The Paseo Returns with Sound and Light to Taos Historic District, Sept. 25 & 26

Category: Non-Local News Releases Non-Local News Releases
Published: 14 July 2015 14 July 2015

TAOS, NM-Matt Thomas, founder and director of Taos, New Mexico's newest art experiment, The Paseo, announced this week the selection of 13 more installation pieces that will be part of the 2015 outdoor art festival in Taos on September 25 and 26.

"The vision for The Paseo has strengthened this year with installations that employ the architecture of our town, and performance art that engages with the community - individually as well as collectively," Thomas said.

Now in its second year, The Paseo is a festival dedicated to bringing the art of installation to the 41-year-old Taos Fall Arts Festival. Forty-five artists will present 23 installation pieces at Taos Plaza and adjacent streets between on Friday, Sept. 25 from 4-10 p.m. and on Saturday, Sept. 26 from noon to 10 p.m.

Installation and performance pieces can be seen before dark; projections after sunset. A free map with locations and times is available.

Taos Mountain Brewing will host an after party from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. on Saturday with no cover charge. Pecha Kucha Volume 18 will take place at 7 p.m. on Sunday where many Paseo artists will be discussing their projects and processes. Pre-festival STEMarts workshops will be held by Paseo artists in Taos schools, culminating in student performances on opening night.

Three of 23 Paseo installations, which illustrate the diverse approaches, are planned for 2015 and include:

Flinching Eye Collective from Arvada, Colo. is one of five art collectives chosen to present in this year's The Paseo festival. The group consists of seven interdisciplinary media artists who present sound-based, interactive performances, and video art. In Taos, their piece will be titled Ideophonetic. It is described as combining amplified digital, analog, and vintage technology to create an immersive personal encounter with the audience. The group has been known to use modified weed whackers, amplified sewing machines, balloon inflators, heart-monitors, and other usually inartistic devices in their productions.

Also chosen for the 2015 festival is CHiKA Iijima, a Japanese-born artist living in New York City. Her Taos piece titled SEI: Stella Octangula, is a 6.5 foot high, interactive LED sculpture. The installation is brought to life through the public's interaction with sensors that activate multiple lights into a moving visual symphony. How the public interacts determines how the installation changes, making it a co-creation with the audience.

Half of the invited artists to date live and work in New Mexico. One of these is Abbey Hepner, a conceptual artist currently enrolled in the UNM Masters of Art program. Her piece planned for Taos is titled Nuclear Illuminations. It is composed of a collection of lamps made with bioluminescent materials that are activated when certain words are detected from an interrelated Twitter feed. The lamps are triggered in real time allowing the audience to affect the installation by tweeting nuclear-related words. Abbey recently finished a body of work in Japan and participated in an art residency program in Berlin.

A full list of participating artists as of July 1, 2015 includes:

AudioPixel, Boulder, Colo. - Interactive water/light/sound installation by artists Erin O'Brien, Hepp Maccoy and Aaron Wilson

Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM - Jamark, an interactive artwork by video pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka

Sabrina Barrios, Brooklyn, NY - How to Build a Portal for a Hidden Dimension, an environment created with 3D drawings

Paula Costilla, Cordova, NM - Wind With Small Lake nighttime installation

Flinching Eye Collective, Arvada Colo. - Ideophonetic, a performance piece blending sound, space, audience by artists Max Bernstein, Adán De La Garza, Scott Ferguson, Tobias
Fike, Ryan Wade, Ruehlen, Benjamin Gale-Schreck, Matthew Weedman

Nettrice Gaskin, Roxbury, MA - The Virtual Sounding Space, interactive sound projections played by the audience

Abbey Hepner, Albuquerque, NM - Nuclear Illuminations uses biological lights activated by Twitter feed

CHiKA Iijima, NY-Interactive LED light/sound installation

Amber Imrie-Situnayake, Oakland Calif. - Hum is an installation with fiber, LED lights and natural sound

Todd Lynch & Nikki Gardner, Haydenville, MA - Taos Weirs, an installation using organic Taos-specific materials and digital projection

Michelle Montjoy, Oceanside, Calif. - So Many Hours in the Day, an interactive environment built by viewers

Jan Nelson, Taos, NM - Moonlighting, a light installation

Ruben Olguin, Albuquerque, NM - Sonic Decay, a site-specific sound installation

Vanessa Ramos-Velasquez & Derek Holzer, Berlin - AoLive, a video and sound installation

Scott Randolph, Questa, NM - It's the Earth That Moves, an interactive display of animation and movement

Sara Rivera, Brighton, MA - Nerveless, a site-specific poetry installation

Paul Santoleri, Philadelphia, PA - Draco is a projected imagery installation

Christina Sporrong, Taos, NM - TaranTula, a kinetic sculpture

SJ2 Collective, Taos, NM Energy Transfer creates light and sound from human circuitry. By Sasha Vom Dorp, Jennifer Longo, Joshua Cunningham

TNT!, Taos, NM - The Corridor uses light, paint, and found objects for audience interactivity. By Dora Dillistone, Jan Dorris, Dianne Frost, Sally Gray, TJ Mabrey, M. Oliver, Barbara Zaring

Edie Tsong & Michael Lopez, Santa Fe, NM - Love Letter to the World uses typewriters with audience participation

Marion Wasserman, Santa Fe, NM - Dream Tent X2, a digital installation in a tent

Adam Wohwend, Albuquerque, NM - Mobile Event Viewing Apparatuses are interactive sculptures

For more information, including more about each artist, visit www.paseotaos.org. Information on other public arts events in Taos can be found at www.taos.org/calendars.

For more information contact Janet Webb, 575-758-3447, janet@beyondtaos.com.

The Paseo is supported with grant funding by New Mexico Arts, New Mexico Tourism Department, Taos Community Foundation, Taos County Lodgers Tax, the Town of Taos, and The Healy Foundation.

Images available at: https://www.dropbox.com/home/ThePaseo2015/Paseo2015artists_pics

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