~:Banda Calaca:~ Installation by Tucson Artist Hank Tusinski

www.TucsonMuseumofArt.org

~:Banda Calaca:~, a large scale Day of the Dead-inspired installation by Tucson artist Hank Tusinski, opens Saturday, September 26, 2015, at the Tucson Museum of Art in historic downtown. The work, featuring a nearly life-size 15 piece free-standing papier mâche skeleton mariachi band with musical instruments, is unusual given that Tusinski is a devout Zen Buddhist.

Tusinski’s work focuses on integrating the beliefs of Mesoamerica, Mexican contemporary indigenous communities, and contemporary Buddhists about death as a transformational process to be celebrated. A journey to Michoacán, Mexico introduced Tusinski to the indigenous P΄urhépecha peoples’ use of music in their Festival of the Spirit as an embodiment of spirit. This is the well-spring of ~:Banda Calaca:~. “The fundamental dilemma of existence is the nature of life and death,” said Tusinski, “There is potential liberation and joy in death. ~:Banda Calaca:~ is offered with the intention of creating the opportunity to view this transition as energy that continues infinitely. The skeleton band represents the individual and the universal dance in the eternal flow.” The installation is about 12 feet high, 25 feet long, and 6 feet wide.

“Tusinski’s ~:Banda Calaca:~ is a riot of color, pattern, and imagery. His work reminds us to celebrate life in death, to honor the past in the present, and to embrace the universality of spiritual openness,” said TMA Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Dr. Julie Sasse.

Image: Hank Tusinski, ~:Banda Calaca:~, 2015, detail, mixed media installation. Photo courtesy the artist