The Contemporary Austin will present "Mariposa Relámpago," a traveling installation created by the Salvadorian-born, New York-based trans disciplinary visual artist and healer Guadalupe Maravilla.

Maravilla’s monumental sound-healing sculpture "Mariposa Relámpago" was born out of the artist’s life history. Maravilla purchased a yellow school bus in El Salvador with the intention of re-tracing his migration route from El Salvador to the United States.

Equal parts sculpture, shrine, and healing instrument, the work was transformed from a school bus and elaborately reconstructed with hundreds of objects that speak to Maravilla’s story. Now adorned with chrome plating, the bus features fringe made of cutlery and a range of objects imbued with spiritual, political, and medicinal meaning, from models of children’s torsos, intended to reference the ghosts of those who first used the bus and those who have traversed across borders in search of safety, to symbols from Mesoamerican cosmology, Indigenous practices, and spiritual emblems, as well as contemporary imagery of disease and medicine.

Known for his sculptures and paintings incorporating natural materials and handmade objects, as well as his sound ceremonies, Maravilla’s expansive practice draws from his personal history and Central American ancestry. Maravilla fled El Salvador’s civil war as an unaccompanied minor and made a perilous journey through Central America to reunite with family in the United States, becoming a citizen in 2006.

Later in life, he was diagnosed with colon cancer, an illness he links to generational trauma and the stresses of his migration experience. Throughout Maravilla’s recovery process, he was introduced to ancient and contemporary healing methods. Maravilla has since continued to raise awareness of trauma and expand access to healing.

The exhibition will remain on display through November 3