Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts... and Viewers Like You.

OFF-CENTER: NEW MEXICO ART AT VLADEM CONTEMPORARY DELVES INTO THREE PIVOTAL DECADES THAT SHAPED NEW MEXICO'S ARTISTIC IDENTITY.

EXPLORE THE FASCINATING WORLD OF MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPTS AT OHIO STATE'S THOMPSON LIBRARY.

CURATOR ERIC JOHNSON REVEALS THE STORIES THAT HELPED SHAPE HISTORY.

ARTISTIC EVOLUTION >> Faith Perez: What inspired Vladim Contemporary to create the Off Center exhibit?

>> Christian Waguespack: So the Off Center exhibit came kind of in the wake of planning for the Vladim Contemporary.

One of the things that's Important about our museum is that we are the only museum that collects contemporary art by artists of all backgrounds in Santa Fe.

So, that was all at the heart of why the Vladim Contemporary was an important project for us and thinking through the kind of project we wanted to do, we thought back to that history and one of the things that I think our museum has done pretty well over the past century, is telling the story of New Mexico art history.

But when we get to the time span of this exhibition Off Center New Mexico Art - 1970 to 1990, we realized nobody's really told that story yet, and since we just opened this new building that's dedicated to preserving and celebrating contemporary art we thought now is the time for us to tell that story while many of these artists are still with us.

>> Christian: So the exhibition is divided into three themes, Place, Spectacle and Identity.

Part of the reason we wanted to do this was there are over 150 artists in the show.

There isn't really the space to show them all at the same time, so instead of putting them all together and making it a very dense project, we decided to rotate the exhibition three times.

So, you'll come back, you'll see the same kind of major theme which is the artist during this time period, but you'll see it from a different point of view and part of that is to show the kind of richness and diversity of the ideas that artists during this time period were working with and addressing, you know, for instance - Place.

When we think about New Mexico we think about the art that was made here, it's very difficult to not think about this place specifically, but we took a very broad view of that topic.

>> Faith: So, I want to talk about TC Canon's Washington Landscape and how does that fit into the theme of Place?

>> Christian: Yes, so TC Cannon's painting looks at the deeper history of the geopolitics of indigenous land in the United States.

He's taking the kind of content of the painting from a 19th century photograph of a Chief who's gone to Washington DC to receive a Peace Medal, and these were bestowed by the United States government on tribal leaders that they saw as kind of being good examples of the kind of indigenous folks that they wanted to work with because they were honoring the kind of treaties that were benefiting the United State's government.

You'll see The Sitter there with the top hat, which is this symbolizer for westernization and assimilation, even though he's wearing, otherwise, identifiable indigenous garb, and then, of course, you see the White House through the window in the background.

So, it's all about that very troubled history between indigenous communities and the United States government.

TC Canon is an incredibly important figure in the story of contemporary Native art, because he's one of those forerunners and artist who were, kind of, taking the story of indigenous folks in the United States and taking control of that narrative through that work.

[Music] >> Faith: So, how does Luis Tapia's, Chima Alter reflect the social and cultural landscape of New Mexico?

>>Christian: So, Luis Tapia's, Chima Alter is for me one of the most joyful and fun to see in the show.

The colors are just extraordinary and it's interesting to see the kind of merger of a kind of Spanish Colonial alter piece with the inside of a Low Rider car and I think that that demonstrates a lot of Tapia's humor that he brings to a lot of his work.

His piece there is indicative of a section where we're, in some ways, looking at new technologies that affect the way that we have understood our landscape during the second half of the 20th century, namely car culture so that's one aspect of it, the other important story that it's there to tell is the way that contemporary artists are looking at more traditional New Mexican art forms and bringing them into this next century, you know, the Chama Altar piece is looking at the styles, the techniques of the New Mexican Santero, these Hispano artists who've been working in New Mexico for over 400 years to create a beautiful and distinctive style of devotional artwork that's unique to this region and incredibly powerful and incredibly important to New Mexican art history.

Luis Tapia was kicked out of Spanish Market when he was working there originally because some of the styles and colors that he wanted to use in his pieces, you know, he was told these are "not traditional" even though his own research into the material that inspired this work shows that early Santos did use bright vibrant colors, so he's taking that research applying it to this contemporary sculpture, taking a look at what it means to live in New Mexico today thinking about the car, thinking about Chicano culture and low riders, the car itself being inspired by his grandmother's car, so bringing that own personal history, blending it all together and making this piece that's not only exquisitely crafted and beautifully painted but deeply culturally powerful and just a joy to look at.

>> Faith: Can you talk about how Delilah Montoya's Guadalupana actually fits into the theme of, Identity?

