Longing and Belonging
From the Faraway Nearby
Group Exhibition, Site-specific
SITE Santa Fe, New Mexico (United States of America)
From 14/07/1995 to 08/10/1995
Longing and Belonging was the inaugural exhibition at SITE Santa Fe. It included 31 international artists who all explore identities in global culture. This exhibition mirrored SITE’s mission of bringing the “faraway nearby” by bringing objects and images from the international community to Santa Fe. It also addressed culturally-based ideas of permanency, displacement, exile, and heritage, among others.
This work raises questions on the relationship between identity and place. Rectangular pieces of glass on the exterior walls of the former warehouse building reflect, during daytime, the surrounding reality of Santa Fe, New Mexico; their “salon style” arrangement referencing the traditional art museum. The word “Available”, which appeared previously on the warehouse wall as a real estate advertising sign, reappears in large, neon backlit letters high atop a sidewall for optimum legibility from a passing car.
A concurrent installation in the Museum of Santa Fe is comprised of a vitrine containing two photographic images of the multiple communities that live in the region. Tiny circular speakers hanging from the vitrine emit the noise of breaking glass, pointing to the fragility and fragmentation of identities, nations, and environments. A broken clock makes reference to the instability of time.
Chema Alvargonzalez, 1995
Artists: Marina Abramovic, Chema Alvargonzalez, Francis Alÿs, Robert Ashley, Rebecca Belmore, Barbara Bloom, Imre Bukta, Carlos Capelán, Thomas Joshua Cooper, Braco Dimitrijevic, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Gary Hill, Jenny Holzer, Rebecca Horn, Anish Kapoor, Catherine Lord/Millie Wilson, Chie Matsui, Jakob Mattner, Gerald McMaster, Trinh T. Minha-ha, Bruce Nauman, Marta Maria Perez Bravo, Alison Rossiter, Meridel Rubenstein, Andres Serrano, Lorna Simpson, Valeska Soares, Pierrick Sorin, Kwong Chi Tseng
