ONLY IN ALBUQUERQUE
ON VIEW SEPTEMBER 11 WEAVING Through December 2021
Opposite: Marilyn Y. Scott, Diné born Blue Canyon, Arizona 1983; lives Tuba City, Arizona, September 11 Weaving aniline dye on wool 87 ¼” x 119” x ¼” Albuquerque Museum purchase PC2021.39.1 Below: Ruben Olguin, born Santa Fe; lives Bernalillo, Treeflow, 2021, clay with acrylic sealant installation made possible by the Albuquerque Museum Foundation
grandfather who started it in 1939, contacted the Museum last year to offer the work. “It is a stunner, in scale, vision, and ambition,” says Kim. “You have to see it in person.” The weaving will be on display in the hallway outside Common Ground through the end of the year.
Brooks Studio, Organized Crafts of Albuquerque at the Tingley Beach Bathhouse, ca. 1937, gelatin silver print, gift of Channell Graham, PA1978.152.208
We Built this City
New Mural in Resourceful
Treeflow, created by artist Ruben
THE “ORGANIZED CRAFTS OF ALBUQUERQUE” WAS AN
Olguin, is now on view in the
ASSOCIATION MADE UP SPECIALIZED LABOR UNIONS
Resourceful gallery in Only
including the painters union, carpenters union, bricklayers
in Albuquerque. Olguin
union, steel workers union, and common labor union. The
works in ceramic, video,
labor movement was a strong force, politically, in the first half
sound, and adobe,
of the 20th Century, and Albuquerque’s labor unions were
exploring the nature
especially strong and outspoken. They were not afraid
of time and ancient
to make sure their members were heard in every sphere
materials. The earthwork
of politics.
mural documents climate change along the Middle Rio Grande watershed, stretching from Cochiti to Belen. Through US Geological Survey data, Olguin researched drought cycles over the past 530 years and
Albuquerque’s loyal political leader, Clyde Tingley, was friendly with the labor unions, himself being a laborer in his younger years. He persuaded the local unions to donate their time to build a large bathhouse at the newly-completed Civil Works Administration project, Conservancy Beach (now called Tingley Beach) which opened in August of 1931. This photograph, along with others focused on the construction
represented the dry and wet cycles in the width of the rings.
history of Albuquerque, will be included in an upcoming
He then harvested clay from the riverbed and applied it
photo archives exhibition, We Built This City.
over a vinyl stencil. After the mud dried, he peeled away the vinyl, revealing the waterways and leaving the rings intact. The width and the color of the rings are an organic history of climate: “Clay holds the memory of the movement of water and references the spaces that the river carves,” Olguin says.
PHOTO ARCHIVES EXHIBITION COMING IN 2022
The clay’s colors reflect the history of the river valley. Browns
Preview a selection of images at
and red show times of heat and drought, whereas the yellow,
albuquerque.emuseum.com
green, and purple indicate cooler periods and rain. Olguin
and click on Collections
says that the purpose of the mural is to expose the fragility of the river’s flow.
AlbuquerqueMuseumFoundation.org
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