From the Harwood to the Kongos to the Taos Paseo
So the Harwood Museum of Art jumped on the Taos Fall Arts season a week early, capitalizing on the autumn equinox and presenting what must be considered “a mind-blowing mix” of multicultural pop and performance art on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 20th. A lowrider art car roared, its straight eight engine and dual carbs sat under a guided missile blower while the sound blasted hundreds of happy ears. Not only were the ears sitting on multicultural brown and white shoulders but the crowd looked young, younger than springtime despite the Autumn Equinox.
Then came the “Glam-Trash” fashion show, fashions recycled from credit cards and milk cartons, Smith’s throwaways and treasures gathered from the street, presided over by a giant white-faced top-hatted stilt-walker, slipping and sliding to music that matched the sensual presentation by the sexy models. Neither the Harwood nor Ledoux St. nor Taos had seen such a gathering since the Cinema of Imagination played out on the Kit Carson Drive-In Screen lo’ these many years ago. Inside the Museum of Art pop art and Chicanismo, the grotesque and the refined, the neophyte and the masters decorated the walls. Outside lowrider installations were juxtaposed next to indigenous performance art at Jina’s “really big shew, ladies and genlemmen. It was a really big shew.”
But there’s more, readers and scoffers. See the giant man, El Hombre, assembled over the weekend in front of the Kachina Lodge, a burning icon or figure towering high above the hook and ladder trucks. Some 17 outdoor installations promise to change “change the landscape of Taos art,” according to Janet Webb From “Beyond Taos.”
“On September 26, 2014,” Janet continues, “twenty-two artists will present 17 outdoor art installations that will, I am convinced, change the landscape of Taos art. A stretch of historic downtown Taos– a half mile of Paseo del Pueblo Norte, from Kachina Lodge to Taos Plaza, then another quarter mile west to the Guadalupe Gym–will be the “canvas” for unconventional art installations, performance pieces, projected light and sound, and who knows what else.”
See: http://beyondtaos.com/blog/paseo-will-bring-art-beyond-taos
Or for a complete listing of Taos Fall Arts events, see:
http://taosfallarts.com/schedule-of-events/
The “Kongos” will rock out on Thursday night under the Gazebo on historic Taos Plaza. Anywhere from 2500 to 5,000 folks are expected for the guitar, bass, drums, and accordion-based rock’n rollers from South Africa. Get there early for the free concert.
Let us take off our hats to the organizers for focussing on Taos Fall Arts and, like the Harwood staff and board, reinvigorating the community with an appeal to the multicultural tribes and the multiple generations, whose hair color is a vigorous and natural black, brown, and red—unlike the white and gray we’ve become so used to in the Taos. Hey, TSV has their Bacon wrapped up but we’ve got the Barrone-Bellis duo upgrading the art in downtown Taos. Who would have thought a Mormon lumber jack and red-headed refugee from “Fargo” would make music together in Taos.