Name/Title
Hand to Hold the Burdens and the BlessingsEntry/Object ID
2020.10Description
Hands emerging from water holding a small, wooden boat.Context
Emilio Rojas explores themes of coloniality, migration, history, geography, and personal identity in durational performances, video, and related performance documentation. As a queer latinx immigrant with indigenous heritage, Rojas’ practice responds to the postcolonial ethical imperative to uncover, investigate, and make visible subjugated knowledges and practices that have been historically disparaged and overlooked by using his own body as a critical and political tool. In 2015, Rojas began a series of research projects and performances centered around the historical legacy of Christopher Columbus as a symbol of European imperialism, white supremacy, and the lasting impact of his “discovery” of the Americas. This resulted in a number of works of performance, video, and installation, wherein the artist himself is shown with a replica of Columbus’ boat, La Santa María. Rojas creates alternative histories wherein the iconic vessel is destroyed, returned to its original site of departure, and its voyage recreated, in an effort to subvert the meaning of the now infamous statement targeted at immigrants “Go Back to Where You Came From.”
Hand to Hold the Burdens and the Blessings, whose title suggests that the Columbian legacy is at once a blessing and a curse, is photographic documentation of the aforementioned performances undertaken by Rojas in 2018 and 2019. In video documentation of a 2019 performance, Go Back to Where You Came From, Rojas is shown carrying the boat on his head through public spaces across Europe over the course of 2 months and 9 days, the exact duration of Columbus’ original journey. In a 2018-19 performance and video, Santa Maria Llena Ere de Gracia (Hail Mary Full of Grace), Rojas emerges from the water holding the replica ship before setting it ablaze and casting it into the Atlantic at Puerto de Palos in Huelva, Spain, Columbus’ original point of departure on his 1492 voyage. Returning the boat to its origin while also destroying it, Rojas suggests the possibility of closure as well as the completion of a centuries-long journey.Acquisition
Accession
2020.10Source or Donor
Rojas, EmilioAcquisition Method
GiftCredit Line
Gift of the artistLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
Print, PhotographicNomenclature Primary Object Term
PhotographNomenclature Sub-Class
Graphic DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsLOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Ships, Colonialism, ImperialismExhibition
Remember Where You Are