Santa Fe
artist statements & installation photos

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6599 Jaguar Drive (Southside Library)

Have you ever witnessed an Alaskan midnight sunset fade out into glimmering stars? Heard Francis Ford Coppola’s gardener recount tales of driving through the Hollywood Hills to play a washboard? What if the windows you pass on the street could be portals to another part of the country? Or to an inside view of someone else’s life? What if the portals allowed you to share aspects of your own life?

Welcome to Human Insite! Rooted in Santa Fe windows and seeded with photographs, musical postcards, and a live webcam, Human Insite opens portals to the wilds of virtual space. A celebration of the diversity of lifestyles and landscapes in the USA and beyond, this interactive multimedia installation invites you to connect to stories, images, sounds, and people you might never otherwise meet. Human Insite exists simultaneously in multiple locations across Santa Fe. See installations 15 and 17.
humaninsite.com

1618 St. Michaels Dr (vacant, Thomas properties)

This work, titled Reliquary #1, is an attempt to connect several disparate subjects including: reflections on teaching in a Covid-19 Zoom reality, the ominous forces that continue tirelessly to sway and control, and my own affinity for observing our planet’s grand intricacies and natural rhythms.

During the last few months, the image of how many of my Native students use blankets or fabric as backdrops in our virtual classroom kept presenting itself to me. Their use of these blankets made me recall how I had seen elders also use blankets/fabric for wall adornment, room dividers, protection, and warmth. These items hold significant cultural strength and the fabric components in my installation indicate my admiration for my students and their ability to adjust and adapt.

At the same time, the swath of chocolate chip camouflage points to the ongoing rise of the civil military industrial complex. The phenomenon of conflict has always permeated my work in some shape or another. Again as before, these abuses/excesses have gone unchecked for so long that they no longer provoke public opposition. The hand-drawn poster also alludes to this turbulence. Horses have always held a place of benefit and tribulation for me. My paternal grandfather was maimed by a horse, so I cannot forget the positive and negative power the animal possesses. The faces that horses make can also strike fear as they have had a deep, cyclical connection to colonialist war, invasion, and possession.
chasbanks.blogspot.com

Cracking the seeds of creativity and creating worlds of emerging beauty with sculptures, books, and hanging art, we evoke the concept of fertility and how beauty comes from the hardest of times.
EMERGING FUTURES! A CRACK IN THE NORMAL!

Our window provides a glimpse into a newer way of living, full of life and with the spirit of joy. We illustrate book arts’ many uses and how they can represent the life force that keeps us all alive and entertained. Our IN THE BAG, OUT OF THE BAG program of community arts and public paper creation by BAG members provide the rich burst of energetic forces and images on view, which embody a more vibrant future in our completely upside-down world.

Our artist statement and this installation by fifteen artists represents a large group of approximately 150 artists with wild, exciting paper works and creative diversity, who work independently, a subsection of whom have come together for the creation of this installation meant to bring hope and joy as we face our undefined futures. We believe that the creative spirit is the answer to all obstacles and it comes from creative play. During this time of isolation, the artist’s mind comes alive. It is our personal gift: making tangible what we see and dream. People walking by will say, “WHAT IS THAT? WHAT IS HAPPENING?”
santafebag.org

1660 St. Michaels Dr (thomas properties, Next to Harbor Freight)

This window installation contains portraits of migrant children refugees that have died in the detention camps at the southern border. It is a memorial to their lives and a reminder that freedom should never include child abuse, children in cages, children behind bars, or children and youth taken from the arms of their parents. In 2019, 69,550 youth were in custody in the US.

The art also reveals some doves and flowers that glisten with highlights of gold and silver to signify hope, money signs pointing to excessive prison funding, and eyes staring out seeking HELP from inside the bars.

Grocery bags painted with statements were done by elders and others. The spaces in the bags and battery operated candles allow them to glow in the dark. This light is a prayer for peace and freedom for all people seeking asylum from cruel and inhuman conditions.

Youth ages eight to seventeen contributed to this art installation during the 2019 Warehouse 21 summer program. This project was funded by the City of Santa Fe Children & Youth Commission. At the time, students shared how heartbreaking it was that the USA was putting innocent children in detention camps because, "no child should be denied their parents or hugs from loved ones when they're sick and scared."

FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER!

warehouse21.org

From Shelley Robinson, art teacher:
The 8th grade girls created this installation as a collaborative art class project in recognition of being the class of 2020. These young women are visionaries!

