BODY AND SOUL: María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez: Earth and Spirit

 

 

María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez (photo: Lucas Cardoso)

 

I am wearing a white shirt, framed glasses, ultramarine blue pants, and a clipped-up casual hair updo, sitting inside of a cave. Picture is taken from inside of the cave, looking out into a green tropical landscape. I have in my hand a small cup with natural red ochre pigment dye (found from the same cave) and in the other a paintbrush, as I doodle on a rock. I am looking directly at the viewer/camera.

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I first learned about María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez and her research when I was invited to an upcoming dance-and-ecology symposium presented by the New York Public Library's Jerome Robbins Dance Division (January 27; livestream February 3). I was immediately drawn to the direction of her interdisciplinary work which infuses performance with Afro-Atlantic spiritual traditions of reverence and care for the natural world. I was eager to learn more about Jiménez and share her ideas with you. I highly recommend the symposium which will also feature presentations by five other members of the 2022-2023 cohort of Dance Research Fellows--Juli Brandano, Rosemary Candelario, Lindsey Jones, Richard Move, and Rachna Nivas. Information and free RSVP for the in-person or livestreamed event here.

Listen to the Body and Soul podcast episode here.

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Read below to learn more about María!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Jiménez in Ora Yêyê o (photo: Lucas Cardoso)

Location: Chapada Diamantina, Bahia, Brazil. Ora Yêyê o (performance still with mask ii), 2022. Duration 00:08:57

This performance is an homage to the orixá Oxúm of freshwater and femininity. Video still shows me wearing a knitted and crochet yellow and white mask looking to the right. Attached to the mask are beads made of eucalyptus seeds and black beans. I am inside of a small lake that has yellowish water wearing a white dress, the white dress looks yellow when submerged in the water. Image shows me sitting in the water with the mask at the center and the rest of the frame is the lake water and its reflections surrounding me.

BIO: María de los Angeles Rodríguez Jiménez is an interdisciplinary artist born in 1992 in Holguín, Cuba. She lives and works between Brooklyn, NY and Salvador, Bahia.She received her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 2015 and MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2020. New York Public Library Jerome Robbins Dance Division Fellow, 2022-2023. Fulbright Research Fellow, Brazil, 2020–2022. https://www.mariadlarj.com/