Guadalupe Maravilla. Disease Thrower #5. 2019

Guadalupe Maravilla Disease Thrower #5 2019

  • MoMA, Floor 2, 212

Disease Thrower #5 is a sculpture, a shrine, a wearable headdress, and an acoustic instrument. Like all works in the Disease Thrower series, it is, according to the artist, a “healing machine,” which can be activated to create a sound bath with curative potential. It is made from both natural materials, such as straw and loofah, and man-made objects that Maravilla collected while retracing parts of the migratory route from El Salvador to the United States he took as a child. The work also includes anatomical models: one of a breast, another of a malignant tumor.

Disease Thrower #5 es a la vez una escultura, un santuario, un tocado y un instrumento acústico. Como todas las obras de la serie Disease Throwers, se trata, según el artista, de una “máquina sanadora”, que puede activarse para crear un baño de sonido con potencial curativo. Está hecha tanto de materiales orgánicos—por ejemplo, paja y luffa una esponja natural—como de objetos artificiales que Maravilla recolectó mientras volvía a trazar partes de la ruta migratoria que emprendió de niño desde El Salvador hasta los Estados Unidos. La obra también incluye modelos anatómicos: uno de un pecho con un tumor maligno.

Gallery label from 2021.
Gong, glass, steel, wood, glue mixture, cotton, wood, plastic, loofah, paint, straw, Florida Water, and objects collected from a ritual retracing the artist's original migration route
Fund for the Twenty-First Century
Object number
© Guadalupe Maravilla
Painting and Sculpture

Installation views

How we identified these works







