Beatriz Cortez: Nomad 2 

Production | Exhibition Grant

For the inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial in 2025, Beatriz Cortez will create Nomad 2, a large-scale welded steel sculpture in the form of a single whale vertebra. Following a trip to the Arctic, Cortez became intrigued by resemblance between whale vertebrae and both spaceships and icebergs. She considered how both were time capsules of a kind, vessels that move and carry information through space and time. Standing 12 feet tall, 16 feet wide, and 8 feet long, the work will be installed on Pier 3 at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The Navy Yard served as an industrial shipyard for more than a hundred years and Pier 3 has wraparound views of Boston Harbor, an important site of US immigration history. For Cortez, Nomad 2’s references to whales and spacecraft also allude to issues of migration and foreignness. Within a single object, Cortez weaves together allusions to climate change, capitalism, space exploration, immigration, industrialization, and extinction.

Through a brightly colored control panel on the sculpture designed to resemble an arcade game, visitors will be able to access audio related to Cortez’s extensive archival deep dives into the various histories that informed the work, celebrating the resilience of marginalized communities and animal species in the face of adversity. Tipped on its side, viewers will be encouraged to duck under the work, engage with the interactive audio, and consider what personal and global actions have unintended long-term implications.