A new exhibit at the Coconino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff uses sculpture to tell the story of colonialism, migration, and environmental destruction in Arizona. It’s called “Virga: Beneath the Sierra Sin Agua.” KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny met the artist Shawn Skabelund in the exhibit to talk about how he uses natural and found objects in his work to illuminates scars on both landscapes and people.
One thing I noticed when I walked in is there’s a sign warning people about sharp edges you might run into, which is not what you expect with an art exhibit. The space is full of natural objects but also very sharp, serrated edges. Tell me about what we’re looking at right now.
Yeah, there are sharp edges. We’ve got these bandsaw blades from AP Sawmill… We’ve got the pointed edges of the century plants; you wouldn’t want to fall into that bed. And then the sharp pencil points of ponderosa pine trees that have been standing on the sides of the San Francisco Peaks.
Right, because they’re mounted horizontally on the wall, they’re right at head height, actually. You can easily walk into one.
I wanted for this piece, I wanted people to … I mean, the regular 54-56 inch line is where you normally put work on a wall for the viewer. But I wanted them to be able to walk underneath this, it was important. Even those there is this “danger” to the piece, it’s also a piece I want people to view and look at these trees, differently.
Let’s walk over here and talk about this exhibit a little more. Can you describe what we’re looking at? What was the title of this piece?
“1785”…. And it’s a big field of water bottles that were confiscated by border patrol when they caught migrants. They were collected, saved, by the photographer Tom Kiefer in Ajo when he was a janitor in the border patrol station out of Why, Arizona …. I was thinking the other day, the other title could be “The Killing Field” because that’s what we call the deserts of southern Arizona, the killing fields, because there have been so many deaths in the desert of migrants who have passed away.
The issues we’re talking about, colonialism, migration, are big, complicated issues. How do you hope that art can inform or shed a light on these issues?
Just telling the story…. And just letting people know what is going on in the landscapes of where we lived; what has gone on and how that relates today. Because we keep going in this same loop of treating fellow human beings with unkindness… But at the same time I see this work as hopeful, and I also see this work as beautiful. I think that’s the mission of our art, number one, is to bring beauty into the world. And so each of these pieces may have some ugly story behind them or some warning of approaching doom, but I also see there’s hope and beauty in the work as well.
Shawn, thanks for sharing this with me.
You’re welcome.
