The UNM Harwood Museum of Art in Taos presents two new exhibitions: “Desert Passage,” featuring the work of three Dutch artists, Anne Ausloos, Gerco de Ruitjer and Jeroen van Westen, and “Risk Hazekamp / Valley of the Gods: Contemporary Analog Photography In and Around Taos.” Both exhibits run Friday, Oct. 9-Sunday, Jan. 24. A public reception will be held Saturday, Oct. 10, 2-5 p.m.
“Desert Passage” explores issues of land, water and culture specific to the arid environment of the southwestern high desert of New Mexico. The three participating artists have exhibited extensively in Europe and beyond.
The exhibition developed after years of work, many trips to New Mexico and an artist book by the same title. The project’s goal was to investigate the enormous difference as well as the surprising similarities between the Dutch (wet) lowlands and the New Mexico (dry) high desert.
The contrast between the Dutch polder system and the Hispanic acequia system became a subject for each of these artists. The Dutch practically drown in water and have to create structures to manage and release its abundance, while New Mexicans are plagued by drought and have created efficient irrigation systems to lead the little water there is to the places where it can be best used. Both the Dutch and New Mexicans have created democratic organizations for water management. In both places, nature itself plays a dominant role and often disturbs these human regulating measures.
Risk Hazekamp participated in the Harwood Museum’s Artist in Residence program this summer. “Valley of the Gods” includes work created during her stay in Taos. Hazekamp uses photography to explore issues of identity and in particular the way gender and identity intersect. By evoking and drawing upon mass media and popular visual language – advertising, fashion and movie genres, she questions the construction of gender identities.
Born in The Hague, Hazekamp works primarily with photography and video. In her work, the language of Hollywood is directly engaged on the issue of gender. Her entire photographic process is analog: from the negative to the final print work no computer is used.
During her residency at the Harwood, Hazekamp photographed herself in the New Mexico landscape, functioning as an ultimate symbol for nature. Emptiness stands here for a non-defined space, based on the desire to step outside existing linguistic and physical borders. Hazekamp’s self-portraits express that identity should not be understood as a logical and coherent thing, but as a dynamic, fragmented and changeable process.
Call (575) 758-9826 ext. 105 or visit Harwood Museum of Art of UNM. The Harwood Museum is located at 238 Ledoux Street in Taos, N.M., and is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday, noon - 5 p.m. Admission $8, or free on Sundays to New Mexico residents.
Media Contact: Lucy Perera, (505) 758-9826, ext. 105; e-mail: lperera@aol.com