Author Description

"Carolina Caycedo is the first major publication on the work of the acclaimed Colombian artist. Based in Los Angeles, Carolina Caycedo (b. 1978) has developed an artistic practice that is as much centered on process and participation as it is on production and physical manifestations. Spanning a variety of media including performance, video, drawing, and photography, her work goes beyond the boundaries of the institution and operates within the social realm, extending into communities and environments that have been affected by the injustices of larger government and corporate powers. With close attention paid to systems of exchange, interconnected networks, and collective acts, Caycedo combines research, actions, and resistance into a single, elaborate practice, one that can be regarded as a carefully considered and powerful fieldwork. The catalogue presents illuminating texts by Carla Acevedo-Yates, Pilar Tompkins Rivas, and David Hernández-Palmar that not only address the different aspects of Caycedo's process, but also highlight the social impact her work has had on local communities. With a focus on the artist's multidisciplinary approach to research and art making, Carla Acevedo-Yates's "Embodied Spiritual Fieldwork: Dismantling Western Perspectives Through the Feeling Female Body" traces Caycedo's artistic process and methodology, whereby images and objects are made through embodied methods and relations of social exchange that dismantle Western perspectives and rationalities. Pilar Tompkins Rivas's essay delves deeply into Caycedo's Geochoreographies, touching upon and contextualizing performance works related to the artist's ongoing project Be Dammed. Finally, David Hernández-Palmar narrates a personal journey of human mobility from the perspective of an indigenous Wayu from Maracaibo, Venezuela. As a participant and witness of Caycedo's project in the region, he also speaks to the emotional and social impact of Geochoreographies on the communities that liv