Personal exhibition of Minerva Cuevas, In Gods We Trust in kurimanzutto, focuses on “The Trust” (2022-2023), a wall relief composed of 126 panels. As is typical for Cuevas, the work concerns economic and environmental issues that affect communities across generations and cultures. In the case of “The Trust,” the artist highlights the origins and ongoing impact of these issues.
The work is replete with images and symbols from pre-Hispanic cultures and mythology, including the Aztec goddess of water and fertility, Chalchiuhtlicue, and the mythological deity of lust, vice, and excess, Tlazoltéotl . These are associated with representations of plants, animals and symbols of natural resources like the sun and rain. Interspersed are recognizable emblems of contemporary societies, including banks and oil companies around the world – although most are American. A Shell oil logo sits next to an image of a conch shell. A closer look at the sun reveals the British Petroleum symbol. A soaring eagle is the logo of the First Republic Bank. The palm forms half of the national emblem of oil-rich Saudi Arabia. Cuevas chose these emblems for their use of natural images and symbols associated with power, endurance and strength.
By associating pre-Hispanic iconography with depictions of nature and contemporary businesses, Cuevas draws a connection between colonization, trade and the devastation of the natural world. This message continues throughout the show. In a series of sculptures titled Petro (2023), three-dimensional scans of animal figures from Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología rest on repurposed vintage motor oil barrels. Nearby, a sculpture called “Tlazoltéotl Priest” (2022-2023) depicts Tlazoltéotl sitting on real financial newspapers with titles like “No News Is Bad News at Tesla”. The deity has black acrylic paint that evokes the oil spread on his arms and face.
Against the backdrop of current events, it is hard not to think of the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. There are many reasons not to trust businesses or the socio-political and economic systems of which they are a part, but the modern societies we live in depend on both. They provide the resources to sustain our lives. Even when a company fails, like Silicon Valley Bank, those of us in developed countries perpetuate them simply by living our daily lives, despite the ramifications, including the environmental impact that Cuevas describes on the show.
This problem of trust in systems is inherent in the practice of Cuevas. She incorporates evidence of the ambivalence, even ignorance, of European and American societies towards fundamental global issues in a series of vintage oil company advertisements from the 1950s to 1970s. With messages ranging from racist to anti-science, it’s hard to believe they’re real. In one book, the advertisement for Humble Oil (now Exxon) reads: “Each day, Humble provides enough energy to melt 7 million tons of glacier! In another for Mobil, the gas company touts its operations in Africa, describing the natives in racist terms.
On several occasions, visitors could be heard asking gallery staff if the advertisements had been airbrushed or made up. As ironic and shocking as the texts and images are, they are very real, and the messages were commonplace in the mid-twentieth century. The public trusted and still largely trusts these companies. While Cuevas’ sculptural works highlight the connection between colonialism, corporations and environmental devastation, the advertisements serve as a reminder of the blind trust that made the system possible in the first place.
In Gods We Trust continues at kurimanzutto (520 West 2oth Street, Chelsea, Manhattan) through April 15. The exhibition was organized by the gallery.
