Voices of the Desert
Photo by Raymundo Munoz
Union Hall
In Voices of the Desert, Marquez presents a series of videos, animations, still images, and installations exploring environmental justice, mysticism, and healing from generational trauma. Within the space of the gallery, viewers can interact with physical and digital environments that resemble a dark and futuristic desert landscape. Guided by handmade objects that act as interfaces to control the digital spaces and narratives she creates, viewers navigate through the space and engage with the video and AR works. In this hybridized environment, both rendered and real, several plants native to the desert regions of the southwestern United States present themselves; and upon investigation, open up a portal to the inner network of consciousness held within the earth. Within this internal zone, there is a story being told in hushed tones. The whispers of the plants are the knowledge held within the land, as well as the voices of our ancestors. A space of deep collective memory reveals itself as viewers engage with Marquez’s digital works, revealing the trauma that lives in the land and the plants' attempts to process what is happening to the ecosystem, calling forth their power to protect and heal the earth. Incorporating dried yucca stalks and devil’s claw pods collected in New Mexico, as well as digital renderings of their forms, the artist reflects on the physical and the metaphysical lives of plant life in the desert, and what stories these sacred plants hold.
Photo by Erynn McConnell
Photo by Erynn McConnell
Photos by Erynn McConnell and Raymundo Munoz