THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN PRESENTS A GROUP EXHIBITION EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS TO LAND AND PLACE
June 21, 2023
AUSTIN, TEXAS, June 21, 2023 – This fall, The Contemporary Austin presents This Land, a
group exhibition exploring the social and ecological effects of colonialism and capitalism on
people’s relationships to land and place, while also speaking to the changing landscape of
Austin. This Land features dynamic, multidisciplinary artworks in a range of media by five artists
in their Austin debuts: Vivian Caccuri, Raven Chacon, Minerva Cuevas, Danielle Dean, and
Jamilah Sabur. Located at the Jones Center, the exhibition will be on view from September 28,
2023, through January 28, 2024.
This Land brings together artists from regions across the Americas whose works address topics
including histories and mythologies of place, migration and displacement, and exploitations of
labor and resources while encouraging reflection on how the past, present, and future are
intertwined.
Vivian Caccuri (b. 1986, São Paulo, Brazil) will contribute tapestries outlining colonial history
through the mosquito; as a common nuisance in the Americas, the insect was originally an
invasive species introduced to the region via ships that carried enslaved peoples. In addition,
Caccuri’s sound installation Bass Mass (2021) will be installed on the Jones Center’s rooftop
and visible from the street below. Previously exhibited on the High Line in New York, the Texas
installation will debut a new sound composition by Caccuri, commissioned by The
Contemporary, referencing music cultures of Austin that are threatened with displacement due
to gentrification; Caccuri will compose the work in conversation and collaboration with local
communities.
Raven Chacon (b. 1977, Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation) will showcase two iterations of his
ambitious, multi-instrumental composition and performance, Tremble Staves, a work reflecting
on histories of place and the sanctity and scarcity of water. A video installation based on a 2019
performance of the work will be on view in the group exhibition, while a site-specific adaptation
of the work, featuring a newly commissioned narrative reflecting on the history of the site, will
be performed along the shoreline at Laguna Gloria. Presented by The Contemporary Austin in
partnership with Texas Performing Arts, Fusebox, and The University of Texas at Austin’s Butler
School of Music Percussion Ensemble on October 13, 2023, the Laguna Gloria performance will
feature San Francisco-based musicians The Living Earth Show alongside local musicians and
performers.
Minerva Cuevas’ (b. 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) research-based practice delves into the
systems that have created and enforced capitalism, oftentimes through text-based works and
politicized interventions. She will present works that continue to interrogate the social
consequences of these systems through sculptural installations that speak to the harm done by
the petroleum industry to the lands people inhabit. Through the installation Crossing of the Rio
Bravo, Cuevas reflects on the politicized and mediatized violence of migration across the
U.S.-Mexico border by crossing the river herself and documenting the process of painting a
bridge across the riverbed.
Commissioned by Tate Britain, Danielle Dean’s (b. 1982, Huntsville, Alabama) immersive
five-channel video installation, Amazon, will make its US premiere at The Contemporary. The
work explores how the exploitation of human capital is intertwined with commercial land use –
pulling historic and contemporary examples including Henry Ford’s “Fordlandia,” an early
20th-century settlement and rubber plantation in the Amazon rainforest, alongside the
present-day 24-hour remote labor policies of Amazon, Inc. Also on view by the artist, is a series
of large-scale watercolor paintings of wild landscapes that move from dusk to dawn. Based on
vintage Ford Motor Company advertisements in which the people have been digitally removed
and only detritus remains, the scenes of nature take on an eerie, post-apocalyptic feel. Installed
in chronological order, it requires viewers to move in a manner that is reminiscent of an
assembly line and also reverberates with Austin’s present-day site as the headquarters of Tesla.
Jamilah Sabur (b. 1987, St. Andrew Parish, Jamaica) will present a film titled The Harvesters,
which takes its name from a Pieter Bruegel painting and addresses the effects of offshore
mining on the fragile oceanic ecosystem. In the film, the artist appears in a cricket uniform as a
symbol of exploration and colonization, cricket being a sport that found its way to Jamaica and
other countries in the 17th century as an acculturation tool of the British Empire. Alongside the
film, in a work from her Mnemonic Alphabet series, which uses neon, Sabur explores
relationships between image and text and alludes to indigenous languages.
sharon maidenberg, Executive Director / CEO of The Contemporary Austin, shared on the
exhibition, “This is a wonderful example of the kind of projects we’re proud to present at The
Contemporary in that the topics explored are so relevant to the moment we’re living in; the
artists included are working at the leading edge of creative practice and bring a breadth of
disciplines and points of view and the project itself includes several meaningful collaborations
and partnerships.”
With Greater Austin ranking among the fastest growing and most expensive metropolitan areas
in the U.S., this exhibition seeks to increase awareness about how the rapid growth of urban
environments affects our communities and ecological systems. The exhibiting artists illustrate
land as a constructed system by addressing relationships between people, places, and
resources. Each project establishes a framework for acknowledging the structural foundations
that alter past and present conditions both inside and outside of Austin, helping us to better
understand how economic endeavors affect land use and habitation.
“The artists in this exhibition approach the broad topic of ‘land,’ or landscape, as a system,
through their integrated inquiries into the political, economic, and social conditions shaping our
world in this era of global capitalism and demonstrating how our past, present, and future are
intertwined,” says Robin K. Williams. “My hope is that the exhibition and related programs will
tell a larger story about this land we inhabit, to help us all consider how political and corporate
policies as well as our everyday actions affect people and the planet.”
This Land is curated by Robin K. Williams, Curator, The Contemporary Austin. Accompanying
the exhibition and ambitious performance from Chacon will be a robust series of programming
to be announced.
THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN
As Austin’s only museum solely focused on contemporary artists and their work, The
Contemporary Austin offers exhibitions, educational opportunities, and events that start
conversations and fuel the city’s creative spirit. Known for artist-centric exhibitions and
collaborations, The Contemporary invites exploration at both its urban and natural
settings—downtown at the Jones Center (700 Congress Avenue) and lakeside at the Laguna
Gloria campus (3809 West 35th Street), which includes the museum’s Betty and Edward
Marcus Sculpture Park, with a growing program of commissions, temporary projects, and a
permanent collection of outdoor sculptures by artists including Ai Weiwei, Terry Allen, Carol
Bove, Sarah Crowner, Tom Friedman, Anya Gallaccio, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Nancy Holt,
Teresa Hubbard / Alexander Birchler, Paul McCarthy, Wangechi Mutu, Tom Sachs, Monika
Sosnowska, Jessica Stockholder, SUPERFLEX, Marianne Vitale, and Ursula von Rydingsvard.
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