These words from Bob Dylan's It Takes a lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry, jump out of from one of Hans Schabus' pieces at Site Santa Fe, a contemporary art space. They were small and easy to miss, but when I saw them, they set the framework for me of Deserted Conquest.
Schubus is a Viennese sculptor with an uncanny eye for the loneliness and desolation in our culture. A dissected mobile home is a central focus of this exhibition, and as you look at it, the undersides, the ceilings, the walls, you can question a lot of things. What is a home? What is architecture and how does "plug and play" work in any landscape?
One of his video pieces called East, West, South, North was shot in the Ghost Town of Yeso, New Mexico. It's projected on three walls, floor to ceiling, and its almost an ode to decay, silence and desertion. There's a solemn beauty to a white linen curtain blowing in the wind, a door of an old Post Office and the crumbling buildings.
Anothe piece that drew me was the title piece, Deserted Conquest. This consists of 100 tons of dirt deposited into the back gallery with the words Deserted Conquest on one wall. Each foot step that we take, changes the landscape, alters it forever and when you leave the space, you look back on a mosaic of all the people that passed through.
Deserted Conquest runs from June 23-September 16th. Admission to Site Santa Fe is free on Fridays.
