RE-CENTERING SANTA FE / SOCIAL STRUCTURES

Social Structures is an installation of freestanding outdoor constructions and digital art pieces that address the themes of interconnectivity, empathy, and care. Download the map of Social Structures’ works below – on display from December 21, 2020–January 18, 2021 on the Midtown Campus at 1600 St. Michaels Drive.

Cory Feder

coryfeder.com

Sometimes I want to untie the entire universe.

Untangle every knot of my morning ritual and nighttime routine

Inspect every colored thread of my friends, loved ones, teachers

Cut open every seam that seals my identity into a pretty shape

To undo it all and piece it back together with every particle of magic that settled like dust in the fabric

No more settled dust.

Raised between a mother from South Korea and a father from the Bronx, Cory Feder has always found herself amongst the in between of culture, identity and language. A storyteller at heart, she uncovers the magic hidden in the mundane by reweaving threads of her experience into a fence-less dialect. This excavation takes place in various mediums from drawing and sculpture to music and animation. Existing halfway between America and Korea, Feder has been explicitly marked as “the other”. Her stories explore how one’s relationship to the other is a mirror to one’s relationship to the self. Whether it’s between cities, material or the self and other, she operates from a space of perpetual transit, transforming meaning from both public mythologies and personal dreams to communicate in a form that is inclusive of all beings.

Untitled

Untitled is an animation that features text and voice narration and offers an empathetic reflection on the social, emotional, and physical distances the COVID-19 pandemic has imposed upon society. The work meditates on a time when touch is no longer a granted liberty and how texture can be its own form of intimacy. The animation is framed by a collection of rubbings made from the Midtown Site. They offer a haptic consideration of the people who laid down the cement and the bricks of the structures. They also consider the nonhumans who have lived in this space — how much time, love, labor, construction, and destruction the trees have witnessed and sprinkled their leaves upon. Together, this visual tapestry of texture invites viewers to more deeply reflect on this place, how each of us has come to be here, and the ways in which we can care for each other despite the distances between us.