Mythical Objects AA

A short film by Tim Dodd "MOMO and The Mythical Objects" in honour & memory of John Andrews, who died in London on 16th February 2019, & Dr Dermot Curley, who died in Mexico City on 5th December 2009.

These objects were gathered on an expedition to Mexico in 1989 by Unit 11, The Architectural Association, London.

Unit 11 was run by unit masters John Andrews & Charles Mann & unit chronicler Dr. Dermot Curley.

They were presented at several exhibitions in London, the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford & travelled to exhibitions in Australia.

The collection of Mythical Objects are now in a private collection at the Museum Of Mythical Objects in Islington, London.

Unit 11 collected 12 “mythical objects” each to bring back to London & prepare them for exhibition, by tailor making each box & painting it for each particular object collected.

A short film by Tim Dodd "MOMO and The Mythical Objects" in honour & memory of John Andrews, who died in London on 16th February 2019, & Dr Dermot Curley, who died in Mexico City on 5th December 2009.

These objects were gathered on an expedition to Mexico in 1989 by Unit 11, The Architectural Association, London.

Unit 11 was run by unit masters John Andrews & Charles Mann & unit chronicler Dr. Dermot Curley.

They were presented at several exhibitions in London, the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford & travelled to exhibitions in Australia.

The collection of Mythical Objects are now in a private collection at the Museum Of Mythical Objects in Islington, London.

Unit 11 collected 12 “mythical objects” each to bring back to London & prepare them for exhibition, by tailor making each box & painting it for each particular object collected.

The question was what qualified as a “mythical object”. How do we recognise what is worthy to be regarded as a mythical object? Well, as much as to establish what is worthy of transcending from the ordinary to the magical - and so be ordained as mythical. So mythical objects made magic from the mundane or the ordinary.

Magical realism, John Andrews & Mythical Objects :

“John Always made magic from the ordinary” Fred Scott (John's tutor), at John's crematorium speech.

After Dermot's death

John produced “The Dermot Curley Chronicles” to celebrate his life & involvement with Unit 11 & “Cargo – Mexico”.

I quote from these chronicles several of Dermot’s writings.

“Mythical Objects'' is an exhibition of popular artefacts which have their roots in every day Mexican life & mores. In crossing the oceans & being presented on gallery walls they take on an extra dimension, serving as a celebration of the rich cross-cultural patterns that animates modern Mexico.“

Bold artistic & expressive gestures, yet simple & with humour, made by people with their own views on life, with their own expression & ability, sculpted their own comments on life. With coconut shells, animal hair, clay & paint made masks depicting a multitude of faces, facets & roles of everyday life, references to their myths & the Mexican narrative. Wire skeleton's with flesh of clay played football, drank at bars, rowed boats or wore bikini’s under a sombrero & devils played snooker against each other.

Dr Curley wrote in his article "Mythical Objects" published in "The Interior", an Australian publication, Volume 1, May 1991:

"On every street corner, in every market place, the nation keeps a faithful record of its cultural heartbeat from one town to another, from one year to the next, the past is made present. 'Mythical Objects' is an attempt to convey these magical undercurrents by bringing together a series of artefacts that display the popular manifestation of myth."

Aztec structures & their gods iconography were destroyed by Cortez forcing the Indigenous people to destroy their own belief structures and build churches, paint liturgical paintings & process the Hispanic belief & Christian thinking. The Aztec & Pre-Hispanics “lived” & expressed through their skills to absorb & communicate their beliefs into the images of their conqueror’s in building their religious expression.

"The idea of a vital force, of a perfect primordial time, established a relationship between the past, the present & the future which was totally alien to the western conception of history. The Aztecs proposed a genealogy, a continuous connection between the past & the present. The idea that man was mortal in nature and essence seemed completely strange to their mythical thinking & their religious mode of seeing the world."

"In the past, the Indian stonemason closely followed the instructions given to him by his Spanish masters but ended up by adding to them. Today, Pasado does with the dance of death what many Mexican artists & craftsmen do with other elements imported from abroad; they immediately acclimatise & "Mexicanise" them, imbuing them with their own brand of sensitivity whose ingredients, as we have seen, are as many & as mysterious as those that go to make mole, that exotic dish of Pre-Hispanic origin which the cooks of the Spanish Viceroys added to & improved.“

The Mexican artisan, known to be somewhat withdrawn & secretive in his personal life, shows little or no inhibition when it comes to colouring the sculptured piece. Using oil paints & enamels, & hues got from mineral powders, he reproduces the vivid colours of his surroundings: bright reds, blues & greens, pink, orange & yellow, colours visible in the contrasting vegetation & which he now employs to metamorphose a fish or a bull, to bring to life a sullen face. It is hardly surprising, therefore, to discover that no overall system of colour symbolism restrains the brush strokes, red meaning lust in one mask, evil & the devil in another, & absolutely nothing in the third.”

John Andrews:

“Bold differences between people & places sustain & promote excellence."