>> Christian: So, Delilah Montoya is an important Chicana artist with roots and Albuquerque she went to the University of New Mexico and studied there, she went on to make a career as a photographer and as an installation artist looking at the Chicano Community, and this piece is a large installation from a body of work that she did around the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, she incorporates a lot of Catholic religious imagery into her work, because of the religious power of it but also because of the cultural power within Chicano Community.

This piece has a pretty personal narrative attached to it.

La Guadalupana was inspired by the story of Felix Martinez, and he was a man who was falsely accused of being involved in a drive-by shooting in the South Valley in Albuquerque, he was falsely incarcerated, and before he could be exonerated he was suffocated in his cell before he could implement the actual person who was involved in the crime.

The image that's in the installation itself is his back with a tattoo of the Virgin Mary the Guadalupe on it, and it's turned into this large shrine, this large alter piece, so the photograph is an installation that goes on the wall, but then, there is an alter, kind of an ofrenda, that's installed in front of it.

It talks about racial stereotypes and false incarceration, it talks about the power of images within particular Communities, and it talks about the kind of power of art to do good in the world and in individual lives.

[Music] >> Faith: How does Patrick Nagatani's Waist Isolation, and other nuclear-themed works fit into the Place and Spectacle portion of the exhibit?

>> Christian: So, a large portion of the Place and Spectacle portion of the exhibition looks at artists who are making work about New Mexico's nuclear history.

[Music] >> Christian: Patrick Nagatani is a Japanese- American artist, he moved to New Mexico to teach at the University of New Mexico, where was a photography professor.

But, he was also one of the pivotal figures in a movement in photography that was kind of moving away from the idea of photography as documentary art, and starting to make these constructed images, you know, he was coming out of the context of Hollywood and creating these sets to create these very vibrant stories, and when he came to New Mexico one of the themes that he latched onto pretty quickly was wanting to make artwork around the nuclear history of this place and he made a series called Nuclear Enchantment.

This image is from that series and here you see a semi-truck filled with nuclear waste driving through the desert, down to a nuclear waste site, right where all this material is being dumped, and will remain there for thousands of years and in the foreground you see these little Roadrunners that are dead from nuclear contamination but his use of color is one of the most interesting things that he brings to the story, though the individual elements of his photographs are all very realistic, the way that he assembles them kind of creates this surreal movie set feel and he animates them with these bright acid colors that kind of takes us outside of the mundane realm of reality and gives us a sense of the vibrancy and toxicity of the topic that he's looking at.

So, his work is this great, kind of, push and pull that art can do where to look at them, they're very beautiful and they're very seductive he uses these very lush, iridescent, shiny surfaces that pull you in, but, when you start to pick apart the image it gets a little darker and it pushes you away.

So, there's that seduction and that repulsion that he brings to the story of New Mexico's nuclear history, which he's pretty critical of in this series but has made beautiful in his own way.

>> Faith: What do you hope visitors will take away from this exhibit?

>> Christian: One of the things that I hope that visitors will leave this exhibit with is an appreciation for the breath and diversity of the artwork that was being made in New Mexico during these three decades.

It was an incredibly important time in the transformation of the art world.

You had folks who were engaging new media, you had folks who were engaging new concepts in the art world and one of the things that I think set New Mexico up to be one of the centers of the art world in the United States is that we have space for so many different types of artists to work together, all in one place, all at the same time, making incredibly different types of work, telling very different stories that are all in their own way still rooted in this place and rooted in this time.

You have artists who are dealing with questions that are deeply personal to them as individuals, you have artists who are dealing with stories of deep cultural history and cultural legacies, you have artists who are working in a very somber manner, artists who are working in ways that are very funny, so, I think that one of the things that will really strike people is that breath and that diversity that New Mexico has space for.

But, it also does, I think the very important role of writing this history for the first time so we have that moment to reflect on and build on.

DEATHLESS FRAGMENTS We are here today in the Thompson gallery within the Thompson library at the Ohio state university.

With me is Eric Johnson the curator of the Thompson's special collection.

Eric, thank you for having us today.

Thanks so much for being here, this is really exciting for us to be able to showcase this lovely exhibit, Deathless Fragments for a wider audience.

Wonderful, So why don't you tell me about the collection?

The exhibit title, Deathless Fragments, it focuses on one of the core constituent collections within the rare books and manuscripts library, which is our medieval manuscripts and very specifically medieval manuscript fragment collection.

Now, fragments are an interesting thing, most people when they think about medieval books are going to think about complete things but Ohio state has one of the largest fragment collections in North America, which has been an extremely important thing for us in terms of the provision of teaching opportunities for students to perform original research, undertake projects that no one else has undertaken before.

