On April 4th the Always Becoming film crew will head down to Obregón, Mexico. We will be traveling with Athena and Bill Steen, last year's crew members on the Always Becoming sculpture project at NMAI In Washington. Our goal is to interview crew members, Juanita and Emiliano Morales and patriarch Don Juan who live in Obregón. The Steen and Morales families along with Don Juan played a significant role doing the building of the ephemeral NMAI sculptures .
The concept of family and community resonated from these families, encouraging an inclusiveness that extended to the staff members and visitors of the museum. Everyday while working on those two islands at the museum, the Morales family displayed a quiet dignity that crossed boundaries of language and culture.
In addition, the family's initial journey to Washington D.C., crossing the Mexican border and traveling through the United States symbolized the migration, not only geographically, but of self. Migrating toward that place of self realization where culture is honored and in the process creating is nurtured. We will conduct interviews and bring Don Juan across the border while interviewing him and the land he comes from.
Obregón, Mexico
Itinerary:
April 4,2009 - Arrive in Tuscon. Rent car and drive to Nogales, Mexico where we meet up with the Steen family. Cross the border. Spend the night in San Carlos, Mexico.
April 5,2009 - Drive to Juanita and Emiliano's house in Obregón. Begin interviews.
April 6,2009 - Continue Obregón interviews with Morales and Steen Families.
April 7,2009 - Return to Nogales traveling through Rio Samora, Mexico.
April 8,2009 - Nogales- Tucson - Albuqerque.
Next month's blog will have an excerpt from interviews.
"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware" -T.S. Elliot
The bags packed - check, traveling schedule in order - check. Concerns and stresses packed, but easy accessible - check. Armed with every "check" humanly possible, check, check.
Have you ever started off on a journey with preconceived notions of how a trip should - will be? Each day planned out to the minute? At 3:34 pm the plane lands and by 4:10 pm the rental car will be available. No doubt there's comfort in knowing things are going as planned, but the trip to Seattle reminded me that an itinerary rarely recognizes the rich texture of human behavior.
In our last blog installment entitled "Seattle Bound". The main purpose of the trip to Seattle was to interview one of the NMAI Sculpture competition selectors, Native Architect, John Paul Jones. We interviewed Mr. Jones and got some truly important words from him. However in the end, it was the leaving of a familiar routine, entering the unknown and allowing serendipitous events to guide us into a wondrous landscape of events that made the journey extraordinary.
Before we left for Seattle Mr. Jones sent me several examples of work done by his Architectural firm in the Seattle area. I contacted the director of one of the sites in downtown Seattle and lucky for us we were invited to tour the Monterey House. The Monterey House is an historic building renamed The Chief Seattle Club after renovations were completed by John Paul's firm. The Chief Seattle Club is now a homeless shelter and gathering place for Native people. Janine Grey, the director of the shelter took time away from her week-end to show us around.The Chief Seattle Club was designed from an environmentally conscious perspective, recycled materials were incorporated into the design and great care was taken to weave Northwest Coast culture and sensibilities into the layout of the building.
Thoughtful and smart, Ms. Grey passionately spoke about the shelter and how the design of the building truly reflected cultural values needed to reassure and honor everyone who entered the Chief Seattle Club. Ms. Grey words seamlessly wove into John Paul's interview creating a central focuses on community, culture and creating which of course are all themes relative to the ideas within Always Becoming.
Squaxin Island is two hours south of Seattle and is surrounded by water and dense woodlands. We met up with John Paul Jones at a gathering hosted by the Longhouse at the Evergreen State College, The First People's Fund out of South Dakota and The First Generation Fund. The gathering of Native people from several regions of the country was entitled," Creating - Migration - Change". Seventy Native artists, organizers and scholars spent two days discussing the ideas of creating from a cultural perspective and how this process effects change within indigenous communities. Elders from near by tribes told origin stories, an Indigenous rapper from East L.A versed and every single one of those seventy people brought their culture and community, sharing with a generosity that humbled and inspired.
