May 9 – June 20, 2025
PAVED Arts, 424 20th St. W. Saskatoon
Opening Reception: Friday, May 9, 7–9:30 pm
Performance: Friday, May 9, 9–9:20 pm
Roger Roger Do You Copy, Radio as Art Workshop: Saturday, May 10, 12–3 pm
In Search of Aztlan… is an intervention-based work following the Xicanx artist Martín Rodríguez as he explores the territory around his childhood home, contemplating his roots, and in doing so cracking a window into the US/MX border. By merging field recordings along with audio recordings of various freely migrating radio signals, the work explores how borders, both physical and psychological, shape our individual and collective identities.
As part of the research Rodríguez undertook into his Mexican-American history, he discovered an essay by Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos entitled “La Raza Cósmica.” The idea of a “Cosmic Race” resonated with his parallel investigations around radio astronomy, the study of celestial objects at radio frequencies, and archaeoacoustics – the acoustics of archaeological sites and artifacts.
With these concepts in mind, Rodríguez developed an experimental radio antenna that fuses the Huichol woven design known as an Ojo de Dios (God’s eye) with a traditional loop antenna, into one large 4’ x 4’ antenna. The antenna itself is constructed from wood, yarn, and magnetic copper wire. Ojos de Dios are believed to have the power to see the unseen, similar to how an antenna functions with sound and radio.
The gallery installation is inspired by Rodriguez’s initial radio investigations along the migrant paths of the Sonoran desert, utilizing a cassette deck radio, a crystal radio, and the antenna. The resulting work explores the ability for sound to embody the presence of human-made borders, and the identities of those who exist along their margins.
