Courtesy form & concept
Mythical Mayhem
Local bands celebrate the works of Todd Ryan White
Chances are you've seen the works of artist Todd Ryan White out there in the world—maybe on a Burton snowboard or an album cover or even in a museum. But this Saturday, go deeper with an -immersive and sprawling musical -celebration of Rainbow Eater, White's -current solo show at form & concept gallery.
Rainbow Eater itself spans 10 years of White's career, and features music, installation, collage, watercolor, ink drawing and wood and glass sculpture. White spans the bright and colorful as well as the dark and confrontational with tapestry-like paintings composed of hundreds of smaller works and immensely detailed black and white drawings. According to form & concept's press materials, the exhibition "offers a glimpse into a world filled with drunken gods and mythical mishaps," which we think sounds pretty cool.
SFR interrupted White's band practice to ask about the musical element of the evening, which is his way of showing how his musical influences reflect his art and vice versa.
"It's an immersive music experience that uses each room of the show for a different performance or presentation," White says, "so it should be a nice way to experience lots of different bands in a short amount of time."
Said bands include Luke Nutting, Dead Hare Productions, The Bed Band and White's own crushing black metal band, Heretical Sect, which rolls up genres spanning from singer-songwriter to psychedelic pop rock to extreme metal and beyond.
"It's exciting to juxtapose different types of music with each other so there isn't that kind of separation that comes with most shows that are booked by genre," White says. (Allison Sloan)
Rainbow Eater: The Bed Band, Heretical Sect, Luke Nutting and Dead Hare Productions:
7 pm Friday Dec. 20. Free.
435 S. Guadalupe St,
780-8312
Revisiting the Popol-Vuh
Carlos Mérida brings new life—and meaning— to the ancient text
We all know Homer's Iliad or the Holy Bible, but what do you know about the Popol-Vuh? Like those other classic texts, the "Book of the People" was passed orally among the ancient K'iche' people in the highlands of southern Guatemala for centuries, until Spanish colonizers transcribed it upon arrival. The story preserves the Mayan creation myth and the adventures of the Hero Twins, Hunahpú and Xbalanqué, but converting from an oral story to a written account meant some things were lost.
In 1943, however, Guatemalan artist Carlos Mérida produced a fresh interpretation of the myth in a portfolio of 10 illustrations dubbed Estampas del Popol-Vuh.
"In certain ways, [Mérida's version] is more accurate," Hecho a Mano owner Frank Rose tells SFR. "They're living stories. So putting it into a visual form puts it back into seeing this abstract realization of these characters, these beings."
Some of the forms Mérida portrays are inspired directly by pre-contact Mayan glyphs, but the composition and color reveal a sort of "abstract expressionism," according to Rose. The question of how to navigate a world in which the ancestors have been muted or appropriated by Western colonialism is present in the prints; at the same time, the pieces are imbued with a dynamism that denies attention to historical contradictions in favor of a new, decontextualized approach to the images and deities.
Alongside the full portfolio, Rose shows 26 prints from Mérida's Trajes Regionales Mexicanos series which depicts various clothing styles from across Mexico.
(Cole Rehbein)
Carlos Merida: Estampas del Popul-Vuh
5-7 pm Friday Dec. 27. Free.
Hecho a Mano Gallery,
830 Canyon Road,
916-1341
Give a Helping Hand
Courtesy CCA
If you've enjoyed a movie from the Center for Contemporary Arts in the past year and a half, you've benefited from the work of Mara Padilla, a projectionist and box-office worker who also creates stunning graphic novels. What you might not realize is that Padilla has battled a rare cancer since she was 20; what you certainly do know is that experimental cancer treatments can be very expensive. Luckily, the community has a plan: to put together a night of food, live music and storytelling, with all proceeds going towards Padilla's bills. "It's completely in the holiday spirit," she tells SFR. "It's going to be a really fun party."
Mara's Night:
7-9 pm Wednesday, Dec. 18. $20.
CCA's The Screen;
1600 St. Michael's Drive,
428-0209
Winter Witchcraft
Public Domain
There's nothing better than a little witchcraft for the new year, right? Maybe you need some spiritual guidance to settle on a resolution, or maybe you need some holiday soul healing? Whatever it may be, Rebecca Ferreira Troy, our local Santa Fe witch is here to help. Troy reads from from her new book Healing and Witchcraft in a Conformist World and summons the tarot spirits at op.cit Books to answer your otherworldly questions. Her book is about her quest to move out of the negative frequencies of our contemporary world and into authentic expression by way of Mother Nature and witchcraft. It's a guide to alternative healing methods fusing together modern psychotherapy and ancient wisdom from the Goddess Hecate. (AS)
Rebecca Ferreira Troy: Healing & Witchcraft in a Conformist World:
2 pm Saturday Dec. 21. Free.
Op.cit Books,
157 Paseo de Peralta,
428-0321
Under the Covers
Richard George
By now, if you've been missing out on the preeminent Led Zeppelin cover band of our town, you're either under 45 or, like, you hate fun and friendship. We joke because we love, and because otherwise members of Moby Dick like Mikey Baker and Andy Primm would be more egomaniacal than they already are. Anyway, they play all the Zeppelin hits, plus Albuquerque's Pink Freud (they do Beatles—jay kay, it's obviously Pink Floyd) joins the lineup to remind us all of a simpler time when hallucinogenic drugs paved the way for shreddy music, progressive weirdness and a good old-fashioned long-ass hairdo. Ah, 'twas a simpler time. Anyway, get rocked. (Alex De Vore)
7 pm Saturday Dec. 28. $12.
Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery,
2791 Agua Fria St.,
303-3808
2020 Vision
Public Domain
With the decade closing out and everyone everywhere looking to party so hard they nearly die, Santa Fe's nightlife offerings are aplenty. From more laid-back options like the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens' GLOW and the last of the year's Flamenco Winter Series events at The Lodge, to New Age goodness like Soul Activation 2020's dance-party-meets-yoga event at Caribe Dance Studios, Casa España's DJ Oona-led NYE party and a jam-packed night of DJs at Meow Wolf, you'll go into the following year right. These events plus many more are described online at sfreporter.com/cal. Pick one, avoid FOMO, see y'all next year! (ADV)
New Year's Eve:
All night Tuesday Dec. 31.
Various locations.
