YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE WE ARE MAGIC
…nothing can stand in our way…
OK, so not everyone had a seminal, life-changing experience when Olivia Newton John starred in the sexy roller skating masterpiece
Xanadu
. But I did.
Xanadu
-and that saucy Aussie-prepared my young brain to believe that something previously as unlikely as Santa Claus, namely magic, might be real, might be found in unexpected places. True, the 1980 movie about Olympian muses living behind a mural was almost too hokey for even a 10-year-old, but some sticking point about a correlation between art and magic wedged itself in my spine and stuck.
Lately, work popping up in Santa Fe is reminding me why. At Chiaroscuro (439 Camino del Monte Sol, 992-0711), hot on the heels of the recent ritualistic, mixed-media incantation/installation of Munson Hunt, Tasha Ostrander is showing
Powder
, another ambitious installation project. What Ostrander lacked in presence during the not-so distant exhibition of video art at the Museum of Fine Arts, she more than compensates for here. Several projected, photographed and constructed elements coalesce around the theme of black powder, agent of
destruction, but also-and explicitly-of magic and explosive possibility. Many installations fail because they rely on intellect and theory for success. Ostrander allows plenty of conceptualizing, but never loses a core, earthy and emotional root.
At Dwight Hackett Projects (2879 All Trades Road, 474-4043), Kathryn Walker has arranged
Sangha
, a beautiful, loose grid composed of dozens and dozens of small clay pots, each pasted with a prayer. The pots are big enough to not be precious, small enough to be impractical for anything but magic. It's the thing every artist does in the end; distill an idea, an image, a combination of otherwise irresolute things into a wish, a vision, a torment, a tirade, an oath-whatever the case it's essentially an act of magic, a willful push. Stacey Neff is going around town quietly and mischievously arranging to install unexpected sculptures, like giant mobius strips, in unassuming places. Keep your eyes peeled. Erika Blumenfeld will reveal
Light Phenomena
at the Center for Contemporary Arts (1050 Old Pecos Trail, 982-1338) this Saturday. Her photographic exposures of the sky are nothing so much as rhythmic pulses of atmosphere, visual chants in a better language.
And, of course, in the way that Agnes Martin was the spiritual godmother of a host of minimalist painters and visionary seekers, Erika Wanenmacher must surely play the same role for this suddenly evident group of artists who have realized they are less making pretty objects and more casting willful spells at a wobbly world. But don't take my word for it-trek out to Linda Durham Galisteo (12 La Vega, Galisteo, 466-6600) on Sunday for The Pursuit of Joy is a Radical Act, an exhibition curated by Wanenmacher of 13 (what else?) artists vibrating on a similar frequency.
PUBLIC PRESSURE
Speaking of superstition and magic, my ears were burning like hell after last week's column. Fortunately, it didn't take long for legions of people to stop muttering my name under their breath and just pick up the phone. Comments regarding my comments on live/work space in the Railyard [Zane's World, June 29: "
"] ranged from "Thanks so much for being a level-headed voice of reason" to "You're so goddamned stupid!" and pretty much everything in between. I guess people hear what they want to or, often in the case of Santa Feans, what they don't want to. One person recommended that I would be less stupid if I paid a thorough visit to the Project for Public Spaces (
) and acquainted myself with how, um, smart people think about public space. I may not be quite as dumb as some folks think, but I'm always up for learning something, so I took a long, hard read.
First off-thanks for turning me on to the site. I'd heard of the organization (a non-profit dedicated to creating and sustaining public space that builds community), but never visited the Web site it maintains which offers a wealth of articles, both created specifically for PPS and gathered from global media on issues of public space and policy. One of the more intriguing features is a hit list of public spaces throughout the world that are meaningful or spectacular in terms of community enjoyment or vibrancy. Last weekend the list was at 476 spaces, although a handful of these were notable for being spectacularly bad public spaces. Fortunately Santa Fe escaped mention as an especially nasty place, but unfortunately none of Santa Fe's parks, plazas or markets-nothing at all in fact-has made the cut as any kind of enticing place either. Taos Pueblo gets a nod. Boulder, Colorado is in the mix. There's room for Breckenridge, Texas and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Carmel, Indiana is a hotspot and so is Chico, California. Cleveland, Ohio is right up there along with Davie, Florida and Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It's not just a list of cool spaces in otherwise dreary locales-you've got your Parises and Amsterdams and New Yorks as well as every other cool, small city you've ever heard of in this country from Lawrence, Kansas to Madison, Wisconsin and Yellow Springs, Ohio, but frickin' nada for Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Many of the places most celebrated are notable and lauded for packed, energetic and diverse farmers' markets located adjacent to high-density residential and mixed-use areas that are also in proximity to parks and cultural amenities, just as the Railyard would be, if it could get off the ground without we Santa Feans freaking out and burning it to the ground before it even has a chance. So I went and checked out PPS on the advice of someone opposed to the current development track the Railyard is on and I came away convinced that said opposition is exactly what's stopping Santa Fe from being like the models I was given for what, um, Santa Fe ought to be like. Go figure.
But it's worth passing on the recommendation-in particular to any, you know, developers or city governments or non-profit management corporations or cranky neighbors-check out the Project for Public Spaces. And then, for the sake of the rest of us, just talk about it.
