NADA New York 2025

A single-use styrofoam cup—meticulously cast in aluminum—takes on new permanence, its surface imprinted with a shallow mimicry of the xicalcoliuhqui, a stepped and spiraling motif rooted in ancient Mesoamerican design. Stripped from its cosmological significance, the pattern here becomes ornamental: a decorative citation, mass-produced and emptied of depth. Suspended from the inner rim of the cup, a Nymphalis antiopa chrysalis hangs in stillness—its form also rendered in metal, evoking suspended transformation.

The sculpture freezes a moment of becoming within a vessel of disposability. It speaks to the hollow reproduction of meaning, to how beauty can act as a form of control or submission, and to the quiet persistence of life amid waste. It reflects on the entanglements between nature and artifact, inviting us to consider how growth, decay, and remembrance persist within the debris of our cultural repetitions.