ABRAHAM CRUZVILLEGAS

Abraham Cruzvillegas’s artistic process is deeply influenced by his surroundings; rather than being defined by a particular medium, many of his projects are linked by the platform autoconstrucción: a concept that draws from the ingenious, precarious, and collaborative building tactics implemented by the people living in Colonia Ajusco, his childhood neighborhood in Mexico City. He appropriated this term in relation to his practice to describe an approach of inventive improvisation and instability which presents change as a permanent state arising from the chaotic and fragmentary nature of life. The evolving notion of autoconstrucción has in turn yielded different approaches such as autodestrucción and autoconfusión. These inquiries have led him to explore his own origins and to collaborate with family and friends in a very personal form of research that results in a constant process of learning: About materials, landscape, people, and himself.

‘Constitución (2003)’, on loan from the collection of Craig Robins pairs what appears to be found crystal rock with a cast iron cauldron. The pot for brewing, or a well for drawing water, rests on sharp quarried crystal rock instead of fire— a kind of communal hearth or source for nourishment and shared resources.