Rachel Berwick, The Near and the Far: Left Side of the World

In The Near and the Far: Left Side of the World, Rachel Berwick follows the ruby-throated hummingbird through space and time to the Florentine Codex, a manuscript made in 16th century Mexico that is a comprehensive encyclopedia on Nahua culture, in which the hummingbird plays a significant role.

Designed to create a three-dimensional “exploded view” of the book, the words appear in both Spanish and Nahuatl (an indigenous language of Aztec civilizations) and include direct observations about the life cycle and behaviors of hummingbirds.

As you move around the work, notice how the birds and viewer are deconstructed and reconfigured.

Berwick notes: “I use material and image to conjure hummingbirds and the stories they carry with them. Simultaneously the optical effects reference manifestations of translation from oral to written, image to text, time and space, human to animal, and from culture to culture. Nahua voices are at once present and absent, exemplifying the difficulty of recovering voices from the past and reconciling them with the present.”

Special thanks to Robert Rauschenberg Residency, Matt Hall, Warren Johnsen, Michael Anderson, and Katie Bullock.