Naomi Rincón Gallardo: Bristling their contours into razors

Peana presents “Bristling their contours into razors” (“Erizados sus contornos con Navajas”), Naomi Rincón Gallardo’s first solo exhibition at Peana. This exhibition marks the premiere of her video “Eclipse” in Mexico.

“Eclipse” announces the end of a world in the chiaroscuro of multiple daily extinctions. For the ancient Nahuas, the eclipse represented a critical cosmic moment when eternal darkness would prevail, and the tzitzimimes – demonic skeletal creatures – would descend to devour the people. “Eclipse” accompanies the journey in which the moon eats the sun: as darkness bites light, mythical creatures related to death, sacrifice, and dismemberment emerge, all connected by blood. Along with “Verses of Filth” (2021) and “Sonnet of Vermin” (2022), “Eclipse” is part of the “Tzitizimme Trilogy” (2021–2023), which imagines several iterations of bastardised tzitzimimes who descend to perform their obscure tasks in complicity with brigades of ownerless arms and animals tied to the Mesoamerican underworld, amidst the geography of fear that Mexican territory has become. Although primarily focused on “Eclipse” (2023), the exhibition draws from all three stories.