This exhibition begins and ends with Pericón, an aromatic herb that is native to Central America and known for its medicinal properties and sweet, anise-like scent. Traditionally used as a natural dye, Pericón is also valued as a remedy for nausea and as a general relaxant.

Pericón: A Cure for All Ailments is a multisensory environment inspired by ancient botanical wisdom and a contemporary longing for healing in a damaged world. Hundreds of Pericón tea bags line the walls of ArtsWestchester’s historic bank vault, forming a fragrant canopy that transforms the space into an intimate sanctuary.

In today’s divisive political climate, the installation offers a place of refuge and introspection, inviting visitors to consider wellness, spirituality and the power of art as a form of healing. By enveloping the chamber with a traditional medicinal herb, Urbina places ancestral knowledge within a space that is designed to safeguard wealth and value, raising the question of what forms of knowledge deserve protection today.

About the Artist:

Josué Morales Urbina is an award-winning installation and sculpture artist whose work primarily explores transcultural displacement and dépaysement. Frequent themes in his art include a pervading sense of foreignness and the impermanence of memory, which he examines through contemplative abstract installations. These works are composed of a broad range of materials, including ordinary household objects such as drinking straws and rubber bands, as well as coffee beans, toasted white bread, and other edible materials.

The questions of foreignness in Morales Urbina’s work are rooted in his being born in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and having lived across the United States as a “third culture kid” (an individual raised in a culture other than their parents’). Yet, as much as he creates to engage audiences in such explorations, Urbina’s artmaking has also led him to discover that he ultimately creates art “to build a home for myself; my art practice is my home.”

Morales Urbina’s career is marked by numerous accomplishments; he has exhibited widely, both nationally and internationally. An alum of the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, he has completed residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, La Napoule Art Foundation’s Résidence d’Artiste Internationale, Centrum in Washington state, GoggleWorks, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, NARS International AIR, SVA Artist Residency Program, ChaNorth, Banff and the Textile Arts Center’s AIR 16.