Interdisciplinary artwork, including installation & print
The Spell is an upcoming show in the Visual Arts Gallery at Santa Fe Community College, showcasing work by Maternal Mitochondria. I’m really excited to showing at my alma mater and with so many local artists whom I admire!
Opens: Thursday, October 6th, from 4-6pm
Closes: Thursday, December 8th
Miriam Sagan will be opening The Poetry Yard this year, an outside space where sculpture and poetry can be fully experienced. Here is a sneak peak at the first sculpture to go up- a permanent feature of the yard. Made entirely of recycled materials, this land art project helps direct rainfall by incorporating a dry pond. The sculpture’s relationship with the land may change over time- will the wood rot when exposed to water? Or will it remain an ever present reminder of fire and drought? As our climate changes, the sculpture may reflect that change on a local level. Along with the ambiguity and anxiety of climate change, “Desiccation: Dormancy: Deluge” brings up issues of human consumption and how different organisms feed. The sculpture takes inspiration from saprophytic fungi (mushrooms that consume dead wood) and the twin processes of parasitic and symbiotic growth. The plastic and dairy industries are an ambiguous two-edged sword- using unsustainable environmental practices while at the same time greatly expanding human access to food and vital resources. So the question is: how do we achieve a balance between human needs and biological destruction?
Desiccation: Dormancy: Deluge
(A triangle) Between me / G-d / and the water
Building a sculpture out of recycled materials…
Maternal Mitochondria has a new art show up with Vital Spaces arts organization! Located in the Midtown Annex, 1600 St. Michaels Drive, and available by appointment only (in order to ensure COVID-safe practices), What We Wrote on The Water is a video installation constructed from the poetry of borders, drumming in a dream, the scarce commodity of water in the desert, and gestures in ink. The installation will be available to experience from January 9th-February 8th, and there is no fee!
In a dark enclosed womb of space, the video projects over a large vase, filled with water. It features the Japanese art of suminagashi, spoken poetry, and percussive drums. The projection overlaps the glass, creating new shadows and reflections. This is an immersive experience, playing with materials such as ink and glass, and the metaphor of water as the unconscious mind.
What We Wrote on the Water explores the dialectical flow between creator and viewer, form and meaning, being both on the surface of the water and under it. The viewer leaves refreshed, having temporarily been elsewhere.
FOR APPOINTMENTS: From January 9th-February 8th, please call Isabel at 505-231-1922 or e-mail Miriam at msagan1035@aol.com.
Maternal Mitochondria is a mother-daughter creative duo collaborating in Santa Fe. Miriam Sagan is a writer and Isabel Winson-Sagan is an interdisciplinary artist. Their bilingual video installation of suminagashi and poetry, Thresh/hold, premiered in an abandoned square grain silo at Studio Kura in Itoshima, Japan in 2018. They produced a poetry and suminagashi installation in Santa Fe’s Railyard Park with more than twenty participants, aged 4 to 80. The walking path at Santa Fe Skies RV Park on Route 14 is host to their Fairy Houses installation in recycled metal, which has had numerous visitors during the pandemic. For What We Wrote on the Water, they have also collaborated with local drummer Tim Brown.
In this time of social distancing, we’ve done several interviews! First is a Cline’s Corner interview with Miriam Sagan where she discusses our new fairy house installation, and second Miriam and Isabel were interviewed by Creative at the Wheel on feminism and their artistic collaboration. We hope you enjoy listening!
Here is an interesting Instagram video about the Women’s Works Show at the Old Court House!
Some relief printmaking I’ve been noodling around with! This is a 3 color reduction print on linoleum. The design is based on an 14th century Arab manuscript, depicting a Pisces sign in honor of my daughter.
Join us at the Gerald Peters Project Gallery today for the opening of some great shows! 5-7pm, 1011 Paseo de Peralta.
Art by Isabel W.S. 