This exhibit really highlights the state of Ohio's central role as the locust, the absolute center of American manuscript breaking in the 20 century, so literally hundreds of manuscripts have been cut apart in the state of Ohio with it's pages being distributed not just all over America but all over the world.

That's incredible.

I feel like it covers a lot, that's amazing!

So, with that much rich history there must be a lot of incredible stories within these books.

What is one that stands out to you?

Yeah, so there's a really really great book that I would love to show you that is actually not a fragment, it's a complete medieval manuscript, but it has an incredibly rich and important history with the state of Ohio but then also going all the way back into the later 15th century.

So we could take a look at that.

Fascinating, let's take a look.

Okay.

So my eye is immediately drawn to this tiny shiny one.

But is that- is that the one we're going to talk about?

Well in some ways that's exactly what your eye should have been drawn to, cause it's silvery and it's bright and reflects that light but it's actually probably the most common manuscript that is here.

Really?

And it's not a silver cover, it's not a pewter cover, it's actually kind of a mashup of papier- mache... and metallic plating and things like that, deliberately put on, it's not a medieval binding that was put on at some point likely in the 19th century to evoke this sense of opulence and fanciness that the actual book that it encloses doesn't really have.

Well, worked on me!

(Laughs) But the thing that is in my opinion truly the most special item in this case is this little fellow right here, which is a later 15th century book of hours, and book of hours, hours as in hours of the day, it was a common prayer book for the lady to use, everyday people who wanted to kind of follow the same practices that professional religious people like priests, monks and nuns did in terms of celebrating a daily cycle of regular prayer.

Books like this became aspirational things for anyone who could afford a limited manuscript in the middle ages and ours right here is particularly special.

I cannot swear to this, there are a few things I cannot say with precision about this, but this might be the medieval manuscript that has been in the state the longest possibly.

It was donated to the Ursuline nuns of brown county north of Cincinnati in 1870 so they had held it until 1870 until it ultimately came to Ohio state in early 2017.

I love that Ohio connection.

I love the fact that it was donated to them in 1870, but after we got this book I spent some time working on it and we've really been able to figure out a lot about this book's history.

So, very handily the book preserves a coat of arms toward the front of the volume which has allowed me to identify the person who actually commissioned this book and had it made right around 1470.

It was a man named, Jean Mulay, who was a war profiteer in France during the hundred-years war and otherwise a businessman.

He was very well- connected, his father was also a war profiteer, his uncle was the bishop of the city of Tua, that leads us to a very kind of tangential connection, but those two figures his father and his uncle were the two civic officials that opened the city gates to Joan of Arc when she was campaigning through Champagne during the hundred years war.

You're kidding?!

So really, really, cool connection there.

Another great thing about this book though is while we know that it was commissioned by Jean Mulay, it seems pretty likely that he didn't commission it for his own use, but likely for the use of his wife and the reason we know this is that every book of hours has a set of prayers dedicated to the Virgin Mary and typically when they're in Latin, Latin is a gendered language.

So, you can look at some of these prayers and based on the masculine or feminine endings to particular formulaic words you can determine whether or not it was made for male use, anyone's use or specifically a woman's use.

And this was specifically found and used?

Exactly.

So, if it has the masculine ending it could be for anyone's use, but if it has the feminine endings it is specifically made for a woman.

[offscreen ]Interesting.

In addition to the feminine endings we also have some old French prayers, not Latin but old French towards the end that are traditionally associated with pregnancy and childbirth so we have this female use which makes the book more interesting and then one thing I absolutely love about every medieval manuscript is that if they survive today they have a long history of all sorts of stories, stories of persistent use, obsolescence, re-tasking , reuse and recycling and this book, as I mentioned, it was given to the nuns in 1870, the man who gave it to them was a guy named John Quinlan, who is the bishop of Mobile, Alabama.

He had come to Cincinnati from Ireland as a teenager, trained to become a priest, rose up through the ranks and became the bishop in Mobile and I cannot swear to this, but I've been trying to figure out the history of Quinlan's involvement with this manuscript.

And I have read some records in the diocese and archives in Mobile, Alabama that talk about John Quinlan in the civil war, in the American civil war, roaming battle fields in the south, ministering to dead and dying union and confederate soldiers with a painted leather prayer book and it may have been this fellow right here.

We cannot prove that, but it's a really good chance that this is it.

This is just one of my favorite items being absolutely central to the history of manuscripts in Ohio but then also having a demonstrable history that we can trace back to the 1470s, the man who created it, the woman it was going to be used by and then all the way up through this really, I wouldn't say reuse because these books were made for prayer, but a different kind of context on American civil war battlefields potentially...so.

That is fascinating.

