Evan Chandler
Zozobra Statue
In honor of the 100th Zozobra, city officials unveiled a new statue near the Santa Fe Community Convention Center earlier this week.
Once a year, a 50-foot marionette stuffed with gloom burns in a fiery display to the cheers and screams of thousands of locals. Now, an 18-foot steel sculpture commemorating Zozobra will stand watch year-round on Federal Place near the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
City of Santa Fe officials debuted the new sculpture Aug. 6, in advance of this year’s Aug. 30 burn, the 100th since William Shuster Jr. created the tradition.
The new statue, made by Don Kennell and his team at DKLA Design, including project manager and designer Lisa Adler; Zach Greer; Caleb Smith and York Moon, incorporates several references to the annual city tradition. Kennell is a lifelong artist and launched the design business approximately 10 years ago.
“Zozobra is a homegrown Santa Fe thing, and the people have really made Zozobra what it is so we just really wanted to honor that and make something that brought joy,” Kennell tells SFR of the project. “Even though it’s Old Man Gloom, it’s such a loved tradition here that we wanted to get it right to honor this town and the amazing people here that have created this phenomenon and this event.”
The city reached out to the artist group in January 2024, he adds, and as a 25-year resident of Santa Fe who loves Zozobra, Kennell said yes. By April, things were finalized and within three months, the sculpture was ready for public display. The artists worked with a budget of $35,000 in lodgers tax from the city. Tourism Director Randy Randall, who initially came up with the idea for the downtown statue, says he hopes it will serve to keep the tradition at the top of people’s minds year-round.
Courtesy the artist Don Kennell
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York Moon welds a hand for the Zozobra statue.“I love Zozobra, but it’s one day and gone if you think about it,” Randall says. “This will be a nice reminder for our visitors and our residents.”
Yet work will continue, Kennell says, as the team is still working to see if they need to add a mechanical device to make the arms move or a pull chain “so people can engage with it.” The team is also working—in collaboration with Refract Studio—on creating an augmented reality component that would allow people to point their phones at the statue and view a video with Zozobra’s origin information or would make the statue appear on fire.
“We’re sort of figuring it out and trying to see how it works, but we are committed to the project and if it needs some enhancements down the road, I think we’ll do it,” Kennell says. “We deferred to Ray Sandoval and Kiwanis on the design. They have done such an epic job in the last 60 years managing and building Zozobra, growing its reputation and a lot of times with our work, we view our clients as collaborators and we really are open to that and we believe there’s a power and wisdom in working with other stakeholders.”
Randall adds the sculpture will soon have a box near it where people can leave their glooms. The City of Santa Fe will hold an official unveiling ceremony and dedication at 5:30 pm Aug. 16, Communications Director Regina Ruiz tells SFR.
