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In mid-2006, Joan Zalenski,
a Santa Fe-based public artist and photographer was selected for a $25,000
commission to create a photographic artwork for the Center based on the
site’s archeology. Zalenski was granted access to the archeological site.
Working closely with the lead archeologist, she photographed numerous
non-culturally sensitive artifacts as well as the site itself. Utilizing
this source photography, Zalenski created “What Lies Beneath,” a large-scale
photographic “quilt” based on the six different historical periods found at
the site. The artwork hangs over a fireplace in the Center’s lobby.
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“What Lies Beneath” by Joan Zalenski, © 2006, 2008
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Artist’s Statement
The concept for this
project was based on the discovery of superimposed cultural layers (stratigraphy)
at the site known as El Pueblo de Santa
Fe (LA 1051), where archaeologists
from Museum of New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies recovered materials
and excavated architectural remains from numerous successive archaeological
periods. These include prehistoric components such as the Developmental
Period (AD 600 to 1175), the Coalition Period (AD 1175 to 1325), the Early
Classic Period (AD 1325 to 1450), and historic materials and features from
the Colonial period (17th & 18th centuries), the
Mexican Period (1821-1846), the Territorial Period (1846 -1912), the Fort
Marcy period (1853-1895), and finally the early and middle twentieth century.
These cultural increments represent a virtual timeline of Santa Fe
history. Thus, the three main Southwest cultures are represented: Native
American, Hispanic, and Anglo. Known as an ancestral Tewa pueblo, LA
1051 is one of the few multi-component sites in downtown Santa Fe with such
time depth.1 Ogapoge, the Tewa name for Santa Fe
translates as “down at the olivella shell-bead water”2
During the excavations in
2006, I was commissioned by the City of Santa
Fe Arts Commission to photograph the site and many of the objects
found there. The original intent was to produce images from each period and
arrange them in “layers” representing the various periods. Due to the
cultural sensitivity of this site, only enlarged or abstracted details of
selected images from three specific periods are depicted. These images are
arranged in a similar order to the way they were uncovered. The top 3 rows
are primarily Territorial through the Fort Marcy period, the 4th row - Colonial period, bottom 2
rows - Late Coalition and Early Classic periods. Images of Coalition and
Classic native pottery sherds are scattered throughout.
The forty-two images are
laced together with a hand-made yucca rope*, indigenous to the native
cultures. The concept of “sewing” the images together (as a large quilt) is
a way to weave the fabric of culture and history together, much as the
various layers or periods “covered” the one before it. Each square
represents a remnant of a past civilization; a culture buried by its
successor in the cyclical domination of one culture over another and is a
poignant reminder of what lies beneath this new building. Most of Santa Fe,
this ancient city, is built over ancestral ruins. Awareness of this pattern
of history will help us to better value the contributions of each culture, to
accept and welcome diversity, to be able to live as a global community and to
eschew the idea of conquest and division.
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