Apocryphal Book of Awards: A Cat and a Hunter (Premiere)
Digital Video, 40’12”
May 7–21, 2020

Sala Abierta, an intangible space that, in its first stage, will showcase the work of artists who live and work in Guadalajara.

This piece was conceived in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, and its initial phase was executed in Morelia and Pátzcuaro, Michoacán. The images and music were recorded and composed at Cove Park, Scotland, in September 2018, during a residency as part of *SHUM: Seeing, Hearing UK Mexico*, an artistic exchange program by CMMAS and Cryptic, in collaboration with The Anglo Mexican Foundation – Anglo Arts and the British Council Mexico.

Cryptic, en colaboración con The Anglo Mexican Foundation – Anglo Arts y British Council México. 

Música compuesta por Yair López

Traducción por Dulce Abarca e Iris Garrelfs

Voces: Iris Garrelfs

Sampleos de instrumentos:

Flautas por Wilfrido Terrazas

Percusiones por Darío Bernal Villegas

Guitarra por Armando Castro

Textos, grabación de campo, radio, piano y  material audiovisual por Yair López

Fake book of awards a cat and a hunter

 

— I never imagined that by pulling the trigger my shoulder would shake like that, it was an M-16, a weapon intended for the sole use of the armed forces that safeguard the integrity of the nation. I shot without having a specific target guarded by four officers, the sound of that shot went to into the air leaving me deaf for a few seconds. 

 

— I’ve always watched these creatures with great curiosity, I picture myself traveling only because of the stories that I’ve read about those trips. They are like aliens that are capable of regenerating their own extremities. The other day, I noticed one with two tales.

 

— An entire community moved in across my room, they migrated like birds. Do birds then travel in circles as airplanes do? I don’t know. These ants left hundreds of eggs on my desk.

 

— A Little bit stiffer on the left of the screen, some hairy legs making clicking noises like effervescent candies in the mouth.

 

— A rock had a story that couldn’t stop telling every morning after the earthquake. It was so beautiful that it could deteriorated without even thinking about the delicate sounds of the wind when it moved the bushy branches of the trees. A chainsaw left the forest in silence, fumbling.

 

— I turned towards the meridian, there was not an exact calculation that allowed me to know whether her legs were orthogonal to my body. They asked me to normalize her beauty, I can’t do this (I am not God).

 

— Leaving so fast without having anything in mind, allowing an ancient algorithm to tell me how to act, sharing my life through telemetry. 

 

— That noise that does not let you eat, is annoying, it disgusts you to picture that the following morning you would have a dissected ice cream.

 

— Each of its pores get multiplied by dozens or hundreds that can reach thousands per millimeter.

 

— Like crumbs, a bumper that ignites in an intermittent way, the antennas that allowed him to tune the sick crowd. He would be able to jump from time to time, camouflaged between the military flanks.

 

— The image of that man who holds between his arms a dead volcano (the one that seems asleep). A gluttony that eats rocks feathers and igneous blackness, porosity of a beheaded.

 

— The first day of that year, I was awakened up by a noise, I approached the fountain and noticed an animal that moved in the darkness. I embraced it with tenderness and in exchange for doing so, it scratched me definitely. The floor was blood-stained and, in the air, feather particles were flying away. I found your wing on the floor.

 

— A Green marker rolling across the floor, it was long. I prefer short ones and because of this, I returned it to its owner without regrets. When the gaze return to my color, I savoured the haunches of the station, thinking about a fresh pond and a thick beer.

 

— Some mechanic worms entered into the ground to creating something “perfect”. I don’t want to be buried when I die (said that without anybody asking me), I want them to cover me with earth without being ashes to return to it and that my extremities hang from the reefs in the seas like a ham at the Madrid museum.

 

— The King spoke in a monstrous language, however, in spite of its deformity and having a horrible aspect, he was a kind human being. He decided to live away from imagination so the radioactive charges were not attributed to him neither the variants of the terrestrial tide nor the gravity or the couples in love.

Yair López (MX-1983) is currently pursuing a PhD in Science at the University of Guadalajara, focusing his research on the interaction of infrasonic waves. He also holds a Master’s degree in Geophysics from UDG. His work merges error, geophysical data, and poetry, materializing in sound and audiovisual pieces.

As a researcher, he has published scientific articles in Seismological Research Letters and is the author of the book LOS TERREMOTOS NO MATAN, LOS EDIFICIOS SÍ (Earthquakes Don’t Kill, Buildings Do). As an active listener, he has engaged in field recording and soundscape studies.

His fascination with e-waste has led him to explore flea markets across the globe, acting as an amateur archaeologist collecting and manipulating electronic components, inducing errors to alter their functionality.

He has worked as a curator in Northern Ireland, the United States, and Mexico, and has been an artist-in-residence at CMMAS, Maraika-Indocumentados, and Cove Park (Scotland), as part of SHUM: Seeing, Hearing UK Mexico, an artistic exchange program by CMMAS and Cryptic, in collaboration with The Anglo Mexican Foundation – Anglo Arts and the British Council Mexico.

His discography includes: Branquiado primitivo comedor de hierba de los fondos abisales (CD), MARCA Y REGISTRO(DVD), SONORA (CD), Ruleta (NET), Paisaje sonoro de los Pueblos Mágicos de Jalisco (CD), Narita Airport (NET), Ready MEDIA (DVD), Ep ep popo (NET), and Paisaje Sonoro del Malecón de Puerto Vallarta (CD), Casa de Omar(NET).

His work has been exhibited in Mexico, Spain, Japan, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Finland, and Northern Ireland.

He is currently a recipient of the CONACYT graduate scholarship program. He has also been a beneficiary of the Proyecta Producción and Proyecta Traslados programs (2019), Jóvenes Creadores (FONCA, 2016-2017), Coinversiones(FONCA, 2010-2011), PECDA (2009-2010, 2012-2013), CONACYT (2013-2015), and Centro Multimedia (2014-2015). Additionally, he has served as a jury member and mentor for PECDA Jalisco.