CORRESPONDENCE

In Correspondence (2008-2009), Laureana Toledo, in collaboration with the bass player called John Taylor, draws on Pop culture to reflect on the displacement of contemporary identities that struggle between the local, the international, and the boundaries between art and life. In 2008, Laureana was in Birmingham, England, hoping to produce a piece that would spotlight the way an individual's transit through a city can engender specific places to generate distinct memories. In the midst of this, she made a gesture bordering on the absurd when she noticed that three of her favourite bassists, such as John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, John Entwistle of The Who, and John Taylor of Duran Duran, were named John. Toledo began tracking down more bassists named John on the streets and in the studios of Birmingham. According to the artist, the bass as an instrument in a band generally plays a secondary role, even though it is the basis of the melody. Toledo associates this notion of the bass with the possible similarity that could exist between Birmingham and Mexico City, cities that at some point in their history have taken a secondary role to other cultural centres. In this search for emphasis in the secondary role, Toledo tried to contact bassists named John. After many attempts to reach out, the only one who responded was John Taylor of Duran Duran—who grew up in Birmingham, England. The collaboration between the two began; with different origins and artistic dispositions, they launched a dialogue about geography, music, and their personal life experiences.

In Correspondence, Taylor leaves music behind to become a visual artist, while Toledo embraces new practices. The piece is the result of several artistic expressions. Toledo filmed scenes of everyday life in Birmingham with a Super 8 camera, such as people, traffic, streets, and museums. Taylor did the same in Mexico City. With two perspectives of cities mediated by the lens, Toledo transformed this information into two videos that are presented simultaneously in an installation. Although at times one can recognize distinct locations, it is difficult to discern which images were filmed by Taylor or Toledo. The juxtaposition of both videos presents a conversation between them intertwined with popular rock songs from both cities. The dialogue wanders in a game of translations that recounts their personal experiences as people who today find themselves far from their places of origin. As part of this collaboration, Taylor edited Próximo. This newspaper reconstructs the fragments of the conversation, transforming them into fictional news stories. Finally, at a Duran Duran concert at the Fillmore in San Francisco, California, the sound of Taylor's bass was isolated from the rest of the musicians at the console to denote the vigor and beauty of its rhythm. It is heard through an amplifier near the gallery entrance. Driven by the cadence of a joint rhythm, all these fragments reveal the disintegration of an encounter between two people, languages, cultures, and circumstances. Toledo and Taylor's interest in music led them to seek new artistic positions in the aim of understanding their cultural differences, discovering the similarities that exist between each of us, our environments, and our fragments.