Critical Writing Index

After the Digital We Rematierialise: Distance and Violence in the Work of Regina José Galindo

by Clare Carolin

Third Text, 2011, v. 25, no. 2, pp. 211-223

As the context for the production and reception of Regina José Galindo’s work has expanded internationally, her position within her practice has shifted from lone protagonist in the early performances produced in her native Guatemala, to orchestrator of the actions of others, to complete corporeal absence in the most recent sculptures, which paradoxically still invoke the human body. This article traces the ways in which the internet and related digital technologies that have been key to the production and dissemination of Galindo’s work have affected its critical reception. In parallel the symbolic ‘de‐’ and ‘re‐’ materialisation of the human body in Galindo’s practice over the past decade are configured through the thinking of the Argentinian Oscar Masotta, with specific reference to his 1968 lecture ‘Después del Pop Nosotros Desmaterializamos/After Pop we Dematerialise’. The article draws on conversations between the author and Galindo during the development of the exhibition ‘Regina José Galindo: The Body of Others’ at Modern Art Oxford in 2009.

ITEM 2011.086 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Quien puede borrar las huellas? (Who can erase the traces?)Regina José Galindo

Il potere delle donne (The Power of Women)Regina José Galindo

Limpieza social (Social Cleansing)Regina José Galindo

Reconocimiento de un cuerpo (Identification of a corpse)Regina José Galindo

Mientras, ellos siguen libres (Why are they still free?)Regina José Galindo

Curso de supervivencia para hombres y mujers que viajarán de manera ilegal a los Estados Unidos (Survival skills course for men and women travelling illegally to the United States)Regina José Galindo

Lo voy a gritar al viento (I’ll shout it to the wind)Regina José Galindo

La Conquista / ‘The Conquest"Regina José Galindo

Busto (Bust)Regina José Galindo