Wonder Holy Ladder is an exhibition about the symmetry and equanimity that underlies our complex cosmos. Cory Feder and Diego Medina (Piro-Manso-Tiwa) collaborated on the concept of the show, and a deep sense of collaboration can be seen not only between the artists but in their spiritual traditions, the Southwest, and even the architecture of the gallery. It’s as if the artists have collected them with purpose as an antidote to all the transactional relationships of the 21st century.
Some of Medina’s ancestors lived in the Mesilla Valley in New Mexico near what is now called Las Cruces, where he lived. His work is full of New Mexican landscapes, adobe buildings, and Southwestern Puebloan patterns and designs that he spreads against the sky. The clarity he draws, however, underlies the symbolism he uses to represent an everyday. Medina slightly returned the veil to show us what we always knew was there.
His works are colored pencil on wooden panels, materials that are not very pretentious when compared to the subjects he describes. In the “gathering of the prophets” (2022), Medina presented a panel divided by a line of portholes towards heaven. On one side of the celestial divide, the ancient stones seem to be looking at a glowing sphere around which they are rounded. On the other hand, a frog stares at a spectacular sunrise or sunset, a haloed, rainbowed star throbbing above the sun. The prophets here are the rocks, the frog, the sun, the cosmos-but also, there is a feeling that the “prophets” refer to all of Medina collectively: the pencils, the wood, himself, the viewer, the gallery.
Feder is a ceramicist and illustrator and uses both mediums in Wonder Holy Ladder. The small and sculpted faces in “views from the ladder” (2022) were inspired by the Korean theater mask that decorated the walls of his home when he was a child. The faces, which cover random squares on a kind of checkerboard that is also a kind of ladder, seem to be fighting for position in a familiar game, though the rules remain vague.
Feder has a Korean heritage, among others, and currently lives in Santa Fe, a city founded on the traditional lands of the Tewa people and surrounded by Pueblo, Navajo, and Apache communities. Two ceramic vessels, the “pillar of mercy” (2022) and the “pillar of strength” (2022) are reminiscent of the kivas – circular, underground rooms that are entered by stairs and designed by the Indigenous people of the Southwest for spiritual ceremonies. .
The cross-sections seem to be two sides of the same ceramic vessel; within each we see a maze of curved rooms and levels reached by small stairs. But what occupies this space is not domestic life à la Richard Scarry but a neighboring world with its own logic. Cacti grow from the floor, creatures live in rooms, and small, humanoid figures gather and roam the levels. It is a vision of the inner life – a kingdom that, though hidden, is always present in everything we do.
To look at Feder’s other vessels is to imagine that they are full of rooms and wonder what they contain. In the vicinity of the metaphysical works of Medina, the vessels are more than containers of the subconscious, they are visions of another plane of existence, another home – a spiritual one.
The Valley is a hot gallery. Its focus on showcasing early career artists exploring mysticism, craft, and space is felt in the building itself – an older adobe naturally lit by skylights. To be a new gallery in Taos dedicated to showcasing contemporary art with these themes is to break the stereotype of Southwestern art by embracing it a little bit. Place, community, culture, people, land, water, spirit are important here. The persecution against those themes is, in a sense, to stimulate stereotype. In this way, the gallery becomes a partner in creating meaning.
While I was visiting Wonder Holy Ladder, I thought of a fragment written by the German poet and mystic Novalis: “All philosophy is really homesickness. It’s the desire to be at home anywhere. ”Perhaps it’s not a show about leaving transactional relationships as much as it is about finding a home everywhere.
Medina and Feder both incorporate animals and unidentified creatures into their pieces. They describe these animals as peaceful, eternal observers of the wonderful mysteries of existence: the constellations, a blooming iris, the unfolding of time. Feder’s “sun ram” (2022) stands tall, looking into the distance (no The distance, just distance) carrying flowers. The turtle balances a ladder, a symbol of transcendence in many cultures, behind it. In Medina “there he is” (2022), a crow looks at peace on a branch, a symbol of universal symmetry, a pattern made of stardust floating above. The bird beats none other than its utter crow, which is nothing more than all it has.
Wonder Holy Ladder continues on The Valley (118 Camino de La Placita, Unit D, Taos, New Mexico) until July 23. The show is curated by Ari Myers.
