LalenaLab

(Photo by Philip Rogers)

The exhibition at the Texas Capitol, Assemble to Disassemble, is now over, and I can look back at a tremendously fulfilling week.

I planned this show to appear right in the middle of where Legislators would be moving about during the first week of the 86th session—so they couldn’t avoid it. In the Ground Floor Rotunda, along with two other artists I invited, I installed art work to examine the role of firearms in our culture, and to point out the strong public support for sensible gun regulations.

Mison Kim of New York, and Naomi Spinak of Washington, joined me to hang out with our work and visit as Legislators, staffers, and the general public explored the exhibition and expressed their views and questions.

(Photo by Philip Rogers)

Almost everyone who spoke to us or wrote comments in our guestbook lended words of support and even gratitude. Some shed tears. Many were taken aback that a museum-quality exhibition supporting gun regulations could be right there, inside the Texas State Capitol, where even the most basic common-sense measures have met with cowardice and dug-in heels.

I have several favorite experiences from the week. One was listening to the insightful questions that students from Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School in Dallas asked Naomi about her quilted flag, Sweet Land of Liberty. Another was inviting a Girl Scout troop to walk among the shoes and touch the model gun and migajón flowers in my own work, which lent the title to the exhibition and honors the determination of young people nationwide who have been demanding legislative action on sensible gun restrictions.

And a third was simply spending time with two amazing artists; we talked about art, public policy, family life...we shared other projects, like Mison’s Bilingual Baby Books and Naomi’s embroidered firearm “sampler.” And we laughed and window-shopped and ate chips and salsa on South Congress. It was a blast! (Naomi, what is the origin of that phrase?)

We made memories and friends for life. And maybe even…change?

PRESS for Assemble to Disassemble:

Austin American-Statesman

Austin American-Statesman video

Dallas Morning News (scroll down)

Glasstire

Sight Lines

Assemble to Disassemble January 7, 2019 - January 12, 2019 Texas Capitol Ground Floor Rotunda

For the first week of the 86th Legislative session, the Texas Capitol Ground Floor Rotunda will exhibit Assemble to Disassemble, a show of work by three artists examining the role of guns in culture from local, national, and international perspectives. The exhibition was curated by Texas artist Lalena Fisher, and places Fisher’s installation alongside work by Naomi Spinak from Washington state, and Mison Kim from New York.

Between the columns in the center of the Rotunda, Lalena Fisher will install a military-style grid of children’s Mary Jane shoes pointing toward a disassembled AR-15. This installation gives the exhibition its name. Fisher, a native Houstonian, was moved to create this work by the determination of young people demanding sensible gun regulation this past year after shooters terrorized their schools.

The replica rifle parts are neatly lined up along the front of the grid, as if the kids have done their work. Blossoming on the floor among the rifle pieces are small white flowers made from a white-bread-and-glue recipe called migajón, used by generations of women to create heirlooms for their daughters and granddaughters. The handcrafted blossoms represent home, hope, and a new generation who will grow into tomorrow’s Texas leaders.

“While in my artistic practice I often reference girlhood as a time of strength, idealism, confidence, and imagination, in this piece the shoes are meant to represent all children, and in fact any and all underrepresented Texans,” Fisher says. Polls consistently find that more than 90 percent of Texans support background checks for all gun sales. And a plurality to majority support stricter gun laws in general. The shoes in Assemble to Disassemble were made of paper by friends, colleagues and kids. “A community of hands helped create this work,” Fisher says. “It’s really special. And it reinforces the unity out here on the ground: We want better gun legislation.”

Assemble to Disassemble is being created as a site-specific work for this Texas Capitol exhibition.

Along the Rotunda wall will hang a bold flag that, at first glance, appears to be the Stars and Stripes. Naomi Spinak’s quilt, Sweet Land of Liberty, is lovingly embroidered with the names of Americans who have died in mass gun murders. The bright stars are replaced by silhouettes of AR-15 rifles. It is estimated that Americans own between 8.5 million and 15 million AR-15s. The most popular semi-automatic rifle, this weapon was used to murder people in Aurora, Newtown, San Bernardino, Sutherland Springs, Parkland, and Pittsburgh.

“Listening to the news of yet another school shooting, I thought, ‘Our flag doesn’t stand for freedom right now, it stands for guns,’” says Spinak, who lives and works in Washington state. “When the freedom to own a gun is more important than the freedom from fear of being gunned down, the signal has changed.”

