Last of The Sapiens began when I stumbled over a staff while on a tour of fracking sites near Windsor, Colorado. As the object sat in my studio, it became evident that I wouldn’t be making art with it. It was the art. I couldn’t fabricate anything quite so genuine. Because of the synchronistic nature of this first year of grad school, I had already been discussing artists that made use of a recontextualized or fabricated “artifact” to create a conceptual critique. The major creative work was designing the display and creating the narrative. I borrowed the starting concept from Ape and Essence, a Novel By Aldous Huxley. The idea is that we are at a museum in Auckland, New Zealand 2000 years after a cataclysmic event titled The Great Ecological Catastrophe. My role was to be one of the characters on the north American rediscovery mission in Huxley’s novel. The male main character in the book gets captured by the new mutated American society. I had to make it back alive, so I chose to be Ethel Hook, the main female scientist character on the rediscovery mission, whom subsequently gets forgotten soon into the narrative Huxley writes. As a student of history, archeology, and Native American studies, I chose to reflect a critique of common anthropological issues and intentionally not get the narrative correct by assuming this society was much less intelligent and therefore susceptible to wild ceremonial practice that did not make practical sense. I used BEC (Before Ecological Catastrophe) instead of BCE to demark a “new” 0 point in history. In keeping with Huxleys novel, and an unfortunate probability of our reality, I also added a subsequent Great War of the Atom. What made me pleased from a personal perspective, is how all this very heavy information gets communicated in a humorous way.
The museum installation requires the viewer to remember imaginary future events as existing in the past. This generates a conceptual loop urging the viewer to consider the temporal nature of our current societies existence. This work also generates dialogue with the field of anthropology, and how the past is viewed by the broader society. The narrative asks the viewers to consider both the results of a worldwide ecological catastrophe, and how cultures of the past are assumed to be more primitive than our own. The work relies on a comedic take on our own culture by intentionally misinterpreting the “data” to form a narrative that is disparaging, despite its accuracies. This conceptual loop forces the viewer to consider our current society from a removed perspective encouraging a more objective assessment of where we are and where we are going.
Danger Birds is an ongoing installation project incorporating various formats of woodblock printing on unconventional materials. This is the first attempt using maps. I do not see these prints as 2 dimensional works, rather I see them as functioning (as objects) much more like the maps they are printed on. The intention is to present them on the wall as they might be in a scientific setting. The viewer is left to question why birds are appearing on this set of hydrological maps. The Turkey Vultures appear as wise messengers to remind us of the ills we have created for ourselves and other creatures on this planet, particularly in regard to the damage done to water resources. The image of bird silhouettes flying overhead has some to do with common symbolism, but more to do with an experience I had watching eagles fly over the canyons in the Gila Wilderness. As we look up at them, they look down on a map made for the purposes of assessing water sources for the development of oil and gas sites in the northwest corner of New Mexico. I chose to create a unity circle of 9 birds flying overhead. Treating each print as a monotype, I varied the registration and presence of the birds, sometimes leaving a ghost image, or only inking a number of birds at a time. As time passes, the birds gather in a larger formation to emphasize their concern for the ways of man. Vultures come around when there is another creature about to die, and can be seen in this work as a symbolic reminder of the imminence of death. Simultaneously beautiful and concerning.
“Rubble Without a Cause” Is the latest installation done by the You’re On TV Collective at SOMOS Festival Septmber 24 2017 in Downtown Albuquerque. The installation is comprised of repurposed analog televisions painted with a pattern that mimics the Louie Vutton logo. These televisions are arranged amongst a pile of brightly colored rubble and garbage. The televisions are modified in three ways. Some are fitted with a broken glass mirror, some have static screens, and some are wired to mini surveillance cameras that pick up the surrounding environment. The final work of art is complete when an audience is present to interact with it, and actually see themselves on TV. This interaction mimics aspects of mass surveillance, and alludes to the consumerist attitudes promoted by pop culture.
Other components include smaller televisions (heads) attached to painted mannequin torsos, projected video montages of environmental degradation, and a vintage Nintendo complete with Super Mario for the audience to play while experiencing the art.
The multitude of possible interactions with the work, allows each individual audience member to have their own experience, whether that be playful or more intellectual.
