In Fall 2022, Emerson Contemporary hosted an exhibition of works and performances by multidisciplinary artist Emilio Rojas. The exhibition, called tracing a wound through my body, explores colonial and border trauma through a queer and decolonial lens, and especially through the medium of the artist's own body. Read more about the exhibition via Emerson Contemporary, a reflection on the exhibition in process and the first performance, or download the exhibition catalog.
As part of the exhibition, Rojas participated in a variety of events around Emerson's campus, including in Iwasaki Library.
About the event, via Emerson Contemporary:
The Iwasaki Library
October 14, 2022, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
October 15-16, 2022 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The live performance and installation, A Manual to Be (to Kill) or To Forgive My Own Father, presents Rojas’ deconstructions of the popular novel, Pequeño Hombre, one of many written by his estranged father, who bears his name. In a gesture of rejection and simultaneous creation, Rojas cuts out the texts from the English translation and uses the remnants to create new poems within a domestic setting with a desk, rug, and lamp.
The performances with the texts range from the use of an X-Acto blade in the artist’s mouth to collaborations with the artist’s mother and intimate conversations with viewers. Collectively, they attempt to rewrite the book, with the exact same words, but with a completely different narrative, always centering the dialectic of presence and absence of his own father. Rojas invites viewers who have conflicted relations with their fathers (“daddy issues”) to partake in a one-on-one performance to write poetry with him.
