"Painting with avocado became almost like an affirmation that I was here."

Carmen Argote’s artistic practice is deeply connected to her experiences as a member of the Mexican American community in Los Angeles. Her work spans a range of media, including performance, painting, drawing, and large-scale installations. For her paintings in Several Eternities in a Day, the artist first treated the oil paper with cochineal and lemon, creating an unpredictable chemical reaction that birthed a textured, vivid red surface. Then, Argote engaged her entire body. She laid the paper on the ground and painted from a moveable platform hovering above the surface. Without a brush, she dipped her hands and feet in mashed avocado, painting in fluid, uninterrupted movements with her arms, fingers, and legs. In this video, Argote describes her process of approaching art-making as attunement, "like a radio station that I like tune into, like a frequency."

 In conjunction with the exhibition Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials.