Syzygy, 2016

Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami, FL | October 2016

Exhibition Overview

Curated by Tiffany Madera in October 2016 to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, SYZYGY united 10 Miami-based Hispanic women artists in an exhibition exploring themes of identity, sexuality, power, and spirituality. The exhibition linked directly to, and formed a visual representation of, the multidisciplinary work Madera pursues in her exploration of female empowerment, healing, contemporary art, and dance.

In response to the exhibition, journalist Daisy Cabrera wrote: "Several pieces highlight the symbolic duality, harmony, and correlation between masculine and feminine energy. Others share unobstructed truths about the aligned and opposing views surrounding spirituality and religion. The element of water – a deliberate force of nature – was central to various artworks that interpreted resistance, fluidity, movement and cleansing." (Miami Art Zine, October 2016)

Curatorial Statement

To understand syzygy is to gain a new way of seeing, not with the eyes, but through a conscious awareness of hidden relationships. A Greek word describing a union or pairing, in astronomy, syzygy describes a conjunction or opposition of celestial bodies such as the sun and moon, or an alignment of three celestial bodies such as sun, moon, earth. Carl Jung expands the concept by personifying syzygy as the archetypes of the Anima and Animus; the female and male expressions within the conscious and unconscious mind.

Drawing from Jungian psychology, Syzygy unites 10 Miami-based Latina artists whose work explores themes of identity, sexuality, power and spirituality. Each artwork embodies a different manifestation of syzygy and articulates a confrontation or engagement with the collective unconscious. By performing different aspects of syzygy, the works offer a new way to experience correlation, opposition, unity and duality.

Seeing Syzygy

Syzygy develops an inner vision, beyond ego and traverses the undiscovered aspects of the metonymic universal self. Where Jung may correlate this with the shadow, he offers the concept of syzygy as a space of interrogation around the duality of identity. Richard Schechner in his book Between Theater and Anthropology, describes this process as the "transformation of Being and/or consciousness" or what he describes as twice behaved behavior.

Both Jung and Schechner seek to locate identity as both a projection and a process and consciousness as the path for revelation. Syzygy, then, can be seen as the liminal waters of the unarticulated self in what Deleuze and Guattari describe as a "becoming." For our purposes, syzygy allows for a new economy with which to experience a work of art. Beyond surplus value, syzygy asks the question, what do these works perform? With the syzygy of this exhibition in three locations, I invite you to seek new spaces of alignment and correlation within yourself, your creativity and your community.

For more exhibition images,
visit MOCA NOMI Facebook

More Images on Facebook

Literary Collaboration

As part of the exhibition, Madera invited poet Mia Leonin to write responses to the visual artworks presented; what followed were ekphrastic responses to the exhibition. Leonin created a literary collage constructed from prose, poetry, narrative, and dream to accompany and pay homage to the women's art.

Performance Component

The exhibition featured a performative work by artist Charo Oquet, adding a dynamic, embodied dimension to the curatorial concept of syzygy and transformation.

Community Engagement

In support of the exhibition and Madera's work as a curator, activist, and arts organizer, The Betsy Writer's Room on Miami Beach hosted a conversation with Madera and Leonin in March 2017. The community was invited to hear more about the exhibition and the writings developed in response.

“She tore.

Black threads and bare feet. She ripped through the world, making and remaking.

She tore until black cloth became nine colors.”
— Mia Leonin, Poet