Why is Art Like an Alligator

An interrogation by Burning Books
 

The art is a survey and the survey is the art.

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This online participatory project will go live here on June 18, the opening day of CURRENTS and responses will be collected through the end of the festival on June 27. Survey results will be released later in the year.  MORE INFO HERE.

c marquez

 

998

June 25 - July 18

Opening reception in the Railyard by Farmers Market, Friday June 25, 5-7 pm

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Born in L.A., but now living in the more spare landscape of El Prado, New Mexico, just north of Taos, c marquez has spent the past several years making art  from the plants that roll up to the door of the studio.

You might call them tumbleweeds, but don’t call them that in conversation with the artist. The artist has a deep connection to the plants, and would never denigrate them as “weeds.” For the past three years, marquez has used only this plant to make their artworks. 

Sisymbrium Altissimum (tall tumble mustard) is bold and unafraid to travel across meadows or down highways, rolling across the landscape in the wind. The artist sees many attributes in the plant that have value: strength and perseverance combined with ephemerality and delicate beauty.

The artist will construct a new site-specific installation for the show at Axle Contemporary.

 

998 is a 3D wall suspended installation created by 998 points of connection. The piece is constructed from seedpods and cross-sections of stalks from the tall-tumble-mustard plant which are assembled into 17 lines. These lines represent lines of communication within a chronology made from 998 units of time. There are 5 missed connections within the piece that don’t bridge two parallel walls, where the end of the lines dangle and don’t close the distance. This piece speaks to the tangle and fragility of understanding one another through delicately constructed and sustained communication 

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No glue, wire, or hardware will be used to connect the plant material, only parts of the plants themselves.
 

Axle Contemporary programming is supported by Axle Projects, Inc.  Axle Projects is supported through individual donations, grants, and sponsorship from the City of Santa Fe's Arts & Culture Department.. This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Exhibitions in the Santa Fe Railyard are made possible through the support of The Railyard Art Project.  If you are interested in supporting Axle Projects, visit the website here.