The Nevada Museum of Art produces the Art + Environment Conference every three years as part of an ongoing commitment to be the center, world-wide, for these themes, thinking, and work. Holland partners with the NMA on a ton of stuff (Scholastic Art Awards, Teen Art Night, 3-Minute Film Festival, Poetry Out Loud, Barrio Block Party, Stranger Show, 4x4x48, an annual summer event, and more). As is tradition, we apply for a scholarship to send a Holland rep to A+E to meet artists, explore new ideas, and be both challenged and inspired. We’d like to thank Claire Munoz for being a great partner and advocate, for saying yes more than no to all our ideas, and making sure we always have a seat at the table. And as part of this deal, a little conference recap and some sharing of the experience is in order!
The Unsettled exhibition and this conference are a major undertaking, and it’s amazing to see the breadth of the work, the major themes at play, and the voices and perspectives represented. We salute NMA curators and staff for their passion and drive and for bringing so many amazing artists and thinkers to our town. It’s a super difficult task – and we are grateful for their hard work and so appreciative of the opportunity to experience so many powerful works. Of course, with any major endeavor or initiative, there are points of conflict and unease. Some of the conflict revolves around local artist representation and respect, general community engagement and diversity, problematic sponsorship, Burning Man domination, and our community’s new and controversial connection to tech and development. The discourse and critical thinking that stems from exhibitions and events like these (with provoking work and themes, and a complicated and large scope) is both a vital and valuable part of the whole equation. We know important dialog will emerge from this, and that it will continue to be had. There’s so much to unpack and think about – the good, the challenging, the empowering – and so much to process. In this recap, we’d like to highlight some of the timely themes and threads, inspiring and interesting ideas, dynamic statements, and most importantly, some of the incredible artists that were able to share their work and processes.
Below we delve into six thought-provoking, highly active and engaged artists, doing some extraordinary work. Each of these artists spoke on Day 1 of the conference, and are all represented in the current Unsettled exhibition. From immigration and border politics, to the NSA and the government’s secret projects, to Latinx culture and representation, to a calling out and/or a leveling of the playing field on issues of race, class, corporate greed, oppression, environmental destruction, human violence and more – take a peek at the work of Minerva Cuevas (Mexico City); Frohawk Two Feathers (Chicago/LA); Ana Teresa Fernandéz (Mexico/Bay Area); Rubén Ortiz-Torres (Mexico/LA); Trevor Paglen (USA/Berlin); and Bruno Fazzolari (San Francisco).
For the Day 2 recap, we’ll interview native artist, activist and performer Nicholas Galanin. For those that haven’t checked out Unsettled yet, GO! Remember, high school students are always free (and we have a little stash of passes, too, while supplies last). We also have the exhibition book in the library, and some others of interest (Radical Women – Latin American Art 1960-85, See Red Women’s Workshop: Feminist Posters 1974-90, and Visual Impact: Creative Dissent in the 21st Century) we just picked up during PST: LA/LA (which you can read more about below). <3
MINERVA CUEVAS (Mexico City)
If you like:
calling out immoral corporations; challenging the mainstream and accepted practices from both big business and national politicians; environmental advocacy and responsibility; work inspired by and made for the resistance; dismantling capitalistic greed; unpacking generations of tension and oppression – specifically in Latin American countries and communities; irony; a knack for mischief and high impact gut-punches; site-specific interventions and protest work; playing with corporate logos and iconography; and acts of rebellion in service of change.
Cool Facts:
Minerva once launched a project using bacteria eating plastic – and centered it on what she believed was the visual epitome of capitalism, a giant dump site in Mexico City. She also produced a project that works to give away products, discounts, and services to students and others in need via sneaky lil methods. It’s a really remarkable undertaking that made real life differences – art as catalyst for real impact, check it out – Mejor Vida Corp. As part of her work in Unsettled, she explores war imagery and destruction as connected to fire prevention – using a 70 year old icon, Smokey the Bear, as the protagonist. And let us not forget about the project where she marked a path from America to Mexico, painting the rocks in the Rio Bravo that would take you across the border: “the most political act you can do is go from south to north.”
For More:
Art 21
Seven Years Ago, A Mexican Artist Turned The U.S.-Mexico Border Into A Bridge
Considering Chocolate’s Colonial History
Minerva Cuevas Shakes Up Status Quo (Just don’t call her an activist)
FROHAWK TWO FEATHERS (Chicago | Los Angeles)
If you like:
storytelling and the intersection between fact & fiction; Turkish tableauxs; afrofuturism; reshaped histories; colonial deconstructions; epic adventures; maps; the exploration of place, identity and time (real, imagined, and reimagined); speculation; utopian/dis-topian narratives; mythology; heroes and villains; cave drawings; and vibes that touch on Basquiat, the antique, the Caribbean, and rebellion; and “crusades to tell the history of marginalized people across the globe.”
Cool Facts:
#1: Umar Rashid/Frohawk is also a musician and once played a Teen Art Night back in the day w/ Who Cares #2: Frohawk developed a map and a history for Lemuria – a legendary (perhaps mythological) lost land, not dissimilar to Atlantis. It’s worth some googlin’ (you’ll find some gems like this).