John Paul's interview was the impetus for our trip however, hidden in the woodlands of the Squaxin Island, crafted in the Chief Seattle Club's mission statement, we discovered a treasure trove of cultural knowledge from Indigenous people dedicated to creating community, art and family. And from these people a cohesive cultural awareness resides no matter the Native experience. Professionals like John Paul Jones who hears his ancestor's voice every time he designs a building. City dwellers like Olmeca who rap defiance and elders who still smoke salmon on the reservation. One thing is clear, our ancestor's legacy is even more poignant, more purposeful then ever before, giving us the tools to continue.
This blog entry will include a travel itinerary and some general information about our trip to Seattle (February 6-10) to interview Architect, John Paul Jones. Mr. Jones was a selector for the National Museum of the American Indian Sculpture Competition. We'd like to catch up with Mr. Jones and ask him some questions about indigenous Architecture, the sculpture competition at NMAI and how culture and environment influence design.
For the past 40 years Mr. Jones has worked as an Architect and Landscape Architect developer. He is co-founder of the Architectural firm, Jones & Jones Architects based in Seattle. Coming from Cherokee and Choctaw ancestry, Mr. Jones attributes his environmental and Architectural sensibilities to his culture. His award winning designs have graced Washington state as well as our nation's capitol. Mr. Jones was a lead design consultant during the creation of the National Museum of the American Indian on the Smithsonian Mall.
We plan to film examples of his Architectural designs around the Seattle area, interview him on site at a renovation Mr. Jones is presently working on at the Evergreen State College Longhouse in Olympia, Washington. We will also follow Mr. Jones to a Native gathering hosted by the Evergreen Longhouse and the Squaxin Island tribe.
Itinerary:
February 6th - Travel day from Albuquerque to Seattle.
February 7th - In the morning we will meet with Jenine Grey, Director of the Monterey House in Seattle. Ms. Grey has generously offered to show us the Monterey House, a re-modeled hotel by the firm of Jones & Jones. This energy conscious, cultural center for urban Indians offers shelter on many levels to homeless Native people in the Seattle area.
In the afternoon we will travel 3 hours to the Squaxin Island where we will attend the opening of the gathering hosted by the Evergreen Longhouse. Mr. Jones will be in attendance.
February 8th - We will participate and film the gathering which will include Mr. Jones, tribal leaders and artists discussing the Changing Demographics of Native Art- which is also the name of the two day gathering.
February 9th - In the morning we have arranged a trip to the Evergreen Longhouse to interview Mr. Jones at the renovation site on the Evergreen State College campus.
Afternoon and evening we return to the gathering and continue filming the evening events.
February 10th - In the morning we will film landscape and water sites in the area of Olympia as we head back to the airport in Seattle.
Afternoon - Fly home.
Next entry we will have news of our Seattle trip and plenty of visuals.
“I think the medium of image and sound is unbelievably powerful and it is exciting to imagine where it will go, what it can do in terms of communicating worlds of thought.” - Dax Thomas
Dax Thomas is 29 years old. Dax was born in the arid landscape of central New Mexico where massive rock formations and red colored earth create dramatic views in every direction, at any given moment. Casa Blanca, New Mexico where Dax lives could easily be a film location with it’s stunning vistas and quiet certainty. It was in this some what isolated community--Albuquerque, New Mexico the state’s largest city is an hour East of Casa Blanca--Dax grew up. Maybe it was being a bright, curious, independent soul, an only child--whatever the circumstantial combination--Dax seems to have found his calling in film making and found it early in life. In his words he was, “Born watching movies”.
“Going to a film in a theater early on was an actual magical thing for me. The smell of popcorn and the darkness and the wonderful feeling of not knowing what you were going to see. This is when films could hypnotize me without effort. Transfixed, I wanted to be able to make these things that made me feel so much.”
Dax started making movies when he was 9 years old. Using a used VHS camera his mother bought for him, one of his first films was a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock film, “Psycho”. So here’s this Native American kid from Laguna and Acoma Pueblos, rooted in a culture that’s almost as old as the rock formation he lives under, filming a remake of “Psycho”, what a perfect example of the postmodern Native experience.
