Maya Alphabet of Modern Times

Since being inspired by her master thesis work at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London since 2005, and living with the Maya-chortí community in the mountains of Copán Ruinas, Honduras, Frida Larios is co-regenerating more than 100 new designs integrating them into diverse media, such as books, works on paper, installations, sculptures, garments, jewels and toys. These new artifacts carry through a decolonized heritage to a contemporary audience of every age, thus intending that the Meso-American script is preserved to see a new generation.

Learn about the symbolism behind the ancestral Maya script, how the Lego-like Maya alphabet of modern times system works and some basic visual vocabulary and about indigenous design cosmovision as a whole.

About Frida Larios

Frida Larios (1974, El Salvador), is as an urban Indigenous-descendant and pluridiverse typo-graphic artist. She holds a Bachelors of Arts from University College Falmouth in England, and a Masters of Arts in Communication Design from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, University of the Arts London. While in London, the former Central American beach volleyball gold medallist taught at the London College of Fashion and Camberwell College of Arts. She has been a regenerative workshop and education leader for over 20 years. She is currently Adjunct Professorial Lecturer in Visual Literacy at American University in Washington, D.C. Guided by community Guardians, her collective Animales Interiores, New Maya (Visual) Language, The Community Buried by an Erupting Volcano & Tree Codex titles, bridge and facilitate ancestral Indigenous visual languages, spiritual and graphical essence, through intercultural letters, symbols, textiles, stones, walls, trees, immersing and emerging from place, love and intergenerational community. The titles are based on the logographic principles of ancestral Maya and Nawa hieroglyphs. Larios’ murals, installations and ofrendas, are widely displayed in Washington, DC, and have been exhibited in Central and South America, Europe and Asia. Larios’ works and texts have been featured in AP News, Getty Images, Telemundo 44, Smithsonian Magazine (Online), Courrier International, BBC Radio 4, Getty Images, Agence France-Presse (AFP), PRINT Magazine, ElFaro.net, TASCHEN, Thames & Hudson, and others.

Learn More at these links:

http://www.indigo-indigenousdesignnetwork.org.au/

http://www.indigo-indigenousdesignnetwork.org.au/design_charter/

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/smithsonian-latino-center/2018/11/08/smithsonian-latino-center-day-dead-celebration-2018/

https://www.carlosrosario.org/collaborative-mural-depicts-students-cultural-origins/

https://youtu.be/2U3aqOdF1N8