LONG ISLAND CITY, NY.- MoMA PS1 is presenting a newly commissioned, multimedia installation made collaboratively by Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton Chuquimia, b. 1985, Inland Empire, CA) and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton (b. 1983, San Diego, CA), a sibling duo working as artists and musicians who belong to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people. On view from March 16 through October 2, 2023 in PS1’s double-height ground-floor gallery, this immersive work interlaces sound and music with a mural that incorporates personal stories from the artists’ family and the Aymara– comprising several Indigenous nations who live across the Andean highlands of Bolivia, Southern Peru, and Northern Chile. Honoring their great-great-grandparents, Aymara leaders Francisco Tancara and Rosa Quiñones, the artists incarnate their elders' dream, releasing them from religious doctrine and state laws that suppress queer and native autonomy.
Q'iwanakaxa/Q'iwsanakaxa Utjxiwa (Cacique apoderado Francisco Tancara & Rosa Quiñones confronted by the subprefecto, chief of police, corregidor, archbishop, Reid Shepard, & Adventist missionaries) brings together Indigenous Aymara cosmologies with queer and abolitionist thought, incorporating multiple forms of intergenerational knowledge through Aymara symbolism, oral histories, and exchange. Previously, Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton) performed at MoMA PS1’s Warm Up in 2016.
The centerpiece of the installation is a large-scale, digitally rendered collage, which also serves as a model for a potential community mural in Rosario, Bolivia, where the artists’ land ties remain. The work centers Aymara q’iwa and q’iwsa medicine, also known as queer medicine, to enact reciprocal healing. The collage components combine qillqa (an Aymaran form of writing with images), traditional medicines, and archival family photos with new drawings that tell their multi-generational story, while audiences can spend time in the immersive space to hear these stories come to life through oral histories and an original score.
The mural contains images to honor the artists’ relatives, in depictions that range from bones in a coffin to traditional medicines. The artists’ great-great-grandparents were part of a movement that asserted the Aymara people's legal land titles, built schools when native education was criminalized, and practiced freedom of religion—activities for which they were persecuted by the Catholic church and Bolivian state. By continuing the anti-colonial labor of the artists’ elders, the installation’s many layers articulate new possibilities for the future.
Chuquimamani-Condori (Elysia Crampton Chuquimia) is a Northern California-based artist and musician belonging to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people. They have recently presented work with NTS Radio London, Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève, and Auto Italia, where they presented Amaru’s Tongue: Daughter (2021), a collaborative work with Joshua Chuquimia Crampton. In 2016, Elysia Crampton performed at MoMA PS1’s Warm Up. They also work with AIM SoCal, the Southern California autonomous chapter of the American Indian Movement.
Joshua Chuquimia Crampton is a Northern California-based musician and artist belonging to the Pakajaqi nation of Aymara people. His recent musical releases include 4 (2021) and The Heart’s Wash (2020), a full-length project of solo guitar compositions. He also composed the score for Amaru’s Tongue: Daughter (2021). Recent presentations of his work have taken place at Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021) and Auto Italia, London (2021).
Chuquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton is organized by Ruba Katrib, Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, with Elena Ketelsen González, Assistant Curator.
