Rossana

 An Audio Guide into the Magical Worlds; in Conversation with Rossana Romero

Rossana Romero: ‘Hi! My name is Rossana Romero and welcome to an audio guide for the painting and sculpture, “Los Espíritus De Nosotros Son Eternos, Esta Piel Es Prestada ( Animals in the Milky way).” This is a 37x47 Oil painting on a wood panel, framed by a paper mache on wood frame sculpture, made in 2023.

As I move forward with recording an audio guide to my paintings and sculptures, I am seeking peers that I respect and admire to have a conversation with me and ask their own questions on the work that I am making. I am creating my own space where we dissect the work for an open dialogue, in hopes that it will continue the conversation of the research that is referenced within the art.

Today I have my friend Bev Vega asking me questions, 

“Bev, go ahead and introduce yourself and can you tell me why you chose this piece. “

Bev: Hi, my name is Bev Vega. I’m an arts educator, movement artist and filmmaker. I’m a Tejana originally from San Antonio, Texas but now I live in Ridgewood, New York. I want to start by saying thank you so much for inviting me to be a part of this. I chose this piece, honestly because I was drawn to the water. It reminded me a lot of the beaches in the Gulf of Mexico and just like the greens and blues felt like home as soon as I saw it and so I wanted to learn more about your intentions with this piece and where you were going.

 So to get this interview started I wanted to start by talking about your process a little. Before you started this work did you have a full idea of the histories and stories you were going to reference or did it come in pieces as you were working?’

Rossana: ‘Yes and no. There were images in my head that I knew I wanted to create or reference, some were recent and some have been sitting with me for a long time waiting to be used. Including the title,

“Los Espíritus De Nosotros Son Eternos, Esta Piel Es Prestada”,

 it’s translated to “Our spirits are eternal, this skin is borrowed.” 

A quote my grandpa said to me in 2016. And I waited a long time to use this sentence in my work in honor of him and our relationship and in honor of my own spiritual practice. Which I have absorbed and learned through stories told to me, while also learning through my own studies, digging through history and erased history and forming those stories in my head, combining them and finding my realities in them, through what i like to call, ancestral wisdom that comes intuitively and through their own time, and through seeking history that is recorded and archived and reading in between the lines of what was erased or lied about. 

And they start to come together once I begin to work, and sketching, and I add as I go if I remember something, or find a new story to add on that ties with the others. I combine old ideas and new ideas but the message of what I want to subconsciously say typically remains the same. It’s like I'm combining 7 different ways to tell the same story or lesson.’

Bev: ‘Love that, um, so kind of talking about your ancestral wisdom and your research process and stories coming to you in their own time, what are the main stories and pieces of history that you’re referencing in this work? Maybe we can start by walking through the work and explaining what is going on and maybe some key elements as well as the sources that you’re referencing in this history lesson for us?

Rossana: ‘Yes! This piece shares different stories in mythology that I believe overlap with each other even though they do not come from the same people or community but they all bring me back to the cycles and consequences of how we treat earth, nature, and our own spirits in our borrowed skin.

Um, myy sources and references tend to come from several different places, but i think specifically this piece was inspired the most from the documentaries, ‘Aluna- An Ecological Warning by the Kogi People’’ and ‘From the Heart of The World- The Elders Brother’s Warning’  which is also by the Kogi people and you can find both of those documentaries on youtube. But they were based on the community of the Kogis, a tribe in the region of Colombia who are descendents of the Tairona people, and their warnings towards us; the younger brothers as they call us, warning us that we are impacting Earth in a dangerous way.

I was also inspired by an exhibition that was touring the US, called ‘Golden Worlds’. I got to catch it in the museum of fine arts in Houston, an exhibit based on the indigenous people of Colombia and the gold that came from them. 

Storytelling is a big part of what inspires me, and the perspectives of the narratives and the details through craftsmanship within the exhibit were extremely impactful to me. This exhibition is where I referenced the quilt shown, “Animals in the milky way” by the (ngawuchama) - by the Ticuna tribe and the gold and their ceramic pieces.