The lens curtain is made out of collected and donated used eyeglass lenses. We spent our year in art playing with the theme of 20/20 vision. The lenses inspired the idea that each student sees her world differently through her own unique life lens. By joining all of these lenses, with their different focal lengths, together into a large curtain makes the conceptual statement that these girls are individuals who are joined together as the class of 2020, a community of visionaries. They also wanted to create a beautiful and sparkly physical sculpture.

The 2nd theme that arose out of these brainstorming sessions in class was the fact that the average human attention span is 8 seconds, only 8 seconds! How could their sculpture make others see and engage with the art for longer than that?

The Visionary Lens Curtain is a transparent, blurry mosaic of corrective lenses with which you can interact. Viewing the girls’ self-portrait eye drawings through the curtain creates an interesting kaleidoscopic effect, by distorting the art behind it, making you look again and again. You can also try to read the written thoughts and poems of these 8th graders on the lenses’ surfaces, teenagers’ expressions of their present and their future. The viewing experience can be both farsighted and nearsighted. We don’t all see the same way!
santafegirlsschool.org

1704-C Llano Rd

This installation is meant to provoke thought. While I hope it’s also visually exciting, the point is mostly about human nature and how we cope with adversity, uncertainty and change. Given this recent pandemic, it’s not hard to ask, “What if?” about many things. This was my approach to considering Windows On The Future. What if face coverings or more became the new norm? What if protective clothing and the world of fashion were to collide? What if we become bored with safety and still feel a need to express our individuality?

For good or bad, our economy thrives on brand-conscious consumers who want to keep up with trends and set themselves apart from the “herd” with high-end designer garb. My guess is if hazmat suits became “this season’s must haves” it would only take an instant for designers to put their logos all over them and cleverly market them to receptive buyers. Whether you think this marks commercialism gone awry, or an interesting look at how humans in a free society adapt and make the best of things, it’s an interesting proposition.

Many film depictions of a dystopian future in our culture portray human beings in colorless rags. But I wonder if in such a setting, objects of vibrant color would perhaps be revered and hoarded, and if we would more likely become flamboyant “peacocks” as a coping mechanism.
janetbothne.com

1114 Hickox suite A (Oasis Theatre Company)

I feel we have a collective broken heart right now, from this deadly virus which has upended everything in our society, to watching the killing of our fellow Black citizens by police and to the brutality proving the point of the protests against police brutality.  The whole world watched four policemen torture a helpless Black man and slowly suffocate him to death.  “I can’t breathe, I can’t breath…” If art comes from the heart and the soul, this has to affect my project.

I am using birds created with wire and gauze, gauze for wounds needing dressing in our bleeding society. Red birds and blue ones to signify the polarization of our society.  I’ve stained the heart of the birds, signifying the bleeding and hurt caused by an “us against them” mentality when as humans we all want food, shelter, safety, family; we have so many of the same needs and wants.

So how can we soar together? I don’t know right now, but even with the backdrop of what is happening, I am bringing my symbolic birds together, where the red and the blue evolve into the white bird of peace and unity. Symbols are powerful things, so even if I am acknowledging the present, I’m also going to represent the possibility of a better future: less brutal, more kind, with room for all of us to breathe.
spirithorse.gallery

513A Camino de los Marquez (Zoomies Dog Daycare)

Coming from a background in Art and Art Therapy and living in the High Desert Southwest, I’m influenced by the landscape and how it in turn influences our psychology. I typically use local pigments and found objects from the arroyo to materialize a vision of the past, present, and future combined within installations, paintings, and sculpture. As a longtime Santa Fe resident, what appeals to me are the arroyos and forgotten objects and places that can be reborn into a different interpretation depending on how they are displayed. These natural and found objects can also represent different parts of the self and society that are undiscovered. During Covid, I started exploring the idea of form versus spirit and of aura and atmosphere versus pure form. I started adding New Mexico pigments into resin, beeswax, and mixed media and creating paintings and pyramids which explore the idea of a higher realm, an aspiration for which we as a society and self can always access and work towards together in the midst of an uncertain future. As an artist, my vision is to challenge the viewer to see themselves and the world from another viewpoint. Each installation and work of art involves beauty, imagination, and emotional power.
laurielarimer.squarespace.com

This installation is interactive! 

