There are robots on view in Canal Projects' ground floor gallery. Artist Fernando Palma Rodríguez’s contraptions emerge from a camouflage of corn husks with naked tangles of wire, aluminium frames and electronic controls. Each machine is sparsely adorned. Some bear blocks resembling reptilian faces, or a reflective isothermic blanket akin to a lizard’s open frill, but none of these details fully disguise their mechanical bones nor do they hinder their ability to react within the space. At unexpected intervals, the sculptures on wheels advance forward or backwards, aggressively wagging their serpentine heads. Then a series of wooden spoons, bound to the floor with clay pots throughout the gallery, begin rotating and bobbing erratically. Several pieces crowned with radio heads emit sudden bursts of sound. At any moment, the gallery is filled with a sudden cacophony of winding gears and motors. Visitors are beckoned through the corn maze to witness their sources before they return to their dormant states.

The activations of the sculptures are not as arbitrary as they may seem. The artist has synchronised their movements with climate data sourced from his home in the agricultural region of Milpa Alta outside of Mexico City, ensuring that the installation’s activity mirrors these distant fluctuating weather patterns. The feat of Āmantēcayōtl: And When it Disappears, it is Said, the Moon has Died is the result of Palma Rodríguez’s training as both an artist and a mechanical engineer. Born in Mexico, he currently runs a nonprofit called Calpulli Tecalco, dedicated to the preservation of the Nahua language and culture out of Milpa Alta. His research on indigenous knowledge is central to this art installation, which was specially commissioned by Canal Projects and organised by assistant curator Sara Garzón. Using the language of mechanics to reference Mesoamerican cosmology, Palma Rodríguez’s robots investigate an expansive definition of technology. His bold merging of disparate worlds reveals connections between ancient means of harnessing energy and modern innovation.

The presence of corn stalks fixed to posts and mounds of dark soil evokes the environment of the Milpa, or corn field, on the slopes of the Teuhtli Volcano. Here, maize, beans and squash are grown in harmony. Beans produce the nitrogen necessary for maize plants to grow tall and their stalks in turn provide a scaffold upon which the bean plant can climb. Meanwhile, the shadows cast by squash leaves lay low to the ground to defend against the growth of weeds. The introduction of machinery in the Milpa initially appears as a nod to the encroaching industrialisation of agricultural lands. However, these carefully constructed devices reveal themselves as deities deeply embedded within traditional Mesoamerican beliefs surrounding crop cultivation.

Central to the installation is Cincoatl, the massive serpent sculpture fixed above a display of soil. Its elevated position speaks to its reputation as an interlocutor between earth and sky. Although it is the most ferocious-looking robot in the installation, this being is encouraged by farmers to roam their crops, and its name is often translated as “snake-friend of maize corn.” Marking the bounds of this sacred harvest space are four snake-like Chinantles, each with a different-coloured head to represent the cardinal directions. Decorated with husks, they are hybrids of traditional barriers made of corn stalks and the Aztec Quetzalcoatl, a feathered serpent related to wind, knowledge and learning. Two standing machines with CD players represent Tezcatlipocas, tricksters and shapeshifters associated with dance, music and the origin of corn. In one myth the Tezcatlipoca is said to take on the form of a coyote who has a sudden fit of laughter in the sacred field of Paxil. Exploding into corn from the outburst, it was believed to symbolise destiny, as well as the origin of the Mesoamerican people and their primary source of food. Palma Rodríguez’s use of iconography evokes a broader belief system in which ancestral worldviews are intertwined with traditional earth practices. These sacred entities play a vital role in nurturing life specific to the Milpa, which is already characterised by a network of mutually beneficial biological relationships.

“When one understands that the snake is a network of energy, we know that what we are talking about is the earth, because the earth is clothed in energy. A tree is energy, the sky is energy, the sun is energy, and consequently, we are all an energetic sea,” the artist shared. Drawing inspiration from indigenous customs, the artist aims to accentuate the interconnectedness of the world, where everything is influenced by the natural environment. By connecting the electricity that activates his machines with weather patterns, Palma Rodríguez thus complicates the conventional perception of robots as symbols of human intelligence and dominion over nature. Instead, they redirect attention to the inherent wisdom of the land. The robots seem to emerge as conduits of preexisting knowledge that nurture creation within both agricultural and artistic realms.