Allora and Calzadilla Specters of Noon

Michelle White, Roberto Tejada, Julie Ault, Elizabeth M. DeLoughrey, Daniel Immerwahr

The Puerto Rico-based collaborative duo Allora & Calzadilla created Specters of Noon as a group of seven large-scale works specifically for the Menil Collection. Orchestrated around the idea of Solar Noon, a notion derived from Surrealist texts by Roger Caillois, Aime Cesaire, and others that probe the transcultural mythology of noon-the time of day when shadows disappear and delirious visions momentarily reign-the works include light projections, guano, ship engines, live vocal performance, and coal. Using the Menil's Surrealist holdings as a point of departure, Specters of Noon is infused throughout with a Caribbean perspective that addresses the instability of environmental and colonial politics; one work is a massive power transformer damaged in Hurricane Maria that is half-sheathed in brass. Filled with stunning installation photography and insightful texts both commissioned and...