above Miami’s redlined waterlines to survive intersecting man made and climate crisis.

Linea Negra documentary photographs, chromatic Foliage Obscura paintings and Mother Mold monuments are prismatic pregnant bodies offered in the MDC Koubek Center Sanctuary. The works document survivors of the reproductive health crisis in the Mama Spa Botanica workshop where the works were collaboratively created with the artist’s Q+BIPOC neighbors. Swaying amongst Sea Grape leaves, Sabal Palm fronds, Flan Boyan seed pods and Banyan roots, the effigy figures revive the Miami Dade College Koubek Memorial Center campus sanctuary near Calle Ocho in Little Havana. Situated in Miami’s predominantly Latinx diaspora neighborhood, the works honor matriarchal resistance with fertility ritual rights.

Figurative monuments cast intimate ephemera, environmental waste in domestic construction materials are suspended from trees acknowledging the traumatic legacy of post-reconstruction America and its legacy today in constructing American mythological violence where Florida has become the central political target. The polychromatic bodies offer an alternative ritual celebration, recalling the indigenous millenary traditions from the Andes to the South Pacific where the artist spent time as a child involved in indigenous lead environmental protest movements.

A culmination of her year long artist residency at Miami Dade College Koubek Memorial Center En Residencia, artist Coralina Rodriguez Meyer engages participants, students, staff and surrounding neighbors collaborative mementos to reconcile Ancestral Intelligence within a rapidly gentrifying barrio whose cultural erosion is reflected in the rising sea levels.

Voladores excavates the Kislak Americas collection at Miami Dade College & University of Miami where the artist's indigenous traditions are archived. Harnessing 100+ years of sonic tradition for the exhibition opening, fellow En Residencia collaborators Kuyayky ensemble perform ancient songs from their Andinx heritage with 3 generations of musicians.

The exhibition is supported by grants from Miami Dade County Arts & Culture, Oolite Arts, Young Arts & National Association of Latino Arts & Culture.

Photographs & Footage of the exhibition shot by Darmyn Calderon.