Rica Maestas
Albuquerque, New Meixco
2024 Paseo Project Artist in Residence
The Paseo Project welcomed Rica Maestas, their next Artist in Residence for 2024. For four weeks, Maestas was in Taos developing a series of curse-breaking performances documented with photo, video, and sound. A culminating free, public performance as well as a youth workshop was also planned.
Maestas is a burqueñx artist, author, and cultural worker from Albuquerque, NM. They hold a MA in public humanities from Brown University, having attended with the generous support of the University of Southern California Renaissance Scholarship for interdisciplinary study, has received numerous grants for creative projects, and participated in residencies at the Harwood Art Center and Santa Fe Art Institute.. Their residency is an opportunity to build on their previous work “exploring what it might look, feel, or sound like to excise (or exorcize) seeds of collective trauma.”
In collaboration with Revolt Gallery, Maestas utilized the ReSet studio space at the downtown art space in the creation of new works, elements of which were performed at the end of the four-week residency.
The artist writes: “Rooted in regional history, folklore, medicine, and ecology, but with clear global resonances, these actions attempt to find an aesthetic way around what Audre Lorde refers to as “the Master’s Tools,” or pervasive communicative patterns born from domination. Aided by the uncanny magic of New Mexico, the series utilizes abjection, intuition, and my lifelong commitment to place in order to fracture colonial mindsets and cultivate radical care. The loftiness of this goal points to the American myth of individual power independent of social support, reminding us that no one person or action can actually fix everything. The performances are intended to expand modes of resistance–possibly into the absurd–but more importantly, to motivate increased participation in collective action, mutual aid, and community care.”
Rica Maestas with the Paseo Project 2024 Interns: Adelaide, Jose, Chiara, and Lucy.
Residency Schedule
July 27, Saturday, 11am - 1pm
Twirl's Saturday Art Studio
The community is welcome to join Maestas at Twirl’s In the Studio, held at: 225 Cam De La Placita. Let your imagination soar! Twirl will host The Paseo Artist in Residence, Rica Maestas, in their beautiful courtyard. Children of all ages are invited to roll up their sleeves and join Maestas in exploring emotions through movement. An all ages, family friendly event. FREE. Learn more: https://www.twirltaos.org/
August 16, Friday, 7pm
Culminating Performance
at Revolt Gallery’s Reset Space
LOVE ME LIKE LITTLE RABBIT
a participatory performance by burqueñx artist Rica Maestas
"There's this character in For Whom the Bell Tolls called “little rabbit” because she escaped Spanish fascist soldiers, but not before they shaved her head. So she has this super visible reminder of her abuse but over the course of the book her new, soft growth transforms into the site of deep tenderness and care among her little rebel cell, and I've been thinking about this for years. So now it's a performance and you should come!"
If you are handed the scissors, you have been given a responsibility.
First, participate. Then, share the responsibility with another.
Twirl's Saturday Art Studio
On Saturday, July 27th, the community was welcome to join Maestas at Twirl’s In the Studio, held at Twirl. During this free midday workshop open to all ages, the community was invited to let their imagination soar! Twirl hosted The Paseo Artist in Residence, Rica Maestas, in their beautiful courtyard. Children of all ages were invited to roll up their sleeves and join Maestas in exploring emotions through movement. Learn more: https://www.twirltaos.org/
Bad Latine
Created during their time in Taos, BAD LATINE is a performance about frustration, brown femme rage, and exploding ideas of purity and whiteness. With loose roots in folk witchcraft and curanderismo, BAD LATINE utilizes common yet powerful household tools like candles and brooms, mirrors and icons, to curse colonial ideologies.
LOVE ME LIKE LITTLE RABBIT
August 16, Friday, 7pmCulminating Performance
at Revolt Gallery’s Reset Space
"There's this character in For Whom the Bell Tolls called “little rabbit” because she escaped Spanish fascist soldiers, but not before they shaved her head. So she has this super visible reminder of her abuse but over the course of the book her new, soft growth transforms into the site of deep tenderness and care among her little rebel cell, and I've been thinking about this for years. So now it's a performance and you should come!"If you are handed the scissors, you have been given a responsibility.First, participate. Then, share the responsibility with another.Love me like little rabbit is a participatory performance by burqueñx artist Rica Maestas
There’s a character in Earnest Hemmingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls who is referred to as “little rabbit” for her short, irregularly-cut hair and nervous demeanor. As a reader, you learn early on that she has escaped sexual slavery, but not before fascist soldiers roughly shaved her head. However, that visual reminder of her history of abuse transforms over the course of the novel into a site of deep tenderness. Her new growth is soft and sensuous, and becomes a comfort as well as a rallying point among her compatriots.
In the end, little rabbit perishes along with her small rebel cell. Their ill-fated mission may have advanced the fight against fascism, but it may also have had no impact at all. Neither the characters nor the reader can know, but that is our fate: to move through the world without ever being able to fully comprehend the effect of our actions, our efforts, our magic. Our existence. To try our best without promise of reward.
What does it mean to practice care in community or request support when a positive outcome is uncertain, or even unlikely? Is it not a special kind of love that has the courage to offer or ask for help when there may be no happy ending in sight?
We live in dire times, but we know pruning is good for plants, and what’s good for plants is good for everyone. Though I’m not a plant, I can’t help but wonder if little rabbit’s (albeit fictional) softness is the same kind of catalyst for vitality and clarity of purpose that radiates beyond an individual and takes root more broadly. Like how grazing animals stimulate the growth of grasses.
Artist Bio:
Rica Maestas is a burqueñx artist, author, and cultural worker from Albuquerque, NM. They hold a MA in public humanities from Brown University, having attended with the generous support of the University of Southern California Renaissance Scholarship for interdisciplinary study, and currently manage digital narrative production at SITE SANTA FE.
Rica has received numerous grants for creative projects, curated independent and institutional exhibitions, published written work in diverse forums, exhibited visual art and performance pieces nationwide, and participated in residencies at the Harwood Art Center and Santa Fe Art Institute. Profiles of Rica’s artistic and curatorial work have appeared in the Providence Journal, the Coastal Post, the Santa Fe New Mexican, and the Santa Fe Reporter.
In 2022, Rica presented their first solo show I’m Sorry (I Cannot Hold You) at Vital Spaces in Santa Fe, NM. In 2023, they opened an ambitious exhibition of socially engaged sculpture and performance, We Are. Here Together. celebrating queer ecosystems of support at Harwood Art Center in Albuquerque, NM.