EXHIBIT CATALOG
Tzompantli is an exhibition composed of five interconnected series that operate as a unified body of work.
Each series maintains a distinct visual language while contributing to a modular structure designed to function cohesively within the exhibition space.
The exhibition is conceived as an evocation of standing at the base of a pyramid, a position in which all are equally exposed to systems of sacrifice. In this contemporary reimagining, the forces of incompetence, corruption, and apathy replace historical deities, operating through capitalist structures that shape power and control.
Through variations in scale, medium, and compositional rhythm, the five series articulate a sustained inquiry into authority, neglect, and the human condition.
Together, these series form a visual architecture that situates the viewer within these systems, encouraging critical reflection rather than spectacle.
AGENCY
Once idealized positions of power, influence, and authority, grounded in dedication, expertise, and understanding.
Today, these roles are increasingly attained through friendship, manipulation, and bribery, diluting the meaning and responsibility once associated with such positions;
For-profit medicine, environmental regulators paid by polluters, and morality judged by the corrupt, illustrate systems that no longer serve the public good.
In fearing overt expressions of evil, attention is often drawn to isolated, granular threats, while the greater dangers of inaction, complacency, and aversion to conflict remain unaddressed.
This condition allows harm to persist not through spectacle, but through neglect, silence, and the normalization of dysfunction.
STRUCTURE
Largely invisible networks of lukewarm action and diluted rhetoric that maintain systemic comfort while normalizing increasingly extreme positions. Within this dynamic, the burden of moderation and restraint is consistently placed on those capable of critical, forward-looking thought, while disproportionate influence is granted to factions that primarily process their environment through emotion
This imbalance allows harmful systems to persist not through overt force, but through normalization, deflection, and the steady erosion of accountability.
FIELD NOTES
Fieldnotes refers to documentation, chronicles, and investigative journalism that exercise both the right and duty to examine and expose the mechanisms behind systemic failures. It highlights the actors and practices that have contributed to a fractured social structure, the erosion of a culture of knowledge, and the decline of reasoned, constructive political discourse.
A recurring theme throughout the bibliography is incompetence, apathy, and corruption. One could argue that these failures appear almost concerted, even though the evidence points to numerous, less overtly malicious facets, each of which would be far less consequential if considered in isolation
COLLATERAL
We are left to bear the visible fractures that extend beyond headlines and rage-driven narratives.
Tracing their impact into everyday spaces such as dinner tables, hospital waiting rooms, and workplace notices. Consequences labeled as unforeseeable unfold with weary predictability. Poisoned rivers, unmended infrastructure, and churned-up ideologies testify that negligence remains profitable precisely because its costs are externalized.
WAR OF FLOWERS
A War of Flowers (xōchiyaoyōtl) was a ritualized form of warfare practiced in Mesoamerica, particularly by the Mexica (Aztecs). Unlike wars fought for territorial conquest, these conflicts were structured encounters intended to capture prisoners rather than kill enemies outright. The captives were later sacrificed, sustaining religious order, political power, and social hierarchy. Participation was cyclical, normalized, and unavoidable. One did not opt out of the War of Flowers; one existed within it.
In Tzompantli, this concept becomes an analogy for contemporary life under a consumer-based economy, with the collective positioned at the base of the pyramid. The modern battlefield is not land or bodies but attention, data, and behavior. Human value is reduced to extractable units: purchasing habits, biometric signals, location data, and emotional response patterns. These fragments are harvested and fed into finely tuned marketing and surveillance systems engineered to stimulate dopamine responses in any flavor, at any intensity, on demand.
Like the ritual wars that fed the skull rack, participation is continuous and transactional. We stand together at the bottom of this structure, entangled in feedback loops where identity, labor, and desire are constantly exchanged. Merit is replaced by visibility, fame substitutes for expertise, and outcomes are driven less by understanding than by optimization. What emerges is a system sustained not by intention, but by inertia: a condition in which no one fully knows what they are doing, no one is meaningfully accountable, and many care just enough to profit from it.
Within this framework, the tzompantli is no longer a scaffold of stone and bone, but an invisible architecture of accumulation, upheld by consent, distraction, and the normalization of sacrifice.
ADDITIONAL INFO
Tzompantli was made possible with the support of the DCASE grant awarded in 2024 and represents the culmination of approximately six years of work, (some of it can be seen here) Throughout this period, the project evolved through ongoing analysis, revision, and material experimentation. It was not only a prolonged phase of introspection, but also a recognition of labor itself as a critical component of the work, shaping both its form and its meaning.
This effort would not have been possible without the loving support of my wife and life partner, Kelsi Fresan, and the generosity of many individuals who, in different ways, helped shape, challenge, and motivate me to continue unraveling these ideas through art. I am deeply grateful for their support and encouragement.
Chicago 2025.
Arturo Fresán 