[ad_1]
Two days after an unknown arsonist torched their sculptural installation, artist Tiger Mashaal-Lively was still crying over the loss.
“There is no shame in that,” said the 36-year-old artist from Santa Fe, one of the work’s many creators, in an interview with the Form & Concept gallery on Guadalupe Street, where the Solaces was posted outside.
“It is important to be able to grieve, and that is so much the object of the work,” said Mashaal-Lively. “I have no interest in being stoic.”
The artist woke up on Sunday morning to phone calls and texts from people telling them about the crime, which took place on Saturday night.
The Santa Fe Police Department is still investigating the arson, Lt. Paul Joye said on Monday.
“We are working to extract surveillance footage from businesses in the area,” Joye said, adding that the department had not yet identified a suspect but would release more information on Tuesday.
Video footage from the gallery shows the arsonist appearing at around 11:18 p.m. on Saturday from the corner of Read Street, gallery director Jordan Eddy said. In less than two minutes, the suspect set the 21-foot-high sculpture on fire and left the scene.
A photo of firefighters fighting the blaze shows a red gasoline canister sitting in the center of the sculpture’s foundation. If it had ignited, Eddy said, it could have done a lot more damage.
No one was injured in the fire.
Firefighters arrived at the scene within minutes and extinguished the blaze at 11:45 p.m., but it was too late to save most of the the Solaces. The room was made of steel frame tubing, fiberglass and fabric.
In a statement, the gallery owner and staff called the destruction of the artwork “an undeniable act of violence against the artist and a cross-section of their community.”
Eddy and Mashaal-Lively said the work, depicting a towering figure in a cloak reaching out as if to embrace humanity, was a symbol of comfort and shelter.
Mashaal-Lively said it took around nine months to conceptualize and create The sweet which was first exhibited at the Burning Man event in Nevada in 2017. Mashaal-Lively and a group of artists moved it to California and then New Mexico and mounted it at the corner of Guadalupe Streets and Read at the end of July.
Eddy said the piece was meant to be part of a larger exhibit on the housing issue. The intention was to keep it on display for at least a year, and possibly longer, he said.
It is not known whether Mashaal-Lively will attempt to rebuild or restore the sculpture.
“A lot of people have expressed hope that this will continue, come back or be rebuilt,” the artist said. “I don’t know what it would look like, I don’t know if it would be the same room, if it would be something else.”
Mashaal-Lively said they felt no anger towards the arsonist at this point. Noting that each person brings their own perspective, support or criticism to a work of art, Mashaal-Lively said, “For work to move someone in this way, it is a testament to how whose work cannot be ignored. “
Born in Philadelphia, Mashaal-Lively has been creating visual and performance works since her childhood. Philadelphia was inundated with street art and graffiti, and Mashaal-Lively turned to this kind of work because it is accessible to everyone.
They earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bennington College in Vermont and moved to Santa Fe two years ago. According to their biography online, their works, which include sculptural installations and murals, have been featured in exhibitions across the country and the world.
Mashaal-Lively, who identifies as black and gay mixed race, said he didn’t want to believe someone destroyed his job because of prejudice.
But this is the second time that something like this has happened to a work that Mashaal-Lively was involved in creating. Earlier this year, vandals damaged an altar of a multicultural group they spearheaded in tackling social justice issues, they said.
“I’m now two for two for the art audience in Santa Fe that has been pretty badly vandalized,” the artist said. “And we have no real way of knowing why.”
When asked what they could say to another artist who has suffered the same kind of loss and destruction, Mashaal-Lively replied that their message would be, “I’m sorry. I know how much it hurts, and I know how easy it is to let a few loud voices, a few loud voices and actions, silence you or convince you that what you do doesn’t matter. “
But, they added, “There are also so many people who appreciate and appreciate. Work always impacts a lot more people than you think. It’s good to grieve. And it is. good to give up too. “
Joye said anyone with information about the crime should call Detective Javier Vigil at 505-955-5412.
[ad_2]
Source link