To celebrate the 8th Anniversary of Meow Wolf and in advance of it’s grand opening of The House of Eternal Return on March 18, David Richard Gallery and Meow Wolf joined forces to showcase the innovative and surprising visual artists working in Santa Fe today.
“Given our respective commitment to the contemporary arts scene in Santa Fe, this exhibition is a perfect partnership between Meow Wolf and David Richard Gallery,” says gallery co-director David Eichholtz. “We see this as an opportunity to support the young artists who are pushing boundaries and bringing something new and exciting into the mix.’
In the 8 years since Meow Wolf formed, the arts production company’s runaway success has helped embolden a new wave of young creatives. In honor of the group's anniversary, David Richard Gallery collaborated with one of Santa Fe’s newest art collectives for a special tribute. As part of the gallery’s Happy Birthday Meow Wolf! Benefit Exhibition, emerging writers and artists group Strangers Collective invited local writers to share Meow Wolf-inspired work in a special Strangers Salon on Saturday on February 20th.
Says David: “Strangers Collective is another example of the wealth of creative talent to be found in Santa Fe. With a focus on the written word, a new generation of poets, creative writers, journalists and critics are contributing voices to the city’s cultural landscape.”
Setting the tone for the evening’s exchange was Justice Whitaker’s INFiNITE8: A Spoken Word Critical Inquiry to the Artists of Meow Wolf. Delivered in true Beat style Whitaker perfectly nailed the spirit of the event:
This is for a birthday celebration that feels soooo so great. This is for the Infinite 8.
It’s a graphic representation, those of us that work in art should be able to identify.
The Infinity swirls and curves just like the years it takes to give the hours, that give the power to EVEN celebrate 8.
& I recognize the power that Meow Wolf has created for themselves in this beautiful community, and that I respect more than anything else. To create something with the longevity with the vision that looks as beautiful as a piece of art on the wall.
& to see what they have created out of that vision, manifested through the structures, through installations, makes me not want to be patient. Makes me want to be the Infinite 8 - The infinite 8 — that surges forward powering through my work, power through and create. But the Infinite 8 DOES need patience to create.
For, to create something over a distance of time to create something that has longevity and vision requires a community that understands and is behind — a community that pushes.
That’s the Infinite 8.
That’s the Infinite great! Its the Infinite Art. It’s the Infinite Heart. It’s the Infinite 8.
You can see it from now, until the stars: that was 2015!
5 & 1 & 2: That’s the infinite 8,
but now its 2016 and we are propelled ON for the next 8!
for the next 18!
for the next 88!
because Infinity will propel us, if that’s what WE create.
And that’s an important point about the Infinite loop. It does need that inertia, it needs the first push. It does need that community, it does need me and you, it needs the Infinite Art, it needs the infinite Heart, that’s the Infinite 8.
So when we celebrate what’s great about the Infinite 8, we understand that to get there takes power, it takes those 10,000 hours, it takes that commitment from each and every individual that comes thru the Infinite 8 to make the Infinite Great.
That’s the Infinite:
that’s the Infinite this, and the infinite that,
it’s the Infinite white and the Infinite Black
— Well Meow Wolf’s really not that Black —
[laughter]
but that’s Infinite truth,
and that’s the Infinite youth,
and that’s the Infinite ME and that’s the Infinite YOU
So when we look at our Infinite truth, when we look at the Infinite 8; the Infinite Great, what we have created from now to the past? We have to ask, To where does our Infinity continue? How do we reach every nook and cranny of our community & make sure that our Infinite 8 is infinitely great - not the past, but the future Infinite 8.
because thats the infinity we have to think about. If we create future. If we create totems. If we create idolatry. If we create structures & buildings & architecture. If we create paintings on the wall —
& organizations and structures that are just as beautiful as that.
We have to make sure that they are Infinitely rooted and Infinitely embedded. That’s the Infinite Greatness, that’s the Infinite ART, that’s the Infinite community, & when they come together that’s the Infinite HEART.
That’s the infinite great.
& I praise Meow Wolf for what they did seek out to create
& I question Meow Wolf for what they will create for their NEXT Infinite 8
Bless.
In the coming days the presentations from the other writers who participated in the Salon Evening will be posted. Stay tuned.
2016 February 20 Santa Fe