While conducting research at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Porras-Kim came across a collection of ancient objects from the Sacred Cenote of Chichén Itzá, a Maya site in the Yucatán peninsula. For the Maya, the cenote (a sinkhole that exposes underground water) was a portal to the spiritual world and a place to leave offerings to Chaac, the rain god. Porras-Kim’s drawings inventory the textile offerings in the Peabody’s collection. Removed from their original context, and kept dry in accordance with the museum’s policies, these objects, she writes, are “just dust particles being held together through conservation methods.” In a letter to the Peabody’s director, the artist suggests possibilities for creatively restoring their original function, noting, “Their owner, the rain, is still around.”
Gallery label from Chosen Memories, April 30–September 9, 2023
