Calel’s works are often grounded in attentive relationships with the earth, its elements, and animal-vegetal motifs and are known to playfully challenge Western conventions and perspectives of permanence. The artist’s use of the Kaqchikel language, transpositional awareness, and the reflexivity of his presence in the places he travels belong to a practice celebratory of the daily role of spirituality among his people and vigilant toward daily threats of exclusion and cultural erasure, particularly in relation to the violence and aftermath of the Guatemalan Civil War. 


Kit Kit K’o Jay [kit kit hay casa] (2024), a work centered around the exhibition’s motifs of sound and community reverberates “a sonoric gesture and translation, a gesture of feeding birds.” The gesture Calel references is the “kit kit ” birdcall the artist’s grandmother used to make, which Calel interprets in his art as resonating throughout the community. This bond is further present in the expressively depicted human figure in Kit Kit Che [kit kit arbol] (2024) formed entirely of boxes of script depicting the kit kit call, emphasizing the indivisibility of community among his people.