On this edition of West Texas Talk, a conversation with Rafa Esparza, Beatriz Cortez, and Timo Fahler, some of the artists behind Tierra. Sangre. Oro. - the latest exhibit from Ballroom Marfa.
For this project, adobe is central to the work. The exhibit addresses and excavates the history of colonialism, labor and economic value scales, queer culture and masculinity, as well as personal and familial legacy. While making these interventions, the artists will explore, “the visibility of Brown people in Marfa.”
Esparza learned how to make adobe brick from his father, and will work with artists from the Los Angeles community and local Marfa craftsmen to produce bricks and install the project.The artists set traditional materials, inherited processes, and ephemeral choreographies up against institutional structures and the historical narratives of Western sculpture, land art, and performance.
