Downtown, Los Angeles
Group Exhibition
Las Lenguas
BBQ LAManny Castro, Alan Gutierrez, Yaron Michael Hakim, Shaun Johnson, Sofía Londoño, Jesse Mockrin, Nora Riggs, Ellen Schafer, Hiejin Yoo Organized by Gladys-Katherina Hernando The Spanish word lengua means both tongue (speech) and language (system of communication), it refers to the muscular organ that is part of the mouth, is it a biological element of the body that allows for the transmission of dialogue. Tongues are our bodies and our bodies are a tongue. There is no speech without the tongue and no language without tongues. A tongue is bitten, silenced, vocalized, and it can bless or it can curse. The tongue can taste and swallow, it can kiss and it can lick. The tongue can heal or it can burn. Tongues are cut as punishment for lies or tortured from betrayal. The tongues of cows are eaten in tacos and other dishes, and tongues are used in magic spells. Sometimes they are called malas lenguas (bad tongues), as in derogatory speech. Tongues complete sentences or they remain silent. The tongue itself remains relatively concealed, mostly unnoticed, unconsciously functioning like the breath, or quietly and unassumingly destroying people and nations with its enormous, self-effacing power. Las Lenguas is an exhibition about the potential languages of the body. It presents works that explore the representation of the figure by way of its inaudible gestures of expression. This is different from the soul inside of the eyes. It asks to observe the nuance of a lover, of a stranger, the alienation of a foreign language, and the failures of both the voice and the body to translate into distinguishable codes of associations. Las Lenguas are presences whose capabilities figuratively translate through the mysterious shapes made by the body to reveal or conceal in interior and exterior worlds in which it exists.