06.08.23

The icebox in Trotsky’s kitchen. We are not aware if the ice pick used to murder Trotsky in cold blood came from the kitchen. Research is required. 

05.08.23

Trotsky’s kitchen is adorned with a phenomenal collection of pottery. The array is glazed in traditional tones. The wiring is honest in it’s exposure. Crockery preserves dialectical domesticity.

04.08.23

Trotsky’s bathtub. Enamel on iron but the soap dish is - oddly - hanging off of the back of the tub where he most likely reclined, perhaps while smoking a cigar and reading Bakunin - a fellow exilist. With toes of one foot or the other he would have added more hot, or more cold. The split array of cobalt blue and soft pink arouses curiosity. Were colour chosen or accepted? Private utility. 

03.08.23

The lamp shade is made of sewn leather, and hangs above Trotsky’s desk wear her received the visitor who was an agent under the tutelage of Stalin. Trotsky died after being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick. His room and belongings lie in state. 

 

 02.08.23

The Trotsky family lived in this rural villa under loose security. From the street the oddly protruded structure in the upper right - whether original or not - announces surveillance. Too little, too late. The landscaping is elegant and surprisingly formal. An unusual place to dwell on the Russian Revolution and armed speeches. 

01.08.23

Agave arranged in clusters before the memorial gardens within Trotsky’s villa, the one where he was murdered after numerous stabbings with an ice pick. Ominous yet beautifully manicured.

 31.07.23

Even within THIS immense human community is it a practice to put a cat on it. 

30.07.23

A landmark of sorts. Wandering through the labyrinth of colonial webbing this odd structure marked “close-by.” At night it was lit as an installation and housed the attendants who allotted parking to ensure a full ledger. There is a distinct quality to the manner in which the pixels are played in blue.
 

 29.07.23

Order defied, the typology of numbered walls is varied. Options prevail. The city, deeply defined by geography, climate, and colonial tradition, celebrates the wall as a defining edge. These walls are cellular membranes that preclude osmosis. Features include mail slots, intercom, two way mirrors, two-tone, and botanical drapery. Our preference is for hanging overgrowth such as jasmine in cascade.

28.07.23

Juan O’Gorman designed bridged studios for Diego and Frida. Remarkable spaces for work and wonder. The largesse of him stood in stark contrast to the diminutive stature of her. The scale of his bed defied comprehension for comfort. Curatorial considerations led to the positioning of his shoes, suitcase, and bedpans just so. 

27.07.23

Volumes have filled shelves. Water and the Mexica. Pilings into lake beds. Mud daubed into fertile plinths. A capital without rivals and yet deathly allergic to gunpowder, iron, and equestrian assaults. What water is left is pooled on the edges or drained away into some unseen slurry from which grass is greened and IKEA houseplants grow to their full capacity. Not unlike the Romans, engineers supply refreshment to the countless millions by drawing from distant mountain reservoirs. (Not at ease with the blur - technology at times disappoints.)

 

26.07.23

We entered the garden after negotiating admission and purpose. The watercolour artists hung their work on the walls with the aid of the curatorial staff. Death reflected onto the past while looking forward. Woven sentiments rolled about until settled into their new order. The life-sized labours of the working multitudes were cast into permanent toil. This is a culture that begins and ends each day with a cleansing. The domestic arts and sciences of pride and necessity. 

 25.07.23

The codex and the crucifix. Each representing a version of mystical depth and intrigue. Attention is drawn to the obscure linkages that connect and contrast the two realms. Immense value is attached to sacrifice. In one the sacrifice is communal and deeply real, while in the other it is symbolic, emphasizing the individual. Overcoming and appeasing are persistent themes. Bleeding is dramatic. Only the Virgin del Carmen arrangement includes a version of some plastic quadruped. 

24.07.23

During our first outing in CDMX we seek to arrange our bearings. This is a city that embraces the car, with some nostalgia for the past. The Renault Dauphine was only produced from 1956-67 as an elegant, economical choice for the French middle-classes. As it turned out, it went out of fashion only months before the Paris riots of 1968. It is likely that Guy Debord himself sat in the driver seat of more than one version. In any case, this particular Dauphine lies at rest in Coyoacan, the site of an Aztec village where cathedrals were built by the Spaniards over the graves of ancient warriors. Cortez allegedly lived with his mistress in a nearby casa. 
 

 23.07.23

Aerial photographs impress yet confound. I am reminded of 1970’s television viewing. A certain program tracked terrestrial markings such as crop circles, desire lines etched into fields, and the impressions of lost foundations. There is no experience quite like flying. Childlike wonder and terror in equal measure. Hovering over the Sonoran Desert - somewhere.

22.07.23

The horizon, here presented as a cropped segment in spectral wonder. This perspective dazzles and distorts the islands floating below. Haphazardly the dots named after long-lost Iberian sailors bob and weave to the tune of some forgotten Cumbian jig.