There are a couple of days left to catch Lucien Shapiro's latest series, The First and Last Freedom at MAIA Contemporary in Mexico CIty. Shapiro’s art is channeled and tends to build itself through the energies in which he creates. Constantly evolving and influenced by the local context, this new series takes inspiration from the energy of the snake as a symbol of energy, life force, spiritual guidance and physical and spiritual transition. These underlying symbols weave themselves through his current work.
Shapiro creates using things he finds on the street, locally found treasures ranging from antiques, crystals, baseball bats, studs, knives and recycled materials like head bottle caps, plastic bags and crashed windshield glass. But besides the material resignification, there is always a performative element in Shapiro ́s work. The protection weapons and masks are one of his recurrent explorations and they are used in ceremonial contexts where the artist designs rituals, most of them involving the participation of the audience with a specific transformative purpose. At first Shapiro’s pieces, may seem violent. But actually, these weapons and amulets are meant to be used as spiritual protection tools. This show culminates with a piece that was created after the encounter of the artist with a very damaged stuffed tigress at a local flea market. This materialized in an effort to dignify the animal through a series of cleansing and rebirthing rituals. The result is a chimera that amalgamates crystals and plants, bringing her back to life. The First and Last Freedom presents an Initiatic Journey, a Vision Quest that works from the transmutation of death into a new life.
