Courtesy of Diego Rigales
More Than a Chair to Me
New art show hopes to bring a new perspective to household furniture
“I’m really fascinated by the human body and scale,” artist Luis Diego Rigales tells SFR. “I like to question what these masses are, how they reflect us as people and how they help us live more fulfilling lives.”
Rigales has always been interested in the stories told by our furniture. It carried with him through his youth, into and beyond his college years at the University of New Mexico’s architecture program. Blending the two passions birthed his new show Subconscious Design, which explores the unspoken stories sitting in your pile of dirty clothes or how you’ve arranged your pillows—not the weird stuff, but the personal.
“I did some mapping of rooms with people, where a camera tracked the usage of objects throughout the space,” he explains. “That was cool, because we saw people’s little daily rituals and how they interact with objects, what was mundane [to them] and what was sacred. The question became: what can furniture be beyond just objects?”
Pieces vary between the regular and the extraordinary, the stories held in our personal spaces we often don’t let out into the bigger world. Call it that silent architecture of the human mind, our -inner emotions at work or, in some cases, conscious design choices—Regales sees all the things in our homes as whispers revealing who we are as people, leaning into the humanist view of who we can be. Can all these things really be explained by what’s piled up, what’s ignored and what’s handled with care? Rigales believes they can.
“All these pieces have personality,” he concludes. “Each one is an example of someone or something good that’s happened in my life. There’s a lot of feeling here, even in these things. I mean, at that point, is a chair really still only a chair?” (Riley Gardner)
Subconscious Design: 11 am-6 pm, Wed, Nov. 10-Sun, Nov. 14. Free. Horseshoe Gallery at Bishop’s Lodge, 1297 Bishop’s Lodge Road. (505) 577-5911
Courtesy of the Historic Santa Fe Foundation
Pulse on the Polaroids
Polaroids, the electric way. The number of filters to make your photos pretend-vintage proves the old ways of photography never truly went out of style. Mix that with Santa Fe’s charming interest in photos of itself, like the cute little Insta-queen we are, means Kyle Maier’s Electric Polaroids hits all the points for old school cool at all the right moments. Maier’s experimental method of long exposures meant dozens of Santa Fe sites captured in a unique retro-style that can only be achieved by super-talented people these days. Keep trying though, influencers, keep trying. (RG)
Electric Polaroids: All day. Free. Historic Santa Fe Foundation, 545 Canyon Road Ste. 2, (505) 983-2567
Courtesy Recycle Santa Fe
Trash, Art, Repeat
You may be surprised to know that our little outpost of a town hosts the nation’s largest recycled art show and market, or maybe it won’t surprise you at all. But great art can come from anywhere, including your trash bin. Turning recyclable materials into art is itself a form of recycling, and the 22nd Annual Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival sets out to prove that to you: this weekend-long event presents vintage(ish) kimonos and jewelry, handbags, wall art and sculpture. Come Friday night ($5) for a documentary screening of New Mexicans Taking Action on Plastic Waste, and check out the free show Saturday and Sunday. (RG)
22nd Annual Recycle Santa Fe Art Festival: 5-9 pm Friday, Nov. 12, 9am-5pm Saturday, Nov. 12 and 10am-5pm Sunday, Nov. 13. $5 Friday, free Saturday and Sunday. Santa Fe Convention Center, 201 W Marcy St,, recyclesantafe.org
Courtesy Collected Works Bookstore
New Moon, but not Twilight
New Mexico is an oasis of all sorts of writing, from the Indigenous to the Hispanic to that counter-culture stuff from hippie scribes, but we’re also part of a thriving community of Muslim writers. Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse celebrates the release of New Moons, a new anthology collection of works varying between poetry, memoir, essay and cultural writing reflecting on life as a contemporary Muslim. The pieces reflect the diversity within Islam itself and from the greater diaspora. Local writers Rabia and Fatima van Hattum will read their work in-store and are slated to be joined by a live-stream of special guests. (RG)
New Moons Anthology: Contemporary Writing by North American Muslims: 6 pm, Tuesday, Nov. 16. Free. Collected Works Bookstore and Coffeehouse, 202 Galisteo St., (505) 988-4226
