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Otras montañas las que andan sueltas bajo el agua
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Brad Kahlhammer
Waqui Totem USA (Urban Class Mark V), 2008

Photo: Courtesy of Stuart Shave / Modern Art, London and Deitch Projects, New York
Photo: Courtesy of MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
Photo: Courtesy of MCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver
Photo: Courtesy of Stuart Shave / Modern Art, London and Deitch Projects, New York
Remedios
Collection
Brad Kahlhamer

Bronze
289.6 x 76.2 x 63.5 cm

A sentinel‐like figure, almost as a talisman, Waqui Totem USA (Urban Class Mark V) is part of a series of sculptural works often installed alongside Brad Kahlhamer’s paintings and drawings. A totem pole, whose surface has been designed to chart the movement from life to death, Waqui Totem USA (Urban Class Mark V) elevates the image of the eagle on the top and descends to a base that ends with a stylized image of a skull. Through these constructed figures Kahlhamer returns to traditions and symbols from Indigenous American cultures, creating his own pantheon of “spiritual advisors,” entities that guard and survey the spaces in which they are present, standing as a memento for the union between a physical and a spiritual journey through this world. Transposed from an original sculpture of cardboard and pins into an exact cast in bronze, Waqui Totem USA (Urban Class Mark V) also describes a passage from something ephemeral to a permanent state.

In different Indigenous cultures, totem poles represent tutelary spirits as well as heraldic emblems of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, with the function of storytelling and commemoration, where stories are known to be read from the bottom of the pole to the top.

CURRENT LOANS

Group show: Remedios
Venue: C3A Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía, Córdoba
Curator: Daniela Zyman
Exhibition 14 April 2023 -  March 2024

Born in Tucson, Arizona, USA, in 1956. Lives in New York and Mesa, Arizona, USA.
ARTIST'S WEBSITE
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ARTIST'S IG
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RELATED PROGRAM
Joan Jonas Moving Off the Land II
Jónsi & Alex
All Animals, 2008/2010
Brad Kahlhamer
Super Catcher Vast Array, 2018
Brad Kahlhamer
Billy Jack, Jr., 2006
Shooting Back
TBA21, 2008
Shooting Back
June 6–December 16, 2007 | TBA21, Vienna
Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary – The Collection Book
Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2009
Brad Kahlhammer
Waqui Totem USA (Urban Class Mark V), 2008
Artists
Brad Kahlhamer