Reynier Leyva Novo: Methuselah
El Museo del Barrio
2022
Production | Acquisition Grant
Reynier Leyva Novo’s Methuselah virtually reproduces the border defying, transcontinental journey of a Monarch butterfly from southern Canada across the United States to Mexico during its annual reproductive cycle. Its digitally rendered 6000-kilometer migration—accessible by audiences via smartphone, web platform, or large-scale museum presentation—intimately connects the public to a marvel of the natural world whose life cycle stands as a metaphor for Pan-American values. Highlighting the need for transcontinental collaboration and cooperation regardless of geo-political and economic borders, the journey of Novo’s archetypal monarch butterfly also draws attention to the-human wrought crisis facing this precious species as it battles environmental threats of extinction. An alliance of institutions across Mexico, the United States, and Canada will form the spine of the project by hosting servers and displaying Methuselah across various scalable platforms in consultation with the artist. Other satellite locations will host servers and decide how their own audiences may best encounter this tender and conceptually rich work.
The mission of El Museo del Barrio is to present and preserve the art and culture of Puerto Ricans and all Latin Americans in the United States. Through its extensive collections, varied exhibitions and publications, bilingual public programs, educational activities, festivals and special events, El Museo educates its diverse public in the richness of Caribbean and Latin American arts and cultural history. By introducing young people to this cultural heritage, El Museo is creating the next generation of museum goers, while satisfying the growing interest in Caribbean and Latin American art of a broad national and international audience. El Museo’s varied Permanent Collection of over 8,000 objects, spans more than 800 years of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx art and includes pre-Columbian Taino artifacts, traditional arts, twentieth-century drawings, paintings, sculptures and installations, as well as prints, photography, documentary films, and video.
Image: Reynier Leyva Novo, Methuselah, Low Poly monarch butterfly model generated in Blender, rendered in Cycles 500 samples, PBR textures, 4k resolution. Modeling and Animation: MODO Creativos