Since the remake of “Psycho”, Dax has made several short films. His work often plays with still shots, edited at a machine gun pace and infused with an eclectic sampling of sounds and music. The results are fragmented visual and audio tapestries woven together to make social commentary. Brutally honest, a Thomas film demands that viewers go far beyond the stereotypical Native movie experience. His work responds and consequently reflects contemporary life in it’s rapid and sometimes painful transformation. The imagery and symbolism speak to a universal audience and it’s for these reasons that Dax Thomas is an important part of the Always Becoming hour long documentary. Dax has lived the Always Becoming project from day one. He understands the details of this art project and is capable of articulating the visual nuances crucial in documenting the making and telling of the Always Becoming story.
And so now we know a bit more about Dax Thomas.
Next Month: In preparation for the February interview with architect and NMAI Sculpture Competition selector, John Paul Jones, next month’s blog will be dedicated to introducing Mr. Jones.
Starting a new endeavor is both exhilarating and a bit daunting. The night before the Margaret Archuleta Interview I wake up and go through the “to do” list. ‘Questions for the interview typed out and in my folder by the door,' Check. 'Everybody’s confirmed to be at the right place, at the right time,' Check. I’m certain I’ve missed something and proceed to torment myself by playing the, “What have I forgotten?” game. That’s the “daunting” part of starting a new endeavor, navigating the first steps of a vision.
In the morning with the truck loaded and everything seemingly on track, we head out to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Margaret Archuleta interview.
Margaret Archuleta was a selector for the NMAI outdoor Sculpture Competition. She and other selectors reviewed applications and made selections on the finalists. In making a final decision, the selector’s thoughts turned toward important issues surrounding the competition. Issues like possible sculpture sites on the NMAI grounds, what the selected piece would represent for the museum and how the sculpture responded to the competition's prospectus.
Margaret is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History/Native Art History at the University of New Mexico. Ms. Archuleta‘s curatorial experience at The Heard Museum culminated in the successful “Remembering Our Indian School Days” exhibit which looked at government boarding schools. Archuleta also curated an exhibition of Contemporary Native Art at the White House entitled, “Honoring Native America”.
The first thing I noticed when coming into Ms. Archuleta’s house were the books. Books stacked on tables, books piled on her computer’s desk, lining the walls and filling the house. It’s clear why Margaret was chosen by NMAI to be a selector for the sculpture competition. Besides her professional experience, Margaret’s innate curiosity and ongoing learning process offers a unique and insightful perspective.
Margaret’s house is small so almost immediately there was quite a discussion on how to set up the shoot and effectively compose the visual aspects of the interview. In the end the camera was set up in the kitchen and and Archuleta sat in the dinning area converted into a study/office space. We constructed a back drop using a large painting by Native artist, Kay Walking Stick. Using some of the thicker books for weight, we placed lights around and under Margaret’s desk for better lighting. After the set up and a few glitches, we shot the interview.
Here are some of the questions we asked Ms. Archuleta:
1. Tell me about your experience with Contemporary Native Art?
2. Tell me about your curatorial experience at the Heard in Arizona, and with the White House?
3. What kind of ideas about art did you bring into the NMAI Sculpture Competition selection process?
5. When and how did government take an active role in determining the kind of art Native people made?
6. Where do you see Native Art in ten years?
Of course the questions were meant to jump start the conversation and like most interviews, the answers flowed here and there into related and non related issues. Here’s where the “exhilarating” part of making a film kicks in. Once everything is set up and at last the camera is rolling, the thrill of knowing spontaneous thoughts that have been captured on camera will be pieced together with visuals and sounds to tell a story, making the experience ripe with possibilities...how exhilarating.
