11/04–23/05/2026

Pochtecayotl
Dylan Clark & Ángel Xicohtencatl Espinoza

Opening Reception
11/04, 6-10pm

SHANGHAI SEMINARY presents Pochtecayotl, an installation by Dylan Clark & Ángel Xicohtencatl Espinoza, including seating produced in cooperation with Honorio Nopal.

Pochtecayotl, a stereo sound installation, follows the planting of a capulín tree on an ejido adjacent to the Río Atoyac in Tlaxcala, México. Integrated into location recordings, a synthetic history of the capulín describes the plant’s global dispersal, tracing the mercantile pathways spreading it across disparate sites.

Native to central México, the capulín cherry (Prunus serótina Ehrh ssp. capuli) has been used in diverse forms since the prehispanic period, from firewood to huesitos, medicine to fruit preserves. The capulín is now rarely cultivated commercially or encountered as a wild plant: it exists in various configurations alongside agricultural and rural interventions by humans. Within this pattern, the capulín has spread across a unique global trajectory. By the early 20th century, the tree had been encountered beyond its initial range, in countries including the Philippines and the United States. Resistant to commercial exploitation, the capulín’s broad distribution connects, across regional climatic and social variation, histories of community labor and international development.

Dylan Clark was born in Ventura, California, and lives in New York, New York. Ángel Xicohtencatl Espinoza lives and works in Lee, Massachusetts, and Nativitas, Tlaxcala. Since 2020, Dylan Clark & Ángel Xicohtencatl Espinoza have worked on the Río Atoyac in Tlaxcala, México, engaging ejidatorios in developing new documentary approaches that contend with environmental and agricultural histories.

Recent projects include a two-person exhibition, Bongani Khoza / Dylan Clark & Ángel Xicohtencatl Espinoza, at Turquoise, New York (2025). Parallel to Pochtecayotl, an upcoming screening at Doc Films, Chicago (2026) will feature their film De parte de la comisión de agua potable se les hace la invitación a que pasen a pagar, el día de hoy, su pago de agua potable en la presidencia de comunidad, 2022/2025.