The gold wings in my paintings suggest the speed of time, which is; Saturn, the God of time. Wings are also a reference to the God of Birds, they call them the father of birds(Waju Wake, the father of birds) who bring in the harvest, combining the story of Saturn's son and indigenous mythology. 

In the mythology of the Kogi, descendents of the Tairona, birds brought the seeds of plants that people need to survive. So, the hummingbird brought coca, the eagle brought yucca, the macaw brought the first maize, the ani- a black bird of the cuckoo family brought the trees and the flowers. 

So, “In kaggaba culture, birds were originally people” - (francisco chimontero nuibita, kaggaba elder.) “ Their father, Ziukukui, wanted to leave messengers for humans, so he decided to turn some people into birds.”

When the birds sing, they are telling us something, and I believe I should learn to identify each bird song, and the different messages they send. There are birds that announce the right time for the harvest of particular fruit, the coming of a visitor. There are birds that sing to guide you on the right path, or to warn you that you are lost. 

It was said that many of the gold objects were meant to be worn during ritual activity, the rituals focused on transformation of the human wearer into another kind of being, which often shared animal and human features. They believe transformation is possible because humans and other beings- animals, landscapes, share a common form of spirit. - that great religious figures could move through this spiritual world with proper rituals and powerful adornments.’

Bev: ‘That’s so interesting. I love that, so actually speaking about animals I want to talk about the subject in the water, which is holding a jaguar in your work and I know that you use various animals in your pieces, we've seen the birds, we've seen the crocodiles, we've seen the jaguar, I know that you sometimes use them to reference a story or specific trope, so what does the jaguar represent to you in this specific work and how is it connected to your other paintings?’

Rossana: ‘Yeah, so jaguars are a motif I frequent, I call my jaguar, Saturn. I finally named my jaguar, I've been naming my motifs as of lately so i finally named my jaguar Saturn.

I haven’t talked much about my love for astrology and tarot in my past work but I believe that it is extremely present without saying, obviously if you know you know, if thats what youre into you can see it yourself. I reference my own natal chart, and at times, the current transits happening in the world in my paintings, using tarot and zodiacs to embody a story or a person. I am ruled by saturn, as a capricorn rising, I am one of saturn's children. Yes, so are you haha, Capricorn is ruled by saturn, and represented by the goat and the crocodile, which as well, refers back to my crocodile, caiman, and alligator motif.

The three machetes piercing through Saturn, which in the figure, the younger brother with the Gold wings portrayed by the figure holding the jaguar, is a reference to the 3 of swords in tarot, in which i have also referenced the story of the 3 of swords in the past with my sculpture, ‘corazon partio.’

Jaguars are a reference to the Father of Felines, (*Nabukaka, the father of the felines*)  and the mythology believed by indigenous communities that jaguars can travel both in the physical and spiritual world, using sacred mountains as portals. The shaman is the mediator between the two worlds, the spiritual or “other world” and the material or “this world”. Shamans are in charge of promoting the links between the two going from one world to the other, transforming yourself into a jaguar or into other animals and beings capable of thought. 

Jaguars are the only felines that hunt alone and hunt without the need to, sometimes they hunt because they can. They go through their journey alone - finding isolation, balance, and choice. 

Which is why shamans choose them when there is an imbalance in their community, because it’s learning to choose.

I started using the jaguar in a piece I made 2 years ago “Recordando,” I had a dream of 2 giant jaguars waiting for me, expecting me. 

In the figure holding the jaguar, I am referencing the story of Saturn's son, Saturn killed all of his children except Zeus who was hidden out of fear of fulfilling a prophecy, one of Saturn's children would overthrow him, the youngest was Zeus, who then killed Saturn.

