Miguel Calderón, Falconer's Code #2, 2017, Lightjet print
The heart of this moodily beautiful show, titled “Caída Libre (Free Fall),” is a video about a Mexico City bouncer named Camaleón and his pet falcon—a measured but chilling meditation on male aggression. As we watch Camaleón working at a night club and taking the falcon hunting, he speaks, in a voice-over, about being abandoned by his father, about picking up women, and about the four men he’s murdered. What makes Calderón’s treatment so affecting is his balanced approach: we see his subject’s fear as well as his violence, while the genuine tenderness Camaleón expresses for his beloved bird is offset by his glowering menace. Installed in front of the projection is an arrangement of found falcon perches that may call to mind a readymade homage to Alberto Giacometti’s “The Palace at 4 a.m.”
Read article at newyorker.com