Download the free Wikitude app on your phone, search “Paradox Incubators,” and then scan the four strange glyphs on the window. This will open a vista into another world, where you can meet a friendly being named Piley whose human friend Corina needs your help. 

Corina has come from the past, where she is having a crisis in her life. She left her world to seek help from Piley, who has given her a glimpse of her world’s future—one informed by pandemic. You are this future: by scanning the glyphs, you look through Corina’s eyes and can shape her perspective with your own. Help Corina understand her individual crisis in the larger context of this complex future. 

Again, download the free Wikitude app on your phone, search “Paradox Incubators,” and then scan the glyphs. Respond to Piley’s inquiries and see what happens. Be sure to explore and investigate beyond the obvious—even more lies beyond…
theeyesoftime.com

This year, the presence of COVID-19 in our lives has brought unexpected changes, financial crisis, depression, anxiety, and even death to our lifestyles. However, it has also given us a unique opportunity, which is the chance to stop and think about our actions and our impact in this world. I came up with Looking Forward as an interpretation of our current situation as we are living in quarantine and having to reconsider and adjust our lifestyles from one moment to the next.

With this art installation, in a very conceptual way, I am capturing the idea that from our own home, from our own windows, we are all looking forward to a better tomorrow. Going back to how we used to be before the pandemic is not enough, we must look forward to a better future. A world more united, a world more connected with nature and the planet’s needs, not just our human needs. A world where animals’ rights and preserving natural landscapes are as important as the economy and the entertainment industry.

The butterflies coming out from the windows represent the lessons learned, the new ideas and hopes that we are developing during the quarantine from our homes, looking forward to creating a more balanced lifestyle between our built environment and the natural world.
rociorodriguez.studio

For years, humanity’s concept of the future has been defined by the artifice. Glass domes enclose glistening chrome cities. Cars fly. People abandon Earth for other planets entirely. According to this vision, the destiny of humanity is to be separated from the natural world, to discard it as useless as we continue to succumb to capitalism over human lives. More and more our culture is realizing that this vision is flawed, that the line between natural and artificial is more blurred than we realized, and that to discard the natural world is to destroy ourselves. We have created a world where we value commodities more than life; we have altered the natural world to fit our falsely perceived needs instead of connection with each other, ourselves, and nature. We are now very close to destroying our only home. The future depicted here is, in a sense, the only possible future. It is a future in which humanity reveres the natural world, thus accepting it as an irreplaceable part of what it means to be human.
ileanaalarcon.com

1606 Paseo De Peralta (SITE Santa Fe)

In our installation, we pay homage to the resiliency of our families while exploring the relationship to our cultural identities in the form of kites. As an immigrant and a descendant of immigrant parents, our life experiences give us an understanding of the inequalities that many immigrant families confront.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded that many people, not just our families, lack the security and means necessary to get by. Many are faced with issues of food insecurity, lack of healthcare, housing and financial instability. In our work we want to highlight the tireless efforts of our families and communities that face these hardships on a daily basis. 

The kites are imprinted with stories, along with traditional symbols and patterns from Guatemala. As a form, kites have an ephemeral quality: they are simple structures built to resist the unpredictability of the wind. They are a symbol of resistance and resilience. Naturally the kites want to fly away, by containing them within a window display, we temporarily hold these narratives in place to share our own stories, as well as the stories of others.
kemelygomez.com / yvetteserrano.com

500 Montezuma Ave (New Mexico School for the Arts)

Using plaster as a sculptural and lyrical material to cast the physical space between NMSA alums, I capture the space between the former students. In a time when personal and physical space is so clearly defined and intentionally kept separate, this sculpture speaks to and resists the notion that we are in fact ever apart. The Hollow relates abstract notions of a community bond and represents growth from the ground up. The building and creation of the sculpture embody the evolution of the student by simultaneously embracing the past, holding the present, and hoping for the future in its form. It rejects the concept of disconnection and isolation that is so deeply felt by so many during this historic moment. The future depends on our ability to see the connections between ourselves, our communities, and our neighbors. In The Hollow, each of us can be ourselves and be together. This sculpture is a nod to our connections and our community and is a visible offering to our neighbors. Machin, Horne, Peña, and Mobbs are all artists working in a variety of media in different stages of their creative careers.
andresmachin.com / ezrihorne.com / brdsmbbs.myportfolio.com / nmschoolforthearts.org