Many embroiderers worked on this project with Spinak as part of the Domestic (Terrorism) Arts Group. Lending their time and handwork recalls the many minutes, hours, and years of women’s work to try and improve our lives and communities.

“I hope that in my lifetime we can find the will to reduce meaningless killings in this country—that the words ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ again speak to me, and to the world, of living safely as our flag flies.”

Sweet Land of Liberty was previously shown in December at the Kitsap Human Rights Conference in Washington; and this spring will be on display at the Bainbridge Art Museum and Bainbridge Performing Arts Center in Washington.

Across the great room, architectural drawings appear as familiar silhouettes. In viewing them, questions arise about the relationship our institutions of state and belief have with aggression, manipulation, and domination. Seen closer, these floor plans of real government and religious buildings open up to reveal an interior pulsing with tentacle-like linework by New York artist Mison Kim. She titled this group of drawings Guns, Games and Glory.

“The grandest architecture is both eloquent and beautiful, and I thought, that’s where I’d like my lines to live,” Kim says. “These architectures are also associated with presenting society’s greatest aspirations.” As she explored floor plans and engaged in the drawing process, she discovered the weapon shapes that emerged from the contours of some floor plans. And the black and white circles, indicating columns, began to read like stones from the ancient territorial board game Go. Situating her hand-inked lines within the structures of institutions and presenting them to an audience invariably led to readings of the drawings as commentaries on those institutions. Such readings are influenced by the viewer’s own prior experiences and convictions.

“Art, for me, has always been about questioning. If one questions things there is a possibility for understanding. To make drawings that appear different at a distance than what is seen up close, is one way I give viewers a place to start.”Guns, Games and Glory will be on exhibition along with Kim’s other recent work at Gallery MARK in Seoul, South Korea from April 18 through May 18, 2019.

Assemble to Disassemble will be on view in the Ground Floor Rotunda—one floor below the entry level Rotunda, and can be accessed from the elevators or stairs on either side of the entry level Rotunda. The show will be on view from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on the opening day of Monday, January 7; during the Capitol operating hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the closing day of Saturday, January 12. The artists will be present and talking with visitors Monday and Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The Texas Capitol is located at 1100 Congress Ave., Austin TX 78701. The Capitol Visitors Parking Garage is free for the first two hours, and $1 for each hour thereafter; it is located 1201 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin, TX  78701. Parking garage hours of operation are 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Metered street parking is also available on surrounding blocks.

Friends of all ages got together to help make paper shoes. It was really fun to chat, listen to music, and make art for Assemble to Disassemble, my upcoming installation at the Texas Capitol.

Thank you, Sue, Ellen, Patty, Angel, and Emma! We made more than 60 shoes together, and had a great time. It means a lot to me to have your hands in this work.

Moved by the determination of young people in 2018 who have been demanding sensible gun regulation after shooters terrorized their schools, I will be placing an art installation in the Texas Capitol. Calling Legislators’ attention to the voices of the underrepresented, Assemble to Disassemble will be on display in the Ground Floor Rotunda for the first week of the Legislative session in January.

A military-style grid of black Mary Jane shoes point toward a disassembled assault rifle, its parts neatly lined up along the front of the grid—as if the children have done their work.

Blossoming on the floor among the rifle pieces are small white flowers made from a white-bread-and-glue recipe called migajón, used by generations of women to create heirlooms for their daughters and granddaughters. The handcrafted blossoms represent home, hope, and a new generation who will grow into tomorrow’s Texas leaders.

Black Mary Janes, the classic girls’ shoes, represent a youthful stability and innate sense of reason. While in my artistic practice I often reference girlhood as a time of strength, idealism, confidence, and imagination, in this piece the shoes are meant to represent all children, and in fact any and all underrepresented Texans. After all, polls consistently find that more than 90 percent of Texans support background checks for all gun sales. And a plurality to majority of Texans support stricter gun laws in general.

I’m creating about 80 Mary Jane shoes out of black paper with the help of friends, colleagues, and other members of my local community. Meanwhile, I am sculpting an enlarged AR-15 replica out of blue foam, and crafting roses in homemade dough.

Assemble to Disassemble will be on view from January 7-12 in the Ground Floor Rotunda, directly below the entry level Rotunda.