The Symbolic World of José Mansilla-Miranda - Maria-Lucia Castillo

The Symbolic World of
José Mansilla-Miranda
The frozen body of José Mansilla-Miranda was
slowly warming up on the shore of the Snake
River when a dream of his daughter’s cry, “Dad,
wake up! You’re dying,” seemed to have brought him
back to consciousness.
The raft in which he had been paddling down cold waters
of northern Canada flipped and Mansilla-Miranda was
caught under until the drift allowed him to resurface.
This was the summer of 2003, when Mansilla-Miranda
participated in the Three Rivers Journey project, a national
expedition that brought artists together with First
Nations people to paddle for 18 days in three separate
but simultaneous journeys along three mountain rivers
in the Yukon Territory. The goal of the expedition was
to experience and celebrate through art, Canada’s boreal
wilderness in the hope of raising public awareness of this
magnificent river system and the threats to its integrity.
Mansilla-Miranda says he went on the Yukon expedition
because he wanted to be baptized by nature. When his
raft flipped, the powerful river took away his glasses and
his shoes.
“It was very symbolic what the river took from me”, he
By María Lucía Castillo
Lux - triptych (Alpha, Spine and Omega), 2004. (48 x 84 inches, each panel), Oil, acrylic and gold enamel on canvas and wood.
6 • Mapalé 5 • II - Panorama • Winter/Invierno 2006-2007
says. For him it meant he had to see things in a new way,
walk differently through life.
He says that having been so close to dying transformed
his art, making it “less intellectual and more intuitive”.
Now the symbols in his artwork originate less from his
research and more from his instinct.
Recurrent symbols in Mansilla-Miranda’s work include
red roses, wolves and the side view of an asexual being.
As part of his canvas, he commonly uses military camouflage
fabric as a metaphor for territory.
In his youth, Mansilla-Miranda studied theology at a
catholic seminary in Chile for 8 years and his artwork
often conveys religious symbolism.
The 51-year-old Chilean artist came to Canada in 1979.
He expresses himself through paintings, multi-media installations
and performances, the latter of which incorporate
another of his life-long passions: long-distance
running.
Last summer, he did a performance called Resurrexit at
an arts festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he ran
across the city placing in each of 14 stations a single red

José Mansilla-Miranda. Ottawa/Gatineau, octubre 2006
rose on top of a loaf of bread.
On a wall at Mansilla-Miranda’s studio in Ottawa/Hull,
currently hang fourteen rectangular croquis for a new
artwork that will use the white cloths that marked the
stations of a performance he did in Valdivia, Chile earlier
this year.
Mansilla-Miranda is enjoying a new stage in his art, one
rooted in the understanding that life is more profound
Heart of the World, 2006
Installation: rose branches woven in shape of heart, one painting, objects.
XIV Station Series – Station VII, 2006 (23” x 23”) Blue and red ink, bees
wax, silk thread, sanguine graphite, bread mould on cotton “corporal”*.
than the day-to-day concerns and the mundane interests
of which we often become slaves. ♪
_______________________________________________________
María Lucía Castillo was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, but
has been living in Canada since 2003. She has a Bachelor of Science
degree and she is currently pursuing a Master of Journalism at Carleton
University, in Ottawa. María Lucía loves writing for all media
and she is passionate about photography and documentaries.
*Corporal = white linen cloth laid on the alter on which the elements
of bread and wine are consecrated.
Rose II, 2003.
(39” x 48” ), Oil, acrylic and gold enamel on camouflage fabric.
Mapalé 5 • II - Panorama • Winter/Invierno 2006-2007 • 7