Coda is a site-specific solo exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Selva Aparicio that focuses on the ephemerality of life and the temporality of its vessels. Inspired by the life cycles of living things and the rituals that inform birth, death, celebration, and mourning, Aparicio pushes back against the often-unyielding delineations between these phases to offer opportunities for more intricate explorations of purpose and longevity. “Coda” is a term that describes the concluding section in a piece of music or dance. Like codas in their own performances, the discarded materials Aparicio features shed light on the intricacies of time and the power of remembrance (both individual and collective) to offer alternative endings that transcend traditional rites of passage.
Coda invites viewers to consider the durability of memory and its ability to evolve in concert with its surroundings. The exhibition begins with a 48 foot long tapestry woven with flowers that the artist collected from the garbage of cemeteries. Once-intimate tributes gathered with care and imbued with the love, grief, and reverence of their curators fade into anonymity— embodiments of the very fragility that necessitated their gathering. The pinwheels, balloons, and other nonorganic tokens dotted throughout amplify these inextricable messages of mourning and celebration that together resonate more deeply than could any one piece alone. Like the notes of a great coda, these tributes rise, fade, and blend together to bring closure to a sweeping movement of moments. I miss you. Happy birthday, Mom. Forever in our hearts.
The exhibition ends with a single sculpture: a “peto de ánimas.” In Aparicio’s native Spain, these “shrines to souls” are traditionally made of stone and contain relics from religious icons to ferry prayers of salvation. Aparicio instead centers the placenta of her son protected by the cement tiles imprinted with cadaver skin that have become a defining element in her creative work. Adorned with the words “si buscas milagros mira aquí,” or, “if you are looking for miracles look here,” inspired by Galician petos, the piece commemorates her own tumultuous experiences with motherhood while highlighting the liminality of baby’s first blanket and how quickly its lifesustaining abilities are cast aside amidst the triumph of a successful birth. Like cemetery flowers, the placenta captures the essence of life only by facing its own death.