Gabriela García-Luna: Flor y Canto (Flower and Song)

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Gabriela García-Luna, “Canción Azul,” 2024

(courtesy of the Gallery)

Opening Reception: April 12, 2024, 7:00 to 10:00 pm

Flor y Canto (Flower and Song) is an invitation to explore, themes of unity and separation, permanence and ephemerality, fragility and resilience, in the intricate relationship between humanity and the environment. This journey has been inspired by my feminine Mexican ancestry and realized through experiences and images of flora from Mexico and Saskatchewan.

Flor y Canto – Flower and Song (In xochitl, in cuicatl) represents a philosophical value in Mexica (Meshika) heritage: the connection to nature, poetry, music, and art as a timeless expression of goodness and beauty. In the philosophical frame of Flor y Canto there is an understanding of the world as a harmonious interplay of diverse elements, where each individual and phenomenon contributes to the beauty and vitality of the whole of existence.

The ancient Nahuatl poet, Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin, who resided in the Valley of Mexico during pre-colonial and colonial times in the most dramatic transition of his era (14th and 15th c AD) left wisdom in the lines of one of his poems. These words are engraved on a wall at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, a place I have visited many times since childhood. In a time when our ecosystem is facing great fragility and in which we are witnessing tremendous political turmoil and human suffering, the words of the poet deeply resonate with me: "What are we leaving behind us? Is everything going to disappear? If we are going to leave something, let it be only flowers, only songs.”