The Five Stones of Elena Gallegos

A few days ago, we went up Tramway in Albuquerque in search of some public art.

Artist: 
Walters, Billie, 1927- , sculptor.
Vonne, Peter, assistant.
Title: 
The Five Stones of Elena Gallegos, (sculpture).
Dates: 
1982-1983. Dedicated Aug. 6, 1983.
Medium: 
Granite stones, copper and brass.
Dimensions: 
5 stones. Overall: approx. 89 in. x 23 ft. 4 in. x 85 ft. 3 in.

Description: 
Five large native stones set roughly in line on a desert floor at the foot of the Sandia Mountains, with a dirt path connecting them. Each stone has an abstract design on its face, with metal shapes incorporated into the designs on the two opposite stones in the sculpture. The first stone has cut into its face a smooth circle containing a geometric design composed of 38 copper pins, representing the 38 years of Phillip B. Tollefsrud’s life.

I liked the memorial aspect of it. How often I come upon monuments–from those to the Civil War dead to crypts in a New Orleans graveyard–and don’t know anything about the person yet still get a feeling. Interesting look, but the best part was how green the jagged Sandias were behind us–and a very long view of the city below.

Wendover Landing Opening at 516 Gallery

Photographs are courtesy of Christy Hengst.

Curator Suzanne Sbarge–without whom none of this would have been possible.

Christy’s birds on rust.

The birds on salt–some of this salt was actually brought back from Wendover, Utah by the artist. The rest is Morton Salt, which has a plant outside Wendover, so it comes from there as well.

***
By the way–the birds are for sale–just ask me for details.

516 Gallery Opening of Wendover Landing

Last Saturday night we had a tremendous event at 516. Here are some photos of Alisa Dworsky installing her piece and of the complete sculpture with poem.

This photography, by Christy Hengst (artist who created the birds–see next blog post!) shows me and Alisa very happy at the opening.

TIME PIECES WILL OPEN AT 516 Gallery in Albuquerque

May 26
6-8 pm
516 Central Avenue SW

I’ll be there opening my show Wendover Landing with Christy Hengst and Alisa Dworsky.

The images below are from Alisa’s sculpture “Soledad.” They are from a close to finished fabrication stage in her studio.

Come join us for a finished view!

Starry Night Light Installation

These amazing images are from artist Lee Eunyeol.

Thanks to Judy Kleinberg for sending them to me.

Wendover Landing by Christy Hengst and Miriam Sagan

Our show opens at 516 Gallery in Albuquerque the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Here is a preview of the flocks of birds created by Christy, along with her artist’s statement.

***

I came back from Wendover with a strong mood of salt and rust.  In my mind’s eye I see the wide expanse of the salt flats, and the iron residue of military industrial endeavors.  These materials found their way onto the birds;  the pigment is iron oxide, the thin sheen is melted soda.
There is something elemental and yet highly melancholic about some places, like Wendover, that also goes beyond specific details and finds an echo in the soul.
 
Working with Miriam’s poetry, what began to emerge for me most strongly were the lines:
‘it was as if it had happened to me’
and
‘It was as if it was my fault’.
Two sides of the same human coin.

Christy Hengst

NO by Santiago Sierra

Clegyrboia

rocks

from

the river

writing

for the see

I’m enjoying a fascinating blog,

http://clegyrboia.wordpress.com/

of one artist’s vision on a special piece of European land.

Edie Tsong Video of Miriam Sagan Poem

Joan Logghe is curating an Odes & Offerings show this spring in the community gallery at the convention center. Edie Tsong has used one of my poems to create a short animation!
Check it out–http://vimeo.com/37469915I love that bottle cap and worry doll.

Help Me Pick Some Lines of Poetry

I need some help selecting some lines of poetry. These will go on the gallery wall at 516 for the show “Wendover Landing.” The full text will be on a flock of birds by Christy Henst. I wrote this text for her when I was out in Wendover, Utah. I think of it as being a series of 1-line haiku.
So which ones go on the wall? Figure 3 or 4.

Writing on Salt

oddly purposive arrangement of stones water left behind

mirage can be mathematically predicted

who placed these beer bottles like Stonehenge?

I filled a baggie with salt

day after day the wind visited me like a busybody

an insufficiency of tears

the invisible left a glyph

time might not be moving the distance was so vast

the poem seemed like something that was outside of me

an alphabet has no numeric value

blue was an inadequate word in this field of illusion

metal outline of a man, target shot full of holes

the army built a city of salt and bombed it

I could never have believed anything this empty if I hadn’t slept here without dreams

mist rose from what once was sea as if it still was