Vientos (2013 - present)

Vientos is a series of projects using the wind as a metaphor for turbulence and resilience in human relationships. Beginning with the test of a wind turbine on an outdoor seismic shake table and the Mexican American rodeo, Vientos considers the wind as it operates in variable cultural and geographic climates.

Vientos was first inspired when I was living in San Diego and invited by structural engineers to create a project responding to their upcoming experiment of a wind turbine on a seismic shake table (we had met each other while I was working on Quake/Temblor). At the same time, I was enmeshed in San Ysidro, the U.S. community bordering Tijuana, and got to know people at the local charreada (rodeo). There, I learned about the Vientos, a rope trick meant to embody the fluidity of wind.

In Cardinal, Failure, below, charro Filemon Jarra, Jr., demonstrates the Vientos.

As part of Vientos, I worked with choreographic duo HIJACK (Kristen Van Loon and Arwen Wilder) on several experiments involving artificial wind sources, including leaf blowers and power fans.

Burden of Royalty, produced with choreographer Carl Flink and company Black Label Movement, focused on the brutality of Minnesota winters and mental constructions of survival. Dancers embody mythic figures, fight a Hollywood mole fan, and grapple with one another on frozen lakes.

Video, performance, poetry

Collaborators include choreographer/dancers HIJACK (Kristen Van Loon and Arwen Wilder), Carl Flink and Black Label Movement, and charro Filemon Jarra Jr.

Camera crew includes Bill Cameron, Adrienne Hughes, Ali Malone, and Kevin Obsatz.

Writing with John Pleucker and Fred Schmalz

Originally developed in 2013 with support of a Jerome Visual Arts Fellowship