For More:
Umar Rashid
New Ancestors
The Speculative Histories of Umar Rashid, aka Frohawk Two Feathers
Afrofuturism and the Colonial Imaginary
An Imaginary Battle Comes to Life at the Hudson River Museum
ANA TERESA FERNÁNDEZ (Mexico | Bay Area)
If you like:
badass women inverting masculine mythologies (in stilettos and a black dress); envisioning the dismantling of the border wall (or even better, a world w/o borders); Tango as a thread to highlight power dynamics and balance structure in domestic work; thoughtful and powerful responses to the aggression and tension that women and people of color endure; brave commentary and action on horrifying and dehumanizing immigration policies; works of protest; and themes of invisibility, erasure, humanity, defiance, and ending toxic masculinity.
Cool facts:
Fernandéz spent hours in a paint shop trying to find the perfect color to match the moody colors of the sky and the sea on the border wall near San Diego. The final color came from Martha Stewart’s paint collection, during the time Martha was serving her jail sentence – it felt like the right choice. When Border Patrol discovered her and stopped her work, she ultimately was able to convince them to let her continue… and in one case, an agent picked up a paintbrush and joined her.
Check out:
Holland’s calendar! We’re working on a plan to bring her back to Reno for a panel/discussion moderated and curated by Alberto Garcia.
RUBÉN ORTIZ-TORRES (Mexico | LA)
If you like:
So-Cal Mexican identity; low-riders; sports and pop iconography with a subversive or social justice bent; humorous approaches and stinging commentary on oppression and racism; the dragging of certain (American) pastimes and trends; challenging Euro-American dominance; witty responses to globalization; customization lifestyle; Mexican post-modernism; punk; the baroque; Chicanx culture; and the intersection between highbrow vs lowbrow art.
Cool Facts:
The origin of the his Power Tools (Herramientas) piece is the stuff of legend. The story involves Cat Woman (Julie Newmar), Tony Danza, Peter Graves and other celebrities launching a classist campaign to outlaw noisy leaf blowers in LA and the rise of Gody Sanchez, an auto mechanic, gardener and inventor that believed god spoke to him and gave him the solution to the leaf blower problem (quieter and less polluting), customized and outfitted. This story also involves a hunger strike; a silencer from an automatic weapon being customized to the blowers to deal w/ noise pollution; a city issue that became a national debate on both privilege and immigration; and the leaf blower as the poster child for “technology run amok.” Reality is truly stranger than fiction, and the story is buried on this link, starting at Slide 5, if you want to dive in. And here’s another take, from a 1998 LA Times article.
Check Out:
Ortiz-Torres has TWO projects as a part of the incredible LA-based initiative going on now through January 2018, called Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA. Holland staff spent 4 days in LA and barely scratched the surface exploring the many, many, many amazing and mind blowing exhibitions in over 70 spaces all over southern California. Ortis-Torres has a solo show – White Washed America – and has also curated an exhibition titled How to Read El Pato Pascual: Disney’s Latin America and Latin America’s Disney, an exploration of Disney’s engagement with Latin American imagery and the ways in which Latin American artists responded to, played with, reappropriated, and misappropriated Disney’s iconography.
TREVOR PAGLEN
If you like:
art based on government secrets; the intersection between cutting edge science, geography and art; conspiracies; seeing/exposing the unseen; uncovering world’s hidden war compounds; 60s space race + cold war narratives; patches; showing what “invisibility looks like”; the other night sky; space junk; spying on spies and secret initiatives; themes of war as tied to space travel and exploration; planetary and environmental responsibility; deeply romantic gestures; thinking about artifacts and what is truly archival (in space, there is no erosion); shapes (like spheres vs diamonds); the dark side of mass surveillance; stuff like classified military installations, NSA, Black Ops, hacktivists and Snowden; artificial intelligence; and everything there is to know about the world’s first space sculpture. OH, also for those that like bona-fide geniuses – he’s a 2017 MacArthur Fellow!
Cool Facts:
Paglen chose NMA as his partner in launching the Orbital Reflector, set to launch in 2018. It will be the world’s first space sculpture, and the first object launched into space with an intention of gesture vs. purpose.
Check Out:
Art for a Post-Surveillance Age, New York Times
orbitalreflector.com
and Orbital Reflector Kickstarter!
Art 21
BRUNO FAZZOLARI (San Francisco)
If you like:
synesthesia, olfactory nostalgia; tripping out to what does smell/scent look like (what color, shape, form does it take? what is its palette?); how the senses impact one another – and how there are many more than just 5; the science and psychology behind smell; fragrance as art; mood-setting; dismantling images of colonization and the exotic in fragrance; branding with scent (subliminally and directly); scent as boundary (the act of becoming aware of something and something becoming aware of you); culture and history through fragrance (ads, themes reflecting current events; bottling, trendsetting, changes in pop culture, design); and multi-faceted experimentation, layering and process.
Cool Facts:
Fazzolari developed a fragrance for the NMA’s Unsettled exhibition – with 8 notes that comment on colonization, the complex history of the sandalwood and tea trade, and an 1938 leather and pineapple based perfume that was bottled in a pineapple-shaped bottle, that also resembled a hand grenade. Fazzolari created his own special vessel (only 3 in existence) feat. a glowing, blow-cast, uranium glass bottle (seen below) that’s a distinct nod to the region’s atomic anxiety and nuclear history. You can smell the Unsettled fragrance in the exhibition, or at Holland (there’s a small vial in the library!).
Check Out:
a perfumer’s organ (named so because of it’s resemblance to the instrument); the wine aroma wheel (though for wine, the depictions work for fragrance – connection to smell/taste); and a new vocab word: gustative – “something that seems edible.” Also, one cool scent-based story: used bookstores smell the same and are all equally inviting and pleasing to people because there’s a subtle vanilla scent that is caused by lignin (which is present in all wood-based paper) breaking down over time.