This installation was wrapped around a traffic light pole during the event adding another interactive element with the audience. We decided to present the project in the round as an outgrowth of jumbled junk and media stemming from human entertainment. Apropoe for a large music festival crowd.
Video from the night of the festival showing the interactive components in action
Video projection component. This video plays on two of televisions, and can be adapted to a projector. Videography done By Evan White
Downtown Contemporary Gallery 2016
Footprints in dreams offers a multimedia fine art and entertainment experience focused on varying cultural attitudes in regards to the environment, both natural and digital, that inform social beliefs and infrastructure. The artwork presents perspectives on mass media, surveillance, and the environmental crisis, and explores the contemporary choices that influence social systems, both organic and contrived.
This installation was part of a collaborative exhibition between Kyle Erickson and Zane White showcasing new work. The interior space was very tricky to overcome, but it made it all worth it to see the work directly confronting the audience once they came upstairs. This work incorporated time-lapse video, surveillance cameras, and a super Mario system for the audience to play while they are bombarded with macabre like post-apocalyptic mannequins with televisions for heads.
“Manufacturing The Hive” is an allegorical narrative used to describe the synthetic landscapes dictating our environments. We, the worker bees, perpetuate the synthetic environment by continuing to manufacture the hive. The process is inevitable. The worker bees continue to build. Day after day. We sustain the driving force behind perpetual growth until we disappear…..
This project has yet to come to fruition in its complete form. The pictures show a maquette built for the idea.
Downtown Albuquerque Civic Plaza. Put on By 24hrs of art.
“Rubble Without a Cause” is an interactive multimedia installation made from recycled material that is part of an ongoing project begun in 2013 by artists Kyle Erickson and Zane White.
The premiere of this installation took place at an outdoor event allowing it to be exposed to a wider public audience. The televisions were sandwiched in between a space in the central pillar of the plaza as if a dump truck had backed up and dumped them there and left. This work incorporated old car parts and tires along with flags used to mark future development. We kept the Loui Vuitton patterning on the televisions and added more of the bright colors to the rubble and junk to compliment the colors on the televisions. The work was very successful and generated sustained interaction the entire event.
Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 2015
E Unibus Pluram offers a multimedia fine art and entertainment experience focused on varying cultural attitudes in regards to the environment, both natural and digital, that inform social beliefs and infrastructure. The artwork presents perspectives on mass media, wilderness, city life, and the cosmos and explores how they relate to social systems, both organic and contrived.
This was the initial installation done as part of a group exhibition examining the environment. The televisions are painted with a Loui Vuitton logo pattern. Some are fitted with a broken glass mirror, some project screens of static, and others are wired to mini surveillance cameras that pick up the surrounding environment. The televisions are stacked to form an altar at the corner of the gallery complete with painted fast food trash and lit candles at the opening. The work is an altar to those oppressed and broken by materialism.
“Cerro Strata” is a site specific instillation created for the Albuquerque Sufmmerfest of 2014. This project was inspired by the wasteland areas of Meadow Lake, close to Los Lunas, NM(where artists Jorge De La Torre and Zane White grew up) that contain many examples of illegal junk dumping of objects from automobiles to furniture and appliances. Needless to say, there is quite a resource of old tires illegally rotting away in areas that could otherwise be classified as beautiful open land. Though our previous projects involved the dynamic of a site specific installation in the areas where we find our materials, we explored bringing this work into the city for display instead. By doing this we hoped to bring awareness to consumption and illegal environmental damage and inspire others to use these resources for constructive purposes.
The sculpture was composed of 67 tires arranged in concentric circles that became smaller as it approached the top of the structure like a pyramid. This sculpture also featured 8 levels that were painted specific colors to reference color compositions found in the landscape of New Mexico. These colors reference the colors found in the land and the sunsets of New Mexico. The color scheme is also meant to represent the idea that this location (New Mexico) is a “kaleidoscope of color” that inspires creative activity and attracts artists from all over the globe. These colors also illustrate the oftentimes surprising subtle and complex color schemes found in this high desert climate that is stereotypically thought of as a baron, dull and uninteresting.
The top of the sculpture featured a tire shown vertically with attached spray paint cans used in the project arranged in a sunray pattern.
The end result was a strong sculptural form with bright colors that attracted lots of attention.
