I work at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago I’m now in my 19th year, and when I started there was this professor that I worked with named Robert Lesher. […] As I was reading all his letters [from his estate] I realized that when he was in his 20’s he wasn’t interested in Mexico or indigenous cultures in Mexico he was more interested in how Spanish culture dominated Mexico. […] He would make lots of trips down there before it was, let’s just say, “illegal” to leave the country with artifacts that belonged to it, and as the executor of his estate I ended up with boxes of pre-Columbian art. […]

He was a teacher so the most important thing to him about learning other cultures was sharing them with his students and so in his office he had a box of pre-Columbian artifacts. […] He would take them to class and let all the students touch them. […] After he passed away I ended up with them. […] So I have this pre-Columbian tripartite bowl that survived Incan culture and Conquistadores, and Columbus, and ravaged by disease and all sorts of Colonialism and the hands of SAIC students. And here it is, what’s left of it. […] I broke it while I was cleaning it survived all of those years and I broke it while I was cleaning. And I’ll never clean again.

Exhibited by Shay

Transcript edited by Sarah Crawford