clarissa tossin


Clarissa Tossin: All That You Touch, You Change
February 4—June 1, 2025
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, USA

The exhibition’s title is drawn from Octavia Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower, which opens with the verses, “All that you touch, you Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting Truth is Change.” The verses encapsulate Tossin’s belief in our capacity to influence Earth’s ecological future. Within this exhibition, the artist explores how legacies of colonialism lead to harmful appropriative practices, rampant consumption, and destruction of Earth’s life-sustaining biodiversity, as well as the attempted privatization of, and extraction from sovereign celestial bodies. As suggested by the title, Tossin points out that we have the ability to change these practices to create a more vibrant and just future.

The exhibition brings together three bodies of Tossin’s work. The first is her reflections on Maya revival architecture. Including two films, Mojo’q che b’ixan ri ixkanulab / Antes de que los Volcanes Canten / Before the Volcanos Sing and Ch’u Mayaa, as well as a series of sculptures on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, this work relies on ephemeral art forms, such as music, poetry, and dance, to recontextualize Maya revival style architecture (Maya revival architecture was designed primarily by United States based architects who were appropriating styles and motifs from a variety of Mesoamerican cultures at the beginning of the 20th century). Tossin’s work imbues these colonized spaces with performances inspired by ancient Maya musical instruments, depictions of dance, and contemporary Maya poetry in order to reclaim this contentious revivalist architecture for Maya-descendant communities. 

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All That You Touch, You Change

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February 4—June 1, 2025
Raclin Murphy Museum of Art


Solo exhibition
The next body of work explores the impact of extraction and consumerism on the environment, including works such as Encontro das Águas and Rising Temperature Casualty. Here, Tossin places traditional Amazonian weaving practices into conversation with digital technology and consumeristic waste, primarily Amazon delivery boxes and envelopes. She emphasizes how this global corporation is causing the destruction of the very environment after which it is named, and more broadly examines the impact that large technology corporations with manufacturing centers in the Amazonian region are having on local environments and peoples. 

The final body of work featured in this exhibition considers the impact of expansionist and extractive colonial mentalities imbedded within conversations around the privatization of space exploration and mining. Works such as Maritime Arrivals, Future Geography, and a new series commissioned by the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art consider how celestial bodies are recognized as sovereign under international law and are sacred to many cultures around the world. Tossin reflects on how current international space law is insufficient to regulate private corporations, the very same corporations who are primary contributors to global climate change. Taken as a whole, the exhibition points to how enduring legacies of colonialism continue to have profound impacts on people, the planet, and now space. 

This exhibition is organized by Jared Katz, former Associate Curator of the Americas and Africa at the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.

– Jared Katz

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