Action Office Was Meant to be About Movement
The Toltecs, and later the Mexicas, believed that projection from the spiritual world into the physical was possible. Mahtactli on ce ilhuicatl or ‘the Eleventh Heaven’ is the location of the four spiritual energies of Tezcatlipoca, sometimes described as the ‘invisible god’ due to the scant surviving representations. Mahtactli on ce ilhuicatl is visualized by a square formation, with each of the four spiritual energies occupying one corner, with scores of movement between intersecting lines of mother-thought and father-thought forming an x or cross in the center. When enacted, the tracks rotate around the central axis, drawing a circle within a square. Far from the distance we see uses this geometric configuration and its spiritual significance to instigate audience participation, as the viewer must navigate the space according to predetermined routes in order to fully access the imagery contained within. The architecture referencing Mahtactli on ce ilhuicatl contains a multi-channel video installation accessed via cubicle partitions treated with a privacy film designed to obscure only the content displayed on the video screens. The open concept cubicles reference an outmoded form of office space and economic stability, and the shift to precarious labor, not just by the artist as freelancer, but by workers in many fields across the global gig economy. Architecture elicits a compulsory performativity equivalent to our contemporary experience of screen mediation.
2019