A Breeze Through the Underworld: A Closer look at Dance in the Soft Golden Wind (Triptych) (2024) by America Martin
Drawing from her Colombian roots, the aesthetics of America Martin’s works have developed into a language of line work and geometry. Martin’s figures are an anthropological odyssey across Indigenous motifs that unite the interaction between nature and those who move through it. When analyzing Indigenous Colombian and Latin American mythology, one can uncover a conversation takes place through color and theme. Blocking with bold color choices is a staple of America Martin’s works. These compositions spring to life with an untamed energy in Martin’s latest solo exhibition Lions And Tigers And Bears, Oh My! now on view at JoAnne Artman Gallery’s New York location.
A hierarchy of worlds beyond our own originating from Indigenous mythological and allegorical folklore have manifested throughout Colombian art history. Notably, the Underworld, the Middle world and the Overworld appear as a variety of motifs and strong color languages. Dance in the Soft Golden Wind (Triptych) transcends viewers to another realm. In three frames, Martin emulates the movement and energy of the body entangled with an invisible dance partner. The figures in America Martin’s painting are suspended in a cobalt plane, bending and contorting towards a golden arc as if its touch is electric. This breeze has picked up leaves and flowers to wrap around the figures and bound across the frame, highlighted by the same glow and teeming with life. Understanding how color plays a role in these transcendent worlds unveils a new comprehension of America Martin’s works.
Clemencia Plazas, a former curator of the Gold Museum of Bogota, has described these worlds from Colombia’s Indigenous folklore, noting that the corresponding imagery commonly aligns with other Latin American mythos including the Nahua people’s concept of the Thirteen Heavens, Trece Cielos in Mexica mythology.
The Underworld or Inframundo is described as a blue-violet and feminine space. Plaza notes the Inframundo as a place of decay and death, but more importantly, rejuvenation. In the Trece Cielos, The “Region of Blue” Ilhuicatl-Xoxoauhco is the space where the sun meets the sky at dawn. “Where the Obsidian Knives are Creaking” Ilhuicatl-Nanatzcayan is the deep dark space where the god and goddess of death Mictlantecuhtli and Mictecacihuatl rule the Mictlan Underworld, as well as Itztlacoliuhqui, god of darkness and storms. America Martin’s figures reside deep within the blue, dancing across the brewing storm in the Underworld.
The golden-yellow curve bringing the dancers to life across the triptych spurs the association of the overworld or Supramundo which is described by Plazas as a yellow realm being associated with masculinity and rationality. Within the Thirteen Heavens, this “Region of Yellow” Ilhuicatl-Nanatzcayan as wells as “Where the Sun Moves” llhuicatl-Tonatiuh are golden spaces home to the yellow god, where the sun resides before falling into the Mictlan underworld.This triptych facilitates the movement of the body with an invisible dance partner. Life itself is reinvigorating and regenerating into the wind moving through our hair.
Martin is no stranger to approaching human interactions with nature. In Lions And Tigers And Bears, Oh My!, Animals and the natural world are prominent alongside human figures in the works. Good Luck is a Lion who Roars and Batts at the Moon is a celestial realm adorned with different shapes of stars being reached by a colossal golden lion. Martin paints the earthly figures as though they are deities with the ability to touch the moon itself.
America Martin’s distinctive artistic language of bold lines and dynamic compositions captures a visual narrative of movement and connection to the natural world. Her latest exploration of the natural world invites viewers to experience the cyclical energy and regeneration of the very essence of life.
