Claudia Vásquez Gómez's Land Art and the Ethics of Scale
Claudia Vásquez Gómez's video work "To Move" (2020) features her hands arranging sticks and stones to form phrases like "to move" and "it's moving" on the landscape, ending with "sentir también es un acto politico." The work was recently shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in Santiago alongside Santiago Sierra's "SUMISIÓN," a concrete excavation of the word in Ciudad Juárez that was later buried by new construction. Vásquez Gómez, a 2016 field resident of Texas Tech University's Land Arts of the American West program, creates temporary text installations using flour, chalk, rope, and volunteers. Her practice emphasizes ephemeral materials and collective action, contrasting with Sierra's permanent infrastructure. The Land Arts program, directed by Chris Taylor, brings cohorts to the American Southwest to study human impact on landscape. Vásquez Gómez's work "El Paso" involves dragging a tire to mimic border patrol erasure techniques. The article reflects on scale, language, and the Ogallala Aquifer depletion.
Key facts
- Claudia Vásquez Gómez's video "To Move" (2020) shows her arranging sticks and stones to spell phrases like "to move" and "it's moving."
- The video ends with the line "sentir también es un acto politico. to feel is also a political action."
- "To Move" was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in Santiago, Chile.
- Santiago Sierra's "SUMISIÓN" was also on view at MAC; it involved excavating the word in concrete in Ciudad Juárez.
- Sierra's work was initially titled "Palabra de Fuego" and intended to be set on fire via webcast, which never happened.
- Vásquez Gómez participated in the Land Arts of the American West program in 2016, run by Texas Tech University.
- Land Arts director Chris Taylor brought the program's methods to Chile's Atacama Desert via Incubo Atacama Lab in 2007.
- Vásquez Gómez's "El Paso" involves dragging a tire to mimic border patrol footprint erasure.
- The Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted faster than it can be replenished, referenced in a well-drilling video from Shallowater, Texas.
- Vásquez Gómez uses temporary materials like flour, chalk, rope, and photovoltaic panels for her text installations.
Entities
Artists
- Claudia Vásquez Gómez
- Santiago Sierra
- Eric Simpson
- Chris Taylor
- Charles Bowden
- Bernadette Mayer
Institutions
- Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) Santiago
- Texas Tech University
- Land Arts of the American West
- Incubo Atacama Lab
- Tablelands Center for Bioregional Art
- Universidad Tecnológica Paso del Norte
- Orion Magazine
- Glasstire
Locations
- Shallowater
- Texas
- United States
- Santiago
- Chile
- Ciudad Juárez
- Mexico
- Anapra
- El Paso
- Monte Grande
- Atacama Desert
- New Mexico
- American Southwest
- Ogallala Aquifer