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If you’ve ever thought about being immortalized on the side of a truck, you’re in luck. The Axle Contemporary mobile studio/gallery is wrapping up its Southwestern New Mexico tour in Las Cruces and Silver City, October 4-12. Obviously, there’s more to the project than that, with an exhibition and book in the works featuring photographic portraits of New Mexico residents, so this is your opportunity to present yourself to the world.
Axle Contemporary is a mobile artspace - founded in 2010 by artists Matthew Chase-Daniel and Jerry Wellman - and built in a retrofitted 1970 aluminum bread truck as a traveling natural-light solar-powered photography studio.
According to the website, “Axle is an innovative forum for arts presentation and distribution which engages, surprises, and enriches the communities of New Mexico, outside coffee shops, casinos, high schools, community centers, parking lots and on city streets. We present contemporary art to a wide community in the course of their daily lives.”
Since 2012, Axle Contemporary’s mobile artspace has been traveling across the state of New Mexico, working on a statewide photographic portrait project: E Pluribus Unum. In each visiting town, Axle photographs residents holding a prized possession they bring with them, such as a favorite book, flower, toy, hat, musical instrument, or even a person.
The participatory photo portraiture is open and free for all. These photographic portraits are given to each participant and are also pasted on the side of Axle’s truck. Once the tour ends, portraits will be compiled in a book and donated to libraries in each of the participating towns, a visual testament to the fact that we are unique individuals and also members of a unified whole that is larger than the sum of its parts. An exhibit of the photos at NMSU’s University Art Museum is planned for 2025.
The schedule for Axle Contemporary is as follows:
Friday, October 4
11am-3pm, NMSU University Art Museum, 1308 E University Ave., Las Cruces
5pm-9pm, Fine Arts Flea Market, Plaza de Las Cruces
Saturday, October 5
10am-2pm, Doña Ana Arts Council, 230 S. Water St., Las Cruces
3:30-7pm, Nopalito Restaurant, 310 S. Mesquite St., Las Cruces
Sunday, October 6
9am-12pm, FARMesilla, 1840 Avenida de Mesilla, Mesilla
Friday, October 11
5-7 p.m., Light Art Space, 209 W. Broadway, Silver City
Saturday, October 12
10 a.m., Southwest Print Fiesta, Mainstreet Plaza, 704 N. Bullard St., Silver City
In addition, as part of this project the creators invite participants to reflect, in words, on the phrase “e pluribus unum.” The phrase, in Latin, means “from many one.” It was the original motto of the United States of America and can still be found on our paper currency.
“We ask you to reflect: In this time and place, what does this phrase mean to you?” the artists ask. “What makes your community? How is this area of New Mexico the same and/or different from other communities in New Mexico, in the United States of America, in the world? Axle Contemporary will be publishing a book with all the photos and writings from this project. If you participated in the photo project, we hope you will participate with your writing as well.”
Send your writing by e-mail or by mail, and please include your name. info@axleart.com, Axle Contemporary, PO Box 22095, Santa Fe, NM, 87502. For more information on this project, visit AxleArt.com