The way you have this piece of history but then you've done all this research to kind of bring it to life.

So, let's say someone like me who just wants to come in and see this, is that possible?

Can they come in and look at these pieces?

Yes.

We have a very public facing land- grant based mission, these materials everything that we have in the special collections at Ohio state is here for people to use, this isn't just for students and faculty of Ohio state or for international researchers, this is for school groups, this is for the interested public and we encourage people to get in touch with us.

Set up appointments, things like that, and we make everything available for public use and in person page turning in our special collections reading room here in Thompson library.

Can I take a look at that?

Yeah.

We can definitely have a look at that.

Let's do it.

[Music] Okay, so this is the reading room.

Yeah, welcome.

This is where all of the public interface happens, this is where students, teachers, the general public, this is where they would come to have individual interactions with any of the stuff in our care.

Okay, great, so what are we looking at?

Yeah, so this is one of my favorite items in the entire collection.

This is the- not the oldest thing in our collection, our oldest stuff goes back to ancient Babylon, but in terms of what we think of as a book today, this is our oldest complete intact nothing on it is new book.

And it's a collection of saints lives that was written likely in Prague right around 1370 to 1380 and the reason that this is my favorite item, there- well there are a handful of reasons, one is that it's a great teaching object because it's full of damaged patterns that show the life of the animal or animals that constitute the pages.

Oh, wow!

So if we actually look at these pages, they're not paper, this is animal skin.

Wait, so you don't have to wear gloves or anything special?

Yeah.

That is a very common myth that Hollywood has perpetuated.

Really?

I've been scammed?

So yeah, basically, with old books, the key is you just need to have very clean hands.

If you wear gloves, what I always tell my students is to go home and put on your favorite pair of winter gloves and try to turn pages in your book, you're going to tear the pages, you're going to damage it.

So clean hands and then in a book like this if you just stick to the margins you're not going to be touching the actual-.

That makes so much sense.

(Laughs) So there's actually- there are things on YouTube that explain all of this about why you don't- You're still going to get emails.

(laughs) Yeah.

I'm positive.

But Medieval manuscripts like this, they're- they did make them on paper.

But very, very, often, you will find them on animal skin.

Is that what this is?

This is animal skin.

Correct.

Is it alright if I?...

Yes.

Clean hands.

Please do.

Oh it's weirdly soft.

Mmhmm.

Yeah.

And the softness you're feeling is actually what would've been the inside of the animal.

Oh, now you tell me after I touch it!

(Laughing) But we use this a lot in teaching because you can actually see evidence of the life of the animal, so this is actually a piece of scar tissue that split during the process of stretching and drying.

That is gross and fascinating.

Yeah, it's very fascinating.

WOW!

And then alongside all these little holes are sewing holes where the craftsman making the parchment were trying to make sure it didn't split and rip any further.

But, the real reason this is my favorite manu- or one of my favorite manuscripts in the collection is because of this very interesting fellow right here.

Oh, what is that?

This is an original medieval bookmark.

Oh, you're kidding.

It's so simple.

It's simple but complex as well.

I always like to say this is a medieval hypertext at its best.

This is what's called a Volvelle bookmark, what that means, the volvelle is a spinning component.

[offscreen] Look at that!

You can see here that it spins and on one side we have an illustration, a colored illustration of a saint, we don't know who this is.

But it's just a nice little decorative piece.

So much like any bound bookmark would, you've got it on the original string and it marks your page opening but if you flip the volvelle over, you'll see the writing on the volvelle and these are abbreviated Latin words for first, second, third and fourth.

So, you can spin the volvelle and if we spin it here and mark secunda, this now tells us the page opening but the second column.

Oh, wow!

And then, I'm not going to do this because long ago it ceased functioning, but this little piece right here is a fused together noose of sorts that would have allowed you to move the volvelle up and down the line to mark your line number.

That's amazing!

So, it is very ingenious way of helping readers navigate a complex text.

A book this big you're going to need that.

So, it's so simple but so intricate.

Exactly.

And then the other thing I like about this opening where it habitually lives, is you get to see that damaged area.

Yeah!

So, this is just a lovely little piece in our collection that we get a lot of use of.

I bet!

That is an incredible piece.

So much to learn from this.

Thank you!

Well, Eric, this has been fascinating, I feel like I've learned so much, thank you for letting us come in and check out the collection.

Yeah, no problem, thank you for coming and I would really just like to encourage the general public, or students, anyone who's interested in learning more about the rare books and manuscripts library, Thompson's special collections, all of our holdings, please get in touch, this is here for everyone to use.

And we want them to take advantage of that.

Well, thank you again.

Thank you very much.

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Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Fund, New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts... and Viewers Like You.