 I wanted to combine the story of Saturn's son and the mythology of Mother Aluna and her fate with the youngest brother, (which is us). This dynamic of parent and child, and the destiny of killing your parent, both are a death due to ego and fear of loss of power. 

The Great Mother Aluna, is what the Kogis call Earth, and they explain Mother Aluna as not a distant god but the mind inside nature. The ocean is thought of as the mother, the origin of creation. She is spirit, memory and possibility.

The first born was the Mountain. So that is our first sibling. Mountains make the rivers, the ocean and the clouds. Rivers are born from the top of the Sierra and when the mountain dies, everything below it dies. Everything we grow, all have guardians. 

So by that, every vegetation, every tree, every flower has their own guardian. 

So when we hurt earth, we the youngest brother take out her heart, her wings, and cut her into pieces.

What you make and what you grow is an offering, I consider my art and my work an offering to my ancestors. 

Which is how I combine both stories into one figure specifically.’

Bev: ‘Mmm that’s so interesting and like beautiful story telling. Truly! I think that is a perfect segway talking about mythologies and you combining these indigenous mythologies with western mythologies, talking about saturn, talking about zeus. 

What drew you to using a single focal point to tell these two stories, both stories from Colombia and I know you were talking about Spanish mythologies when we were talking previously, but specifically in the gold, so could you talk about what gold means and how that also acts as a focal point?’

Rossana: ‘I decided to bring both worlds together with the myth of El Dorado, El Dorado was said to be a gold man, not a place. But when the Spanish came to colonize what is now Colombia, they sought the place El Dorado thinking it was in what is now Bogota. They believed that there was a place filled with gold because they heard of a ritual of a man covering himself in gold dust and washing it off in the water, and leaving offerings in the water. 

El Dorado to the Muisca people was not a place but a man, who left offerings in the river to the gods. There are rumors that the first man to leave offerings in the river was because the love of his life had drowned in the river. 

El dorado drove settlers into insanity, seeking for a place that was not there. Other names were El Infierno, now “Ciudad Perdida.” Certain parts of Colombia were not colonized at first because it could not be reached, it was hard to get, it was hard to get resources, it was hard to eat, and eventually guerillas took this land. But the Kogi people say, the lost city is not lost to them.

And it was never lost to them because they actually reach it, so now the Kogi people stay in spaces that most civilizations can not reach, which is actually crazy to think about. 

Gold was seen as a form of offering to the Gods for the indigenous people of Colombia, while the colonizers sought it as a form of wealth. Gold offerings have been frequent in my work to represent the indigenous people of Colombia who tell their stories with this craftsmanship but to also show, the same way I have used coffee and bananas in my past work, one of the many reasons colonization has occurred in South America in the first place. 

In the exhibition, Golden Worlds, they explained that for the indigenous communities, works in gold expressed their view of the harmony and balance of the cosmos. The gold objects transformed their leaders into special, superior beings charged with maintaining balance. Gold objects could also serve as miniature visions of the cosmos. They used to drop gold in the lake as a tribute to the moon and the land 

The Kogis explained in their documentary that Gold is like people, and Gold is used as part of a thread left in special places through the land. So, when settlers came to find or steal Gold, it was as though they were stealing people. 

I mean they ended up kidnapping people anyways, it was a reflection.’

Bev: ‘ Yeah, it’s both. 

Wow, okay so I think moving from that I wanted to also talk about the sea and the sky. Could you tell me about the mountains below and the animal figures you have in the sky, kind of like secrets, what was your intention in adding these elements to the work?’

Rossana: ‘Yes! Those animals are my motifs. I reference my motifs in most of my paintings, I’d like to say almost all of my paintings, as a reference to my own work but as a way to continue the narrative. 

The animals in the sky and the mountains that frame the sides, is a reference to the artwork on a quilt titled “Animals in the Milky Way” created by the Ticuna people of the amazon region in Colombia. I saw this piece originally in the exhibition, Golden Worlds. They had painted their mountains to frame the sides of the quilt and animals that are assumed as the animals on their land, loosely drawn in the sky. In the quilt it felt like it was the perspective of someone laying on the floor and looking directly up at the sky. When looking at their mountains that they had drawn in, I noticed they had different seasons to show change in temperature and time.