In October I was asked by the international art organization, Res Artis to be one of three key note speakers at their annual meeting held in Amsterdam. Res Artis is a worldwide networking organization that connects artists to residential art centers. The residencies can be for short periods of time or not, in large cities or not. the idea of Res Artis is to offer the artist an opportunity to create and communicate outside of the box in a variety of location throughout the world. Meeting artists and organizers from all over the world was important for me at this stage of my career. I met artists like Roel Schoenmakers who recently traveled to African communities that had little or no infrastructure and started creating artful playgrounds with recycled materials. Because of Roel’s creative approach and vision, tires, used wooden planks and plastic netting created a small soccer arenas, benches and swimming hole. Roel invited community participation reestablishing a communal sensibility in another wise fragile environment. This kind of community activism resonated among the tribally based people in these African communities, giving them a sense of accomplishment and cohesiveness as a community.
I mention the Res Artis experience because after the remarkable experience of Always Becoming, I began asking,’ what next?’ How does the spirit and creative momentum of Always Becoming evolve into a larger format that can be seen and experienced by even more people. ‘How do I connect with a global community of artists who are using their creativity in their communities?’. The people I met and spoke with in Amsterdam opened a door for me that offered a new level of understanding while introducing me to a worldwide audience. The opportunity of hearing what artists are doing in other parts of the world and sharing the pod casts of Always Becoming, I learned that Always Becoming, like Roel’s efforts in Africa have enormous potential in the area of community based art projects. Until my trip to Amsterdam I wondered if community based art projects really made a lasting difference, now I know.
As we prepare for our first interview with Margaret Archuleta - curator and selector in the NMAI Sculpture Competition - I’m even more certain and energized with the thought that our one hour film will make important and lasting connections to a global audience.
In my next installment, we’ll have details of the interview with Margaret Archuleta and clips to share of our interview.
With the Sculpture project of Always Becoming, I kept a journal. It was a large, black artist book with blank pages. I filled it with phone numbers, pictures, mud-sand ratios and cryptic notes. The notes were a collection of thoughts that culminated into what the sculptures of Always Becoming meant to me, how I invisioned it's evolution and intent. The journal was intimate and at times probably too honest. The "honest" parts described the feeling of being overwhelmed when I realized the project of Always Becoming was BIG. Big in the sense that Always Becoming dared to express Native culture in a simple straight forward way. Big in the way a life changing lesson is BIG because that's what it did for me personally. Big in the way that Always Becoming had the potential to reach a lot of people with an important environmental message. Often I felt small in that kind of Big-ness. I realized this one morning when I was greeted by a dozen or so people ready to mix mud in the heat and humdity simply because they wanted to be a part of something taking shape. At times it was uncertain to me exactly what was taking shape. It's as if an unseen force was dictating the design and we there to witness, work and be together. There were days I was in awe of people's willingness to just trust the process of creating.
For me the larger question became, how to put this kind of event into a useful perspective? How do we use this information that deals with issues of creativity, process, environment and community? How can this type of community oriented art process reach a wider audience?
I've started another journal, this time it's about the documentary of Always Becoming and you're reading it.
In the Summer of 2007, on two small plots of land, near the busiest street in Washington D.C., an art project called, Always Becoming began construction. For nearly two months in the heat and relentless humidity of a Washington Summer, a crew of eight along with a host of volunteers built five organic, ephemeral sculptures on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian on the Smithsonian Mall.
The experience of working under such unusual circumstances created an opportunity for a unique collaboration. Who would have guessed that mixing mud and layering adobes would also create a community and yet, that's exactly what happened. Children were encouraged to help mix mud with their tiny feet. People often arrived bringing food to share with everyone. Visitors to the museum gathered daily taking pictures and asking questions about the project. One afternoon a man in a suit came to the site and asked if he could help us. He put down his briefcase and shoveled gravel for an hour of intense labor. When he was done, he picked up his briefcase and disappeared back into the city. The kindness and support we received during those two months humbled me and reminded me daily that something grand was taking place. And in all of the activity- being on a noisy street, interacting daily with throngs of people - the sculptures got built.
So, as we prepare to make an hour long documentary revisiting many of the socio-cultural and environmental issues of this project, we welcome you to become apart of our discussion as we navigate through the next phase of Always Becoming.
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