Gala Porras-Kim Proposes Spiritual Care for Museum Collections in London Exhibition
At Gasworks in London, Gala Porras-Kim's exhibition explores the spiritual significance of objects housed in museums. The artist, originally from Colombia and now based in Los Angeles, investigates the ways institutions manage artifacts that retain intangible meanings. Among her pieces are 'A terminal escape from the place that binds us' (2021), which incorporates ink divination with first-century BCE remains from Gwangju's National Museum, and 'Sunrise for 5th-Dynasty Sarcophagus from Giza at the British Museum' (2022), which suggests rotating an Egyptian tomb to face east. Porras-Kim has reached out to institutions, including the British Museum, to question their conservation methods. Current exhibitions are at Amant in New York until March 17, Harvard Radcliffe Institute until July 2, Gasworks until March 27, and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis from March 25 to July 24.
Key facts
- Gala Porras-Kim's exhibition at Gasworks, London runs until March 27
- Her work 'A terminal escape from the place that binds us' (2021) uses ink divination to communicate with ancient remains from Gwangju's National Museum
- Porras-Kim proposed rotating an Egyptian sarcophagus at the British Museum to face east as tradition requires
- She created 'Precipitation for an Arid Landscape' (2021) for Harvard's Peabody Museum, requiring rainwater exposure to honor Mayan rituals
- The artist tracked ancient Mexican figurines from LACMA's Stafford Collection with GPS devices in a 2017 project
- Porras-Kim has written letters to multiple museums questioning spiritual care of collections
- Her work examines how museum cataloguing systems erase objects' intangible functions
- Additional exhibitions are on view at Amant New York through March 17 and Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis March 25-July 24
Entities
Artists
- Gala Porras-Kim
- Edward H. Thompson
Institutions
- Gasworks
- British Museum
- National Museum Gwangju
- Museu Nacional Rio de Janeiro
- Harvard University Peabody Museum
- Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
- Labor
- Amant
- Harvard Radcliffe Institute
- Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
- Bienal de São Paulo
- Pacific Standard Time
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- South London
- Gwangju
- South Korea
- Rio de Janeiro
- Brazil
- Cambridge
- Massachusetts
- New York
- United States
- Mexico City
- Mexico
- Chichén Itzá
- Yucatan Peninsula
- Colima
- Nayarit
- Jalisco
- Los Angeles
- California
- St. Louis
- Missouri