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Esteban Cabeza de Baca's Time Travels | Art21 "New York Close Up"

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    (pensive music)
    (wind whistles)
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    - [Esteban] The way that
    my paintings develop
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    is in a very intuitive
    approach of what I feel,
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    what I respond to, but also
    searching for who I am.
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    Growing up along the border
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    and not being connected
    to a lot of my heritage,
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    I have had to find it on my own.
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    The process of art as being
    like a healing gesture
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    of connecting to these histories,
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    but then also reconnecting my
    relationship back to the land
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    and to learning these histories
    before we lose them to time.
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    (clock ticks)
    (pensive music continues)
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    (wind whistles)
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    (water trickles)
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    The way my process works
    is based on the concept
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    of a tesseract, where you
    have four different layers
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    or four different dimensions inside of it.
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    First, I start out by dyeing
    the canvas with cochineal.
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    Cochineal dye operates as
    almost like an astral plane
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    that looks similar to the
    way physicists map space.
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    These spiral forms in my
    paintings are about solstices.
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    Indigenous societies had the capability
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    of modeling time without
    industrial technology,
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    and then building up the next image
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    where I'm thinking about
    pre-colonial histories
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    and what advanced structures predate 1492.
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    The third layer involves
    observational painting
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    that I do on site.
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    - Yeah, that's looking pretty good.
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    - [Esteban] Heidi's been
    my partner for 10 years.
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    I'm asking for feedback,
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    but I'm also giving support where I can
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    with Heidi's process.
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    The fourth layer that
    I do is thinking about
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    a post-colonial future where
    it's optimistic and healing.
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    These layers don't sit
    parallel to one another
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    because there are multiple
    dimensions that are existing
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    alongside of all of us.
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    Painting is that device
    that can defy time.
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    (clock ticks)
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    What I want my viewer to
    experience is this paradox
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    where you can go backwards in time.
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    (wind rushes)
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    I think the land speaks to
    you when you're looking at it.
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    (cicadas chirruping)
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    Why I continue to go back to New Mexico
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    is to reconnect with my past.
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    My father's family was from New Mexico,
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    and my mom's from San Ysidro, California,
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    but born in Tijuana.
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    I can't really explain
    how much spiritual freedom
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    I sense when I'm there.
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    I go outdoor painting,
    doing plein-air painting,
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    and in some ways it's about endurance.
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    You go out to a specific
    site with a certain intention
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    but then nature guides you.
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    Time is shifting also.
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    Not only am I kind of building
    these multiple dimensions,
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    I'm also literally chasing after light.
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    (footsteps crunch)
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    (birds chirp)
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    (clock ticks)
    (gentle music)
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    Landscape painting for me, feels like
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    what all of our ancestors
    used to do in the caves.
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    That's where we all began
    thinking about space
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    but not severing it.
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    Colonial era painting came
    into the United States
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    with the project of showing
    how nature needs to be tamed
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    and all the savages need to be converted
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    and turned into men.
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    What I'm trying to do with
    my work is deconstruct
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    what we're seeing.
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    Who used to live there,
    who still lives there.
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    How do I utilize the language
    of painting to expand
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    our vision of where we could
    think about space and time.
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    Landscape painting can
    start two dimensionally
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    but I think it could also expand
    out into a whole worldview
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    to treat people in more equitable ways.
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    (subway announcer speaks)
    (gentle orchestral music)
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    (train clacks)
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    (clock ticks)
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    It's crazy how much more fencing
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    they kind of put up around here
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    since we last were here, Mom?
    - Oh yeah.
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    We used to consider this
    a place where you could
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    just like, really run around
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    and especially when you're kids.
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    I would have never expected
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    that what I took as natural
    and day-to-day, would change.
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    - [Esteban] It's weird to
    just be here and making it
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    an image that we've seen
    so much in mass media.
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    What can I say about it that isn't just
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    like something that's trying to define us?
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    - I think the privilege of having lived
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    a long life is that you know
    that that is not permanent.
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    - Yeah.
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    - That at some point that
    fence is going to go down,
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    but I have to bring back
    a memory of this space
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    without the fences because
    otherwise I go crazy.
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    You know, it's just really hard.
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    It's just really hard
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    to see the fences.
    - Yeah, (sniffs)
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    thank you for sharing that, Mom.
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    We have to express it though too,
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    in order to get past it and imagine
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    something bigger than it.
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    (gentle music)
    (clock ticks)
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    - We never knew if they
    were coming for coffee.
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    (speaks in Spanish)
    - Or spending the night.
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    - Spending the night or-
    - Some of the core themes
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    of my work are about freedom.
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    (pensive music)
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    Freedom to really express yourself
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    and your relationship to
    space and the environment.
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    Justice, how can you
    do justice to the past?
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    And I think, also joy.
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    (gentle piano music continues)
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    I didn't start speaking till I was five
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    so painting was that way
    for me to communicate
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    with other people.
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    I didn't have to explain myself.
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    Painting has always been
    that method to go backwards
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    in time into that mode
    of the five-year-old,
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    where I'm just feeling.
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    There's no words for it.
Title:
Esteban Cabeza de Baca's Time Travels | Art21 "New York Close Up"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"New York Close Up" series
Duration:
10:14

English subtitles

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