This year, the University of New Mexico Art and Ecology Program's Researcher in Residence is Nina Elder. Her project “Deep Time Lab” currently resides in the University's Art Museum and features not only her own work, but submissions from UNM students, and friends around the world.
“I created this project trying to help students at UNM and myself to find ways to say we’re in a time of incredible transition, and what are doing that attaches ourselves to time?” Elder said.
This is the theme of her work— deciphering time and how humans interact with it. Elder pointed out that the Earth is changing rapidly, both ecologically and culturally, and humans are being faced with loss at every turn.
In “Erratic,” a book of Elder's art and poetry, she writes, “What are we creating that will get swept forward, born along in the destructive path of time, and be deposited in the future? What truths of our now and here will tumble along, resilient and intact, into another here and now?”
“Deep Time Lab” allows contributors to answer that question in whatever way they see fit, involving around 600 students from departments across campus such as Art and Ecology, Architecture and Astrophysics.
The Upper Gallery of the museum is still largely bare, though there have been additions since the exhibit opened. Elder said it’s emptiness, while a function of how little has been submitted, also serves to call out the human need to fill space.
The pieces themselves cannot be categorized, instead relying on the cross-pollination of creative ideas across disciplines. One incoming project is an Artificial Intelligence neural network that will document the gallery space. All the senses are engaged by the various pieces — there are photos and videos, sculptures, cassette tapes and scented sprays.
Much of Elder’s work involves going to far-flung communities and investigating what the intersections of time and place look like for the locals. One of her favorite areas is the Alaskan Arctic wilderness, with its unique microcosm of glaciers, mines and communities.
“I’m really cautious about using the word collaboration, and it’s much more honest to say I’ve just done research in these places,” Elder said. “But a huge part of what I look at as factual research is storytelling and investigation of cultural artifacts.”
Elder said there’s no particular data that she is looking for during her research trips. The most useful information is when residents discuss their quality of life, why they choose to live in places like the Arctic and why they love it, she said.
Another theme that Elder tackles is how history is held hostage by institutions. An example of a cultural artifact is an asteroid that was removed from tribal lands and placed in the basement of the Smithsonian Museum. Elder created a sketch of a picture that was taken of the asteroid in the basement corner, but without the rock itself and a gaping white void in its place, to call attention to what is now missing from the living world.
Elder’s work has led her to use some unusual materials in her drawings, some of which are several feet tall. For example, she has used pulverized space material as a form of charcoal. Some of the materials and their sources weren't safe to interact with.
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“People don’t choose to be exposed to radioactive things. People don’t choose to be exposed to mining and toxins… For me, by bringing that into my art practice was a way to really explore what it means to be physically present with something,” Elder said. “I feel like it’s kind of an ethical imperative to also explore vulnerability.”
The exhibit is intended to be an open space for all modes of expression, and Elder welcomes kindergarten classes to come explore with her. Her exhibit continues to grow and change as more students submit their work. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturdays.
Katie Monette is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be contacted by email at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @KatieMonette9.
