Daily ceremony
(2022)
- Medium
- synthetic polymer paint and gouache on Cedar (Cedrus sp.) and Mahogany plywood (Swietenia sp.)
- Measurements
- 140.6 × 122.0 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Inscription
- inscribed (inverted) in fibre-tipped pen on reverse l.r.: HULDA GUZMÁN / 2022
- Accession Number
- 2023.249
- Department
- Contemporary Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by an anonymous donor and NGV Foundation, 2023
© Hulda Guzmán - Gallery location
- Gallery 18
Level 3, NGV Australia - About this work
-
Inspired by Hulda Guzmán’s immediate surroundings of Samaná in the Dominican Republic, this painting centres on a portrait of the artist dancing wildly on a table, surrounded by frolicking cats. The modernist style of the depicted interiors refers metaphorically to human-imposed order and the global networks of extraction, production and consumption that underpin modern hyper-consumerism – a modern economic engine founded on colonialism. This allusion to imperialist history emerges in contrast to the frolicking figures. With elements of Surrealism, Mexican muralism and Caribbean folk traditions, Guzmán’s paintings conjure a sense of harmony between human and natural worlds.