310 Johnson St (Geisler Projects)

 This installation, Garden of P's by Gregory Allen Waits and Linen Clay productions, weaves a deconstructed narrative of human intervention in the creation cycle of nature.  By engaging our Principle of P's within the context of the garden, a stage is set where the program becomes path(s), that leads to placement(s), revealing patterns that unveil punctuation(s).  Natural and engineered materials essential to the process of gardening are employed through dissociative frameworks to invigorate new ideas, meaning, and possibilities of conceptualizing the garden. The piece contains a performative element and will evolve over the course of the month as I refresh the garden with fresh cuttings. Time based digital media of sound and video image, signature echoes of mythical traces of an amplified Garden of Eden.  Video co-directed and performed by Katrina Mitelenes and digital media production co-directed by Philip Brautigam.
www.linenclay.com

The nocturnal nature of the moth means it navigates through darkness, vigilantly following the path to light. A master of disguise, the moth contains the ability to blend in, adjusting and adapting when needed. The moth is metamorphic, undergoing a transformational process to change into a completely different form. Unlike the butterfly, whose transformation takes place in the clear light of day, the moth speaks to the current darkness humanity is being asked to confront and the necessity to decompose systems of oppression. The future is dependent on our efforts to traverse darkness and uncertainty to cultivate radical new ways of existing. This piece is a representation of an entire life, death, and rebirth cycle. According to entomologists, the New Mexico moth infestation is due to a lack of water. Historically, moths have remained in rural areas where water sources are abundant and they are now fleeing to urban areas in search of light and water. This phenomenon is interconnected with climate change. The light contained within the installation invites one to converse with the notion of illumination in darkness. We can't see our future, but we know that the continued existence of human and other-than-human species is contingent on collective healing. The circles speak to the cyclical processes of life, death, and rebirth present across species. A practice of regeneration, the moth carcasses call for a recognition of renewal, restoration, and re-growth.
chelseacall.com

The main ambition of this project is to examine how American priorities are dominated by the protection of commodities over people. I have placed culturally significant forms that are associated with tableware that represent the diverse people of the US on three tables separated into zones which represent the socioeconomic strata in our communities. Eyeglasses and ears accompany these wares to highlight the importance of using these senses to understand one another. The umbrella are in disrepair, representing the government’s lack of support for the people and commenting on the negative pressure we feel in communities influenced by corporate interests. The American flag forms a tent shelter housing and protecting the commodities that make up the largest share of our economy.

907 W Alameda St Unit B (Honeymoon Brewery)

Have you ever witnessed an Alaskan midnight sunset fade out into glimmering stars? Heard Francis Ford Coppola’s gardener recount tales of driving through the Hollywood Hills to play a washboard? What if the windows you pass on the street could be portals to another part of the country? Or to an inside view of someone else’s life? What if the portals allowed you to share aspects of your own life?

Welcome to Human Insite! Rooted in Santa Fe windows and seeded with photographs, musical postcards, and a live webcam, Human Insite opens portals to the wilds of virtual space. A celebration of the diversity of lifestyles and landscapes in the USA and beyond, this interactive multimedia installation invites you to connect to stories, images, sounds, and people you might never otherwise meet. Human Insite exists simultaneously in multiple locations across Santa Fe. See installations 1 and 17.
humaninsite.com

620 Cerrillos Rd (international Folk Art Market)

My work celebrates change — the cyclic duality of creation and loss. Drawing inspiration from New Mexico’s big sky, varied hues, and cloud shapes, I relate them to the activity of transition, both emotional and physical, that creates a space where past, present, and future assemblages of our selves culminate in an expanse of possibility.

I approached my window as a meaningful metaphor for our present moment, an opportunity to deeply connect to and reframe one’s self. The window frame is a metaphor for giving attention, or consciousness as a narrative. Like a photographer’s viewfinder, we decide what is in and what is out of our view or our attention. It also organizes what is within and without or on opposing sides of the window.

As unrest and protests in response to racist policy, policing, and inequity grips more than 140 U.S. cities, the idea of the window can be imagined further as the unseen-but-felt-systems organizing oppressed and oppressor, equity and inequity. While the concept of the window may be conceived as passive, I believe it is an active portal to somewhere new — an invitation to cultivate empathy, compassion, and connection to yourself, to purposefully dismantle destructive societal narratives and systems, and with deliberate intention and attention, reshape the world.
www.robynafrank.com

125 East Palace #125 (Goler Shoes)

Have you ever witnessed an Alaskan midnight sunset fade out into glimmering stars? Heard Francis Ford Coppola’s gardener recount tales of driving through the Hollywood Hills to play a washboard? What if the windows you pass on the street could be portals to another part of the country? Or to an inside view of someone else’s life? What if the portals allowed you to share aspects of your own life?

