Courtesy the artist
Yeah, Erika Wanenmache’s what Time Travel Feels like, sometimes promises to be as fun as laying beneath a bird skeleton.
Did you know it’s been a decade since Santa Fe-based artist Erika Wanenmacher had a solo show in town? It’s true! In fact, Wanenmacher’s last major show Incorporate took place at Midtown gallery Phil Space in October of 2014, but her forthcoming what Time Travel feels like, sometimes exhibit at SITE Santa Fe promises to be a doozy. So we obviously had to lob a series of rapid-fire questions her way. This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
SFR: What’s your name?
Erika Wanenmacher.
Where are you from?
I grew up in Rocky River, Ohio, which is a west side suburb of Cleveland. I’ve been [in Santa Fe] 40-ish years.
I hear you’re a witch. Is this true?
Yes. I’ve been interested in magic and witchcraft since I was a kid, and I went through…all the fairy tales and magical stuff in the school library, along with sci-fi and fantasy. My DNA is German, pretty much European, and that has the magical tradition of witches. Plus, the 1980s in Santa Fe were kind of dorky, and everyone was co-opting every other cultural and spiritual practice, but none of that ever resonated with me. I realized the sculptures I was making were spells, because when you make a spell what comes first? Intent. When I put the intent first, it made my work much stronger.
How do you refer to yourself—as an artist, I mean?
If pressed, I’d say I’m a sculptor.
You’ve got a solo show opening at SITE Santa Fe, and it’s your first in how long?
The last solo show I did was 2014, so it’s been awhile.
What’s it called?
what Time Travel feels like, sometimes.
What does time travel feel like sometimes?
That idea started when I was walking my dog Kevin—who’s gone now—my awesome, crazy-ass little terrier. Now I walk with my 3-year-old crazy-ass big dog. We walk along the ditch between Baca Street and Ashbaugh Park, which cuts through the old trash piles of the Indian School and Indian Hospital, and that stuff dates back to, like, 1905 when the Indian Hospital started, but also it was a neighborhood dump. There’s tons of old glass—mostly iridescent glass that’s been in the dirt a long time. It’s so pretty. I had the odd idea, like, what if you time traveled to right where I was, and kind of Star Trek-like; shimmering; you got made out of the material that was around you.
Can you describe the essence of the show in a sentence?
It started out being about the emotional aspects of time travel, but then it widened out to be basically about time and consciousness, so...when you’re daydreaming, you’re not in the room; people who are in the middle of a PTSD episode are not in the room. What about ghosts? Reincarnation? Time is this odd human construct that we don’t actually have a grasp on.
What sorts of pieces make up the show?
Paintings, plus a whole wall of artifacts—memory triggers and artifacts and odd clues and goofy stuff. It’s stuff. My stuff. It’s sculpture and video and a really dorky-ass robot that references the William Gibson book The Peripheral.
The show is the culmination of several years of work?
Yeah, like 7 or 8 years.
How does the concept of time travel pertain to the show beyond our pop culture understanding of what that means?
One thing I’ve subscribed to for a long time is the Arthur C Clarke thing—advanced technologies feel akin to magic. I don’t have that quote completely correct, but things that seem like, ‘that’s crazy, that’s magic?’ That’s our confined scientific understanding of physical things. A lot of the things described as magic are technologies and things that that haven’t been western science-proven.
Is the show the product of a plan, or more like the organic direction the work took?
Oftentimes, I’ll think of something and know exactly how I want to make it. But some of the stuff, like the robot—it was like, ‘You want a baby leg? OK, fine.’ It was telling me what to do. I have woodcuts in the show I’ve been thinking about for 30 years.
Have you learned anything about yourself or your practice?
I learned I have a lot more sustained determination than I would have imagined.
You worked with SITE curator Brandee Caoba. Is it tough to trust someone on that level?
Probably. Yeah. I had it all in my head before we even started. I mean, I know what it’s going to look like. I know it’s been hard for Brandi, but this is how I work. And it goes both directions. The institution has to trust you.
You cite Arthur C Clarke and Ursula K Le Guin as influences. What are you reading right now?
I’ve got the new Jeff VanderMeer Absolution in my Kindle waiting to go. He wrote The Southern Reach Trilogy that had the one they made into a movie…Annihilation! I’m waiting for the third book of Gibson’s trilogy that starts with The Peripheral. The new Nick Harkaway. Turns out he’s John le Carré’s son, who wrote all the spy stuff…and he decided he’s going to write a spy novel in his father’s style.
Any advice for viewing your show?
Is there anything in there that relates to your own life? It’s all about stories. And I’ve always felt that’s basically what I do. I tell stories.
Do you feel you’re writing your story, or do you feel more like a character?
More like a character. We’re all a piece of the greater whole.
When coming to the end of a long project, there can be a certain melancholy. Does this moment feel like the end of a chapter or a segue?
Probably a segue. I tend to circle back around to ideas and themes, and when you put a lot of work together over a long period of time, it’s cool to see the connections. I have ideas that I want to work on next, but they’re not separate.
What keeps you in Santa Fe?
I love this fucking town. It was the first place that actually felt like home to me.
Any parting words?
Ugh. No. Just go see the show and let me know. Don’t be an asshole, how about that?
Erika Wanenmacher: what Time Travel feels like, sometimes Opening: 5-9 pm Friday, Nov. 15. Free. SITE Santa Fe, 1606 Paseo de Peralta, (505) 989-1199