 I decided to create my own version, but with the season change having extreme contrasts like wildfires and flooding to show the modern day version of our earth or Mother Aluna as the Kogi’s and Taironas call Earth. I believe it is important to look at these pieces as not only timestamps from when they were created but storytelling as a fine art and not just a quilt that was stolen and put in a museum. The mountains, the rivers, the land being a sibling of humans. 

This piece speaks on the consequences of colonization by showing the modern day seasons of flood and drought, global warming and climate change, due to greed by pushing and displacing indigenous people who know the land and how to keep it alive. I am learning their stories and telling them through my work in hopes to keep them alive. I believe to understand ourselves, we must understand the root and learn to forgive those before us, and to remember this land and this body is borrowed and we are meant to nurture it. That our spirits are connected to all living things and we are allowing it to burn and flood.’

Bev: ‘hmm damn, yeah wow.

Rossana: ‘Yeah i know it’s fucked up. But it’s real, right now you know side note, Colombia is going through incredibly large wildfires and it is all due to displacement.’

Bev: ‘Mhmmm, Yeah the genocide of the stewards of the land. 

There is so much that you taught us just from one piece of work, all of these stories and all of these mythologies, everything being included with such intention but then also just like everything being a lesson in history. 

I wanted to just talk about your work being history lessons. What do you think allows for visual pieces of work to be these storytellers, which i think also really relates to the quilt that you were talking about too. Talking about visual pieces of work can hold so much information in them? And what do you think allows for that, and that can be like just for your work in general and like what your work allows for in these lessons or just visual art as a medium?’

Rossana: I have always known and understood that my favorite types of art were those with narratives, layers of stories within them, work that held secrets, which is how I began to enjoy history and absorb it, when I saw it as gossip.

Especially like, renaissance paintings, where it would be like, if you put in one little thing that means he is like sleeping with a mistress

Something you know, whatever, if there is a dog it means God is with them. I love shit like that, I think that is so fun.

I wanted my work to feel the same, like I was telling you a secret.

I think my work takes a mind of its own once im actually making it, but I can't help but want to make visual work, that's what calls me the most, and it just happens to come out magical and surreal, i think it's a reflection of my brain, myself and my personal experiences and the images I envision in my own mind when i hear these stories, especially since i am combining so many stories, it can become very magical, but also my life is very magical. 

I also feel myself lean into magical realism because that is how I became infatuated with telling stories based on history that has been erased or not shared enough.

I mention this often but the author, Gabriel Marquez Garcia, has inspired my work tremendously with how he takes on magical realism and the stories of colonialism. It becomes easy to digest the horror of the massacres and the realities that have been erased. 

I like to look at my work as a frame or a story book that allows your mind to take you somewhere else, like a dream. And in the same way, when you wake up, you must work with your intuition to decipher what that experience or those visuals mean to you.

I believe that's my relationship between my visuals and the experiences I am creating with my audience. What I understand, as of now, is that my work is a vessel with a message and I am simply the messenger, and I hope my visual work allows the audience it was meant for, to interpret whatever that message means to them. 

 Bev: ‘Wow, that is so sick. Just as an educator, you’re truly one of my favorite artist just to talk about, especially with my kids because i think that is such a fantastic opportunity to like use visual art to include all of these secrets and bring people on this journey with you and share these messages for people who are invested and interested in hearing them, which i think it is fantastic.’ 

Rossana: Thank you to Bev, and every one who has listened through this interview and audio guide. I am excited to continue this journey and bring in more people who have questions and would like to continue the conversation. Please reach out through email if you would like to participate in asking your own questions.

You can find more about Bev Vega’s work on https://www.instagram.com/bev.vega/