clarissa tossin



Monkey (single and double coat),
2019


3D-printed terracotta replica of a Pre-Columbian Maya globular flute (Guatemalan Highlands, 300–900 CE) in the Vical Museum of Pre-Columbian Art and Modern Glass, Antigua, Guatemala
11 x 3 1⁄2 x 3 1⁄8 in.

Human Figure (single and double coat), 2019


3D-printed terracotta replica of a Pre-Columbian Maya globular flute (Guatemalan Highlands, 300–900 CE) in the Vical Museum of Pre-Columbian Art and Modern Glass, Antigua, Guatemala
6 x 4 3⁄4 x 2 1⁄2 in.


Seated Female Figure with Monkey and Child,
2019


3D-printed terracotta replica of a Pre-Columbian Maya ocarina
(Guatemalan Highlands, Alta Verapaz region, 550–950 CE) in the Denver Art Museum 14 1⁄4 x 8 1⁄2 x 4 1⁄4 in.


Bird, 2019


3D-printed terracotta replica of a Pre-Columbian Maya ocarina(Ceibal, Guatemala, n.d.) in the collection of the Ceibal Laboratory, Guatemala
1 3⁄4 x 1 5⁄8 x 1 1⁄4



Figure in Jaguar Costume with Blowgun, 2021


3D-printed terracotta replica of a Pre-Columbian Maya globular flute (Guatemalan Highlands, ca. 500 CE) in the Denver Art Museum
7 x 4 1⁄2 x 3 3⁄4 in.

Opossum, 2019


3D-printed terracotta replica of a Pre-Columbian Maya ocarina(Playa de los Muertos, Ulúa Valley, Yoro, Honduras, n.d.) in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
3 1⁄2 x 2 1⁄2 x 2 3⁄4 in.

    3D printed replicas of pre-Columbian Maya wind instruments played in Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ / Antes de que los volcanes canten / Before the Volcanoes Sing,2022. The film traces the movement of Maya people and culture across multiple spaces and temporalities, real and imagined, cosmological and colonized. The fact that the ancient instruments are not available for use—isolated from their original context and kept behind glass in museum collections—can be seen as a distillation of the themes of dislocation and tradition that Tossin works to reconcile in the film.

    Featuring the K’iche ’Kaqchiquel poet Rosa Chávez and the Ixil Maya artist Tohil Fidel Brito Bernal, the film looks at ways in which contemporary Maya culture is activated by means of both reclamation and re-creation. Tossin filmed some parts in Guatemala and others at the John Sowden House in Los Angeles, built by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. in the “Mayan Revival” style, which used pre-Columbian Mesoamerican motifs without significant reference to or engagement with their sources.

3D-printed replicas of pre-Columbian Maya wind instruments played in the film 
Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab’ /
Antes de que los volcanes canten /
Before the Volcanoes Sing 


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