Smack Mellon’s latest exhibition, Dead Parrot Radio, finds Armando Guadalupe Cortés reimagining communication—between people, across distances, and even across species. The large-scale installation brings together steel sculptures modeled after communication towers, a performance stage built around a record player inherited from the artist’s father, and a sound work that pairs family recordings with the chatter of their pet parrots. What emerges is a portrait of longing: messages that travel but don’t quite land, connections attempted but never fully secured.
Cortés threads stories from family history, folklore, and lived experience into objects that feel both industrial and deeply personal. Parrot and macaw feathers appear throughout the gallery—formed into orbs or stitched into a maritime signal flag that reads, pointedly, “I wish to communicate with you.” Yet even this gesture is complicated: parrots perceive color differently than humans, making the signal legible to us but possibly meaningless to them.
Across towers, feathers, and sound, Cortés uses the exhibition to stage a gentle but persistent call—one shaped by migration, memory, and the ache of distances that technology can’t fully bridge.
Exhibition Information
Dead Parrot Radio
Smack Mellon
92 Plymouth St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Dates: September 27–December 14, 2025
Website: smackmellon.org
Featured Work
Installation View
Armando Guadalupe Cortés, Dead Parrot Radio
Image courtesy of Smack Mellon. Photo by Etienne Frossard.
