Performance Appraisal is an ongoing series that revises Ramírez's body of work prior 2024, through administrative language, instruments or processes instigated in conscientious gallery management. The framework of a 'performance appraisal' implies that Ramírez' ouvre is being measured, reviewed and valorised.
Performance Appraisal 1 addresses When Conquest Swallowed The Sun (2018-2022), a work that Ramírez first presented in 2018 and continued to show in various iterations, ranging from a video, to a mural and a light installation, across a range of spaces.
The original project referenced a conflict between Columbus and First Peoples of Jamaica, where the former instrumentalised a solar eclipse. In February 24, 1504, Christopher Columbus was stranded in Jamaica where the locals were resourcing him and his fleet. When the First Peoples of Jamaica ceased to support Columbus, he used an eclipse mapped on the calendar of Regiomontanus to manipulate the locals, making them believe that he caused the moon to swallow the sun and subjecting them to his will.
Ramírez tracked down the Regiomontanus's page that Columbus used through his diary and the date of the event, then used image manipulation to spectacularise it and juxtapose it with an illustration of Columbus in Jamaica. The last display of When Conquest Swallowed The Sun took the form of a large 3.6 x 2.4m banner, as part of Aeon Resurrection curated by Jake Treacy (who originally curated this work in Beyond The Veil in 2018).
For Performance Appraisal 1, the staff at West Space covered the floor of their office for an exhibition period with this large vinyl, which deteriorated with every employee's movement during working hours. This encouraged multiple readings of the work, ranging from a commentary on the size of West Space's office to the increasingly public role that administrators play in the art world. As the aesthetics of the banner functioned as a stage that drew attention to the person who happened to be sitting within the umbra of the eclipse. It also makes a humorous remark on the value of the work, which is being used as a deteriorating carpet.
Special thanks to West Space's Director Joanna Kitto and Curator Sebastian Henry Jones.
