Installation notes: The three-dimensional structure at the center of the space is made of geometric facets evoking Edison’s ‘Black Maria’ rotating stage. Each geometric panel stands vertically to hold an hexagonal roof and a sharply pointed triangular shape, all built with hollow walls which are held open on their edges, making visible lines of neon of different colors, placed inside their borders. The surface of each of these modular elements is painted in dark red, blue, and green. Around this structure lye groups of geometric patterns made of acrylic and glass mirrors, also of different colors. These groups are placed near the walls of the exhibition space. Signs and words in reverse have been printed on these patterns, which are arranged in different compositions on the floor. Each group is illuminated from above by ellipsoidal spotlights, focused in such a way that the mirrored shapes reflect their forms, signs and words on the gallery walls.
Behind the Black Maria structure is a slide projector with a single transparency loaded on its gate. The projected image, composed of three different sections, is split by means of two highly reflective optical mirrors angled to the left and to the right, and leaving a gap at the center of the projection beam. A stylized representation of the Plumed Serpent –composed of fangs and feathers, known to ornate a Pre-Columbian Aztec temples– is at the center of the direct projection, while the optical mirrors split in two the image of ‘The Apparition,’ a painting by Gustave Moreau depicting Salome and the floating head of Saint John the Baptist, projecting these to the left and the right of the space. Only the neon lights, the beams lighting the mirrors on the floor, and the slide projection, illuminate the gallery space. Orpheus Beheaded (Rousseliana) –and its indirect references to the transformations of mythological characters– suggest a descent into the world of darkness.
Leandro Katz, October 1983

Orpheus Beheaded was part of Abstract Attitudes: Waltercio Caldas/Leandro Katz/Bernardo Salcedo. Curated by John Stringer, Americas Society, New York; and The Rhode Island School of Design Museum (RISD). Curated by Judy Hoos Fox, 1984.