The Nasher Museum of Art

May 22, 2008 - January 18, 2009

This large-scale installation by artist Pedro Lasch incorporates his sculpture with more than a dozen works from the Nasher Museum's permanent collection. The museum commissioned the work to accompany "El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III" and also in anticipation of the upcoming exhibition "Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from Mexico City" in spring of 2009. With "Black Mirror/Espejo Negro" Lasch brings his own poetic and aesthetic reflections to the museum's pre-Columbian collection, one of the most important of its kind in the world.

Lasch teaches art and art theory in Duke's Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies. He was born and raised in Mexico City and has been based in New York and North Carolina since 1994.

Thursday November 20th, 2008

Co-sponsored by Duke Art, Art History &Visual Studies Department, Latino/a Studies, The Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, The Center for French and Francophone Studies & The Visual Studies Initiative.

Scholars & Artists Discuss Their Work in Relation to Black Mirror / Espejo Negro
Participants: Walter Mignolo, Jennifer A. Gonzalez, Marie Junaluska, George E. Stuart, Arnaud Maillet, Peter Sigal, & Pedro Lasch
6:00-7:30pm (Nasher Auditorium)

Reception & Guided tour of the Exhibition Black Mirror / Espejo Negro
7:30-8:30pm (Nasher Lobby & Permanent Collection Galleries)

About Panel and Participants: Please join us for this special panel including short presentations by an interdisciplinary group of distinguished international scholars and artists, followed by a conversation and Q&A with the audience. The panelists will speak about their work and research, and discuss its relationship to Black Mirror / Espejo Negro, a site-specific installation on display at the Nasher until January 18th, 2009.

Walter Mignolo Author of "The Darker Side of the Renaissance", "Writing Without Words", "The Idea of Latin America", and many others. William H. Wannamaker Professor of Literature and Romance Studies. Director, Center for Global Studies and the Humanities, Duke University.
http://waltermignolo.com/

Jennifer A. Gonzalez Author of "Subject to Display: Restaging Race in Contemporary Art", as well as numerous contributions to art journals, exhibition catalogs, and anthologies, including "With Other Eyes: Looking at Race and Gender in Visual Culture and Race in Cyberspace". Chair of History of Art and Visual Culture Department, University of California, Santa Cruz.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11407

George E. Stuart Author of "The Mysterious Maya", "Ancient Pioneers: the First Americans", and "Archeology & You", and many others. Archeologist & President, Boundary End Archaeology Research Center. Positions held over nearly forty years as staff for "National Geographic" magazine include cartographer, Vice President for Research and Exploration, and Senior Assistant Editor for Archaeology.
http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/Mayaexhibit/stuart.html

Arnaud Maillet Author of "The Claude Glass: Use and Meaning of the Black Mirror in Western Art". Art Historian with a PhD from the University of Paris I. Currently teaching in Strasbourg, France, also working on new research and writing relating literary and aesthetic theory to the arabic practice of divination on black pools of ink. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11719

Peter Sigal Author of "From Moon Goddesses to Virgins: The Colonization of Yucatecan Maya Sexual Desire", as well as numerous essays and writings on pre-Colombian History, Culture, and Sexuality. Also the editor of "Infamous Desire: Male Homosexuality in Colonial Latin America". Associate Professor of History at Duke University.
http://fds.duke.edu/db/aas/history/faculty/peter.sigal

Marie Junaluska Author of "The Origin of the Milky Way & Other Living Stories of the Cherokee". Story-teller, translator, educator and N.C. Arts Council Board Member. Consultant on numerous projects, including the new permanent exhibit at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in North Carolina. Currently also helping the Smithsonian Institution develop a Cherokee Indian exhibit for the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
http://toto.lib.unca.edu/WNC_women/junaluska_marie.htm

Pedro Lasch Artist & Author of "Black Mirror / Espejo Negro" (Nasher Museum of Art, 2008-09), and "Open Routines" (Queens Museum of Art, NY, 2006) among others. Belongs to the artist collective 16 Beaver Group, NY. Regularly collaborates with immigrant and indigenous organizations. Recipient of the 2007 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Award, Joan Mitchell Foundation. Teaches art at Duke's Department of Art, Art History and Visual Studies.
http://www.queensmuseum.org/exhibitions/lasch.html

Images: Pedro Lasch, "Black Mirror/Espejo Negro," 2008. Installation with dark glass sheets and works from the Nasher Museum's permanent collection. Image courtesy of the Artist.