Taslim van Hattum
Taslim van Hattum is a multi-disciplinary artist raised in Northern New Mexico to the sounds of the Turkish saz in a woodshop in the village of Abiquiu. Her work focuses on how contemporary society intersects with religious and sociopolitical identities, representations and women and mental health–challenging and exposing the way in which space, personhood, belief and popular culture are connected and imagined by the viewer.
Commensurability
Commensurability is a graphic comic that explores healing, proximity and the way separation and isolation impact how we heal or remain whole without proximity or physical contact with one another. Commensurability is traditionally grounded in theory to explore failures and successes in addiction treatment and incarceration — the inability to heal in separation from context and community. But in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the term could be defined as “remaining in the face of one another’s unshared vulnerabilities” and examines how these vulnerabilities cannot be resolved any other way but by staying close to one another. Ironically, however, COVID-19 requires that “staying close” is not done in physical proximity to one another, but through social distancing to demonstrate empathy and care for those at greater risk, and finding safe and creative ways to keep connected.
This event is part of the Culture Connects Midtown Project. To learn more visit cultureconnects.site.
© Santa Fe Art Institute / Santa Fe, New Mexico / 