c marquez

Born in L.A., but now living in the more spare landscape of El Prado, New Mexico, just north of Taos, c marquez has spent the past several years making art  from the plants that roll up to the door of the studio.

You might call them tumbleweeds, but don’t call them that in conversation with the artist. The artist has a deep connection to the plants, and would never denigrate them as “weeds.” For the past three years, marquez has used only this plant to make their artworks. 

Sisymbrium Altissimum (tall tumble mustard) is bold and unafraid to travel across meadows or down highways, rolling across the landscape in the wind. The artist sees many attributes in the plant that have value: strength and perseverance combined with ephemerality and delicate beauty.
 

The artist will construct a new site-specific installation for the show at Axle Contemporary.

 

998 is a 3D wall suspended installation created by 998 points of connection. The piece is constructed from seedpods and cross-sections of stalks from the tall-tumble-mustard plant which are assembled into 17 lines. These lines represent lines of communication within a chronology made from 998 units of time. There are 5 missed connections within the piece that don’t bridge two parallel walls, where the end of the lines dangle and don’t close the distance. This piece speaks to the tangle and fragility of understanding one another through delicately constructed and sustained communication 

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No glue, wire, or hardware will be used to connect the plant material, only parts of the plants themselves.

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