Name/Title
Notes after G.M. Cowan 10Entry/Object ID
2021.01Description
Drawing of a person whistling using their thumb and pointer finger. Below the drawing is a yellow post-it note describing the "two-finger method" for whistling. The note on the post-it is typed.Artwork Details
Medium
Graphite on paper, WoodContext
In the colonial period, the whistled version of the Zapotec languages became a tool of resistance to Spanish authority. Existing as an exclusively oral language until recently, Zapotec is today an endangered language under the social and political stratification of indigenous groups in Mexico. Since 2010, this group of Indigenous dialects spoken in Oaxaca, in southwestern Mexico, have been a stimulating field of research for artist Gala Porras-Kim. Whistling and Language Transfiguration (2021.02) is a vinyl recording which translates Zapotec spoken words into their accompanying whistles, while Notes after G.M. Cowan is a series of three drawings depicting these whistling postures. Porras-Kim's works are both aesthetic and utilitarian––capable of serving as a means for an outsider to access information about an unfamiliar culture––and exist as alternative resources to transmit and archive the Zapotec languages in the present day.Acquisition
Accession
2021.01-02Source or Donor
Commonwealth and CouncilAcquisition Method
PurchaseCredit Line
Courtesy of the artistLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
DrawingNomenclature Class
ArtNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsLOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Whistling, Drawing, Indigenous peoples, LanguageDimensions
Height
11-1/2 inWidth
8-1/2 inDepth
1-1/2 in