[Au]xiology//Every Morning We’ll Still Sluice began with a 10 week collective study group of seven artists investigating gold as an atom, an element, a material, a currency, a promise, a myth, decor, fecal matter…
[Au]xiology, a portmanteau of the symbol for the element gold, from the roman arum, and axiology, the study of value and valuation. The artists dig in, up, and around gold to question what values have informed human relationships to the glittering metal.
To sluice, to rinse freely with water. A sluice, a device to control the flow of water. Projecting gold into the future has not led to perfect visions, but reformulations of our present’s prescient questions.
The exhibition will be open for viewing starting Saturday, January 14, from 12 – 4 pm, but the party has been postponed due to weather. We will celebrate the exhibition with a party on January 20, 5 – 9 pm, rain or shine.
Additional open hours: TBA – check back here or email laurie.palme(at)gmail(dot)com
Participating Artists:
Liana P. Simonelli is an artist craving…work through which even fleetingly they create safety.
Cameron Quijada…sees the emotional potential in creation.
Ant Lorenzo… centers collaboration… to make people brave.
Jesse Burdick is trying to…create work that is both loved and loving.
Kelly Santillana… is… going into art education…to encourage.
Nestor Ruelas is… living in it… rather than… viewing… that.
Lily Loomis… day-dreams… potential… for wisdom to emerge through… introspection.
Liana P. Simonelli is an artist craving a world with more warmth, where they and their making practices are grounded in care-oriented communities. They have a strong sense of tactility, particularly oral sensitivity, which guides their material experiments. In their work they juxtapose bodies, making work through which even fleetingly they create safety for their own. Simultaneously, in the face of systemic violence they search for ways their work can serve to create safety for others, aiming to ground these efforts in the teachings of abolitionist feminist leaders and theorists.
Cameron Quijada is a third year student studying art at UCSC. They have an affinity for the beauty of California and fell in love with Disneyland as a child- a fascination that has led them to their dream of working for Disney or Pixar and being a part in making movies that inspire children. Cameron is a group-oriented, community driven artist who sees the emotional potential in creation; a primary facet in their becoming into artistry was the desire to work through their own emotional world and to connect with others. They aspire to live surrounded by their work and passion, and to see their imagination culminate on the big screen.
Ant Lorenzo is an organizer and artist in graduate school at UCSC. Their multi-media work takes a variety of forms; and in a dream-world they would want to create art from water, sculptures from foliage, make their own clothes, and play music in places that could only be reached by boat. In this world, Ant is rooted in her organizing work as a motivator and informant of their learning and expression through art. She focuses on community, collaboration, and care, in both their art and organizing practices; they want to experience art with their friends and tell many people that they are loved and appreciated. Ant balances a warm gravitation towards people and nature with a desire for her art to be gritty, to elicit wonder, excitement, warmth, release, and contemplation… but not all at once. They embody their art as it is inseparable from their entire life; she centers collaboration with and relation to people in her creative practices that explore ideas of nature, spirit, and individual & more widespread community relationships. Through their work they want to “make people be brave and learn that sacrifice does not have to be punitive, and instead work on reaching a more fulfilled place, in general.” They accept the impermanence of their art but aim for the influence of their creative practices to contribute to social change and make people feel as if they belong.
Jesse Burdick is trying to live in a better world. They are attempting to realize this desire as they study agroecology and art at UCSC. In life, Jesse intends to spend their time working in agriculture to physically improve sustainability within community. The practices of decolonization and gender abolition shape their agroecological interest as well as their worldview. Expression through art is simply something they cannot turn away from, as it is the pillar their life was built around. Jesse hopes to form a relationship with the viewer through art, questioning the individual and what is brought to the relationship by both parties. Much of their work relates to the body, memory, childhood, fear, and love. Jesse is interested in how the functionality and physicality of a piece intersects with the feeling it elicits. They believe art should live in your home,on your body, and in the world you live in. Ultimately, they want to create work that is both loved and loving.
Kelly Santillana is a 4th year at UCSC majoring in art with a plan to go into art education. She has been in private and public art schools throughout her life. She mostly focuses on figure drawing and portrait painting. In Kelly’s dream world she would go to school forever without having to meet expectations such as deadlines and papers, but instead learn as many technical skills to amplify her art practice. She started her professional art education in animation but came to learn that it was not for her– she still admires all the hard work and talent that goes into the animation pipeline. In addition to art, she would like to travel around the world, capturing its beauty in paintings and photography. Kelly’s primary interest is in the creation of memorable paintings and drawings of loved ones. Because of this, her work is expected to hang in private homes, where each artwork can be fully honored. When it comes to a broader painting subject or illustration, she is excited at the prospect of showing them off in galleries, magazines, or posters. A lot of her art inspiration comes from old master painters such as Rubens, David, Vigée Le Brun, Ingres, and many others. An important aspect of going into art education is to encourage students to make art that excites them without being tied down by external judgment and fear. She also believes that by being a teacher, she is also a student– keeping her learning from her peers. Kelly is currently working on a project where she paints and draws Santa Cruz, its environment and people.
Nestor Ruelas is a young artist studying at the University of California, Santa Cruz, preparing to graduate in Spring 2023. In an ideal world, he would live a mostly solitary life planting and caring for a huge garden in the woods. Even with his preference of remote living, he values the importance of a supporting community within reach. Before landing on art as his major, Nestor tried video game design for a while but did not find it as fulfilling or inspiring as environmental art. This is where he thrives. Through drawing, painting, and sculpture work, he hopes to bring awareness of global issues to his audience. Naturally, this work would be both about the environment (with an emphasis on plants and flowers) and living in it. This carries out Nestor’s beliefs in the accessibility of art– by installing his work in public spaces. He is very interested in creating murals and gardens to uplift communities as a part of that goal. Rather than make the viewer guess what he is trying to portray with his art, he is more interested in a guided viewing experience that provides his interpretation and perspective on global issues. This might come across as informative environmental art. To progress his artistic endeavors, Nestor is still experimenting with artistic styles and mark-making such as line art and abstraction. Next on his list is trying to make larger scale paintings.
Lily Loomis did not arrive at art through one conscious decision. Art seemed to have happened to them. By age two they were painting, and have not stopped. She day-dreams as a clothing designer, tattoo artist, architect, freelance painter, most recently an art director, but really as someone free to see through their ideas. In the world of absurdist surrealism, they see the potential for wisdom to emerge through the ignition of phantasmagorical experience. Formed and informed by an infatuation with fantasy and sci-fi, their art asks for introspection. It encourages viewers to grapple with the world’s transgressions through juxtaposition, carefully prepared research, and oddity.