It's not exactly kite flying weather, but if you're looking for a taste of spring, why not check out "Hangar 18: Kite Transformations," an exhibit of artistic kites on display at Magn°fico Artspace.
Eighteen students from UNM's Master of Fine Arts program created the kites, which range in style from traditional to experimental, as part of a sculpture class taught by Lydia Madrid. Madrid coordinated the exhibit at Magn°fico. The artists come from varied backgrounds, including sculpture, photography, painting, printmaking and ceramics.
According to a statement from Magn°fico, the project and exhibit were inspired by a similar collaborative art kite project initiated in Japan in 1987. In that project, artists from all over the world were contacted to create for the exhibit, which traveled worldwide.
The stipulation was that the kites had to be airworthy. The difference with "Hangar 18" is that instead of having artists mount works onto pre-designed kite styles, the artists in this project take the process a step further by designing the kites themselves - so the kite becomes a work of art in itself.
And the result is a wide variety of wild kite art.
"The kites are very imaginative," Suzanne Sbarge, the director of Magn°fico said. "They're used as sculptures - I don't know how many would actually fly."
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Examples include Erika Adams' "Yes, Grasshopper" - a giant paper and bamboo insect kite hanging from the ceiling; and Mathew Mutz's "Cell No. 1" - a vibrant painting of a stem cell on an oval kite.
Other pieces include a series of photos that look like they were taken from a kite in the sky, a collection of women's underwear embroidered with names such as "free" and "always," after the lilting names given to feminine hygiene products, a cloud made of toilet paper and little sketches on Post-it notes attached to the wall in the shape of a kite.
One exhibit, Julie Anand's "Whirligig Shower," features a basket on a pulley that viewers can lift to Magn°fico's high ceiling and dump, raining paper "helicopter" seedpods to the floor.
"A little dustpan comes with the exhibit - you have to sweep them up," Sbarge said.
"Hangar 18: Kite Transformations" will run until Dec. 21 Downtown at Magn°fico Artspace, 516 Central Ave. SW. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 5 p.m.