Welcome to Human Insite! Rooted in Santa Fe windows and seeded with photographs, musical postcards, and a live webcam, Human Insite opens portals to the wilds of virtual space. A celebration of the diversity of lifestyles and landscapes in the USA and beyond, this interactive multimedia installation invites you to connect to stories, images, sounds, and people you might never otherwise meet. Human Insite exists simultaneously in multiple locations across Santa Fe. See installations 1 and 15.
humaninsite.com

201 W Marcy St (Santa Fe Convention Center)

This window on the future brings attention to the natural environment, in particular what lies hidden below the surface of the world’s oceans and the microscopic world of fungi that proliferate in every biological niche from wet mountain tops to the most arid regions on earth. These pieces were inspired by early memories of wading through warm Pacific tide pools and temperate northwestern rain forests where the mystery, magic, and diversity of their flora and fauna are no less beguiling than a walk through a complex urban cottage garden. As we currently focus our attention closer to our immediate homes and communities during this time of unprecedented change, it’s easy to forget that the climate is still one of our main concerns. Without healthy environmental diversity the fabric of all our lives is compromised. This ceramic microcosm is meant to be a link between nature’s complexity and the recognition within us each of how essential that is to our well-being. My vision was driven by a desire to awaken you to the incredible beauty and diversity of life forms occurring in places you would normally have to go far out of your way to see, or under a log in your own backyard. I hope I’ve inspired you to reflect on your connection to the natural environment which sustains us, and as such, to understand that it is all one glorious world we are an inseparable part of. We are it. It is us.
danieljforest.com

220 Otero St, door facing washington st (Vital Spaces)

The process for these sculptures began with the creation of architectural elements created using plaster and balsa-wood scale lumber. After arranging and photographing the sculpted elements in-studio, they were printed onto poster-board and cut out. The cut-outs were then reassembled to make new configurations that playfully confuse the sense of scale. The flattening of these materially opposing elements (the large, heavy, ancient stone columns versus the delicate, fragile, contemporary wooden frames) onto a third material (paper, which we use to record and communicate our histories) is an equalizing gesture. The cardboard stand-up belongs to the realm of retail advertising; at the same time, these flattened elements take on the character of theatrical sets.

The continuous cycles of development and collapse are timeless and elemental to the human condition. Events that underscore the impermanence of our structures, whether societal or physical, arise again and again throughout the history of humankind, and yet here we are. We persist. To stand in front of ruins is to have survived.
ameliabauer.com

100 East San Francisco st (La Fonda Hotel)

The concept for my installation is “Finding Refuge in time of despair and hardship – SANCTUARY.” Coming from a Buddhist perspective on life, the current crisis has shown me the fragility of the human condition and the need for loving kindness towards others. I believe in the karmic manifestation of our conscious and unconscious actions and the perpetual karmic changes in life through virtuous deeds. With that in mind, I wanted to create a conceptual space on spiritual harmony that uses a contemporary art vernacular, combining ready-made objects (books) with a single, handmade 3D objects (ceramic forms) of equal importance.

The books stand for knowledge, stability, and inner wisdom while the ceramic objects abstractly stand for the spirit, mind, and compassion. Together they create a harmonious unified whole. Constructed simply and delicately, the stacked books serve as the base supporting the clay sculptures on top, melting together to create a wish-granting, wish-fulfilling jewel structure. These towering forms refer to architectural structures like stupas, mandalas, pyramids, altars, cairns, and memorials. The purpose of creating this personal environment is to allow for reflection, meditation, contemplation and to memorialize all that has passed on.
facebook.com/victortengcontemporary

THANK YOU

Special thanks to Falling Colors, the LOR Foundation, and the Taos Community Foundation for their generous sponsorship of  Windows on the Future. Thank you to Creative Santa Fe for helping Vital Spaces find venues in Santa Fe and to Taos Mainstreet for their assistance in Taos. Thank you to the businesses and private donors throughout Northern and Central New Mexico who have supported this project through access to their windows, donations, and volunteered time. And thank you to Joan Vorderbruggen, Director of Hennepin Theatre District Engagement, Hennepin Theatre Trust in Minneapolis, Minnesota for all of her generous guidance.

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