In many languages - perhaps most - wind
entwines with air and breath, and, by extension, with speech,
song, and the sounding of musical instruments such as the
flute. Often wind acts as creator or as messenger and/or
their medium. In old stories of people of the Four
Corners, wind takes various forms, appearing as a vital
foundational element and as
powerful characters. Wind may be
beneficent or malevolent. There are greater and lesser
winds. There are whirlwinds. There are words that
describe winds of different natures and in different
circumstances.
I was artist-in-residence at Chaco Culture
National Historical Park throughout April of 2017.
Although I initially had different ideas, as the days went by I
realized that it was the wind that most impressed me.
Substantial archival and field research in the Four
Corners followed the residency. And so, while the
exhibition with which I returned to Chaco late in 2018 largely
built on my 2017 experiences and multi-media documentations of
wind at Chaco Canyon, it was also informed by people, voices,
languages and stories of the Four Corners region, for these,
varied as they are, shape a larger experience.
The 35-minute video, Hearing the Wind: Chaco Canyon, is the exhibit’s centerpiece and the most in
depth and complex treatment of the above. It was
accompanied twelve multi-media prints, approximately half also
concerned with wind, several drawing directly from the video's
imagery and ideas. The other half, more concerned with
"minding the ground", presented whimsical,
alternative interpretive elements for several sites in Chaco
National Park, reflecting long standing interests in landscape
interpretation, local materials and night-time landscape
experience.
Various images from video and exhibited
prints are pictured. Just above, left and right, are two
views of proposed hinged “doors” for the screen for
the park’s outdoor evening astronomy programs. The
center image, from the video, features a bowl, “Star
Wind”, by Norman Lansing a Ute artist. Many thanks
to Helen Munoz, Ruby Pesata, Andrew Thomas, Mayte Villa and
Anonymous (x3). The video would be much less without
their time and voices.
