Campos-Pons Entangles Sacred and Violent at Brooklyn Museum

María Magdalena Campos-Pons's retrospective 'Behold' at the Brooklyn Museum, New York, through 14 January, entangles the sacred with the brutal and violent, referencing Santería and the transatlantic slave trade. The exhibition designs a psychic space between biography, memorial, and prayer, suggesting remedy is possible. Campos-Pons uses transdisciplinary tactics across photography, video, performance, and mixed media. 'Spoken Softly with Mama' (1998) incorporates seven ironing boards referencing Black women's domestic labor, with video projections and family photos, while blown-glass irons on the floor allude to migration and the slave trade. Her multipaneled Polaroid self-portraits visualize subjectivity as fragmented yet expansive. In 'Red Composition from Los Caminos (The Path)' (1997), a photographic triptych, prayer beads and red body paint honor Eleguá, the Santería deity of possibility. 'Mobile #3 from the series Rise of the Butterflies' (2021) uses blown-glass orbs based on eyes and teardrops, alluding to collective pain and mutual regard.