Navajo, Chinese artists join for N.M. public art

This sand drawing was created with more than 250 pounds of crushed porcelain powder shipped from China by dissident artist Ai Weiwei to a remote location on the Navajo Nation near Coyote Canyon, N.M. Ai teamed with Navajo artist Bert Benally as part of the “Pull of the Moon” project organized by New Mexico Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum. The installation’s public opening was held Wednesday in Santa Fe.

Courtesy of New Mexico Arts

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This sand drawing was created with more than 250 pounds of crushed porcelain powder shipped from China by dissident artist Ai Weiwei to a remote location on the Navajo Nation near Coyote Canyon, N.M. Ai teamed with Navajo artist Bert Benally as part of the “Pull of the Moon” project organized by New Mexico Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum. The installation’s public opening was held Wednesday in Santa Fe.

Courtesy of New Mexico Arts

Navajo teacher and artist Bert Benally teamed with Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei as part of the “Pull of the Moon” public art project organized by New Mexico Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum.

Courtesy of New Mexico Arts

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Navajo teacher and artist Bert Benally teamed with Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei as part of the “Pull of the Moon” public art project organized by New Mexico Arts and the Navajo Nation Museum.

Courtesy of New Mexico Arts

ALBUQUERQUE – Not many people have been to Coyote Canyon, a remote spot on the nation’s largest Native American reservation.

Bordered by sandstone outcroppings and dotted with piñon and juniper, the location served as a perfect backdrop for an unprecedented venture into high-tech public art by the Navajo Nation and the state of New Mexico.

With the canyon as their blank canvas, Navajo teacher and artist Bert Benally and Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei teamed up for the “Pull of the Moon” installation in late June. Benally was on the ground in western New Mexico while Ai, who has been banned from leaving China, participated from afar. The goal was to temporarily transform the landscape through sand drawings, sculpture and sound.

While the public couldn’t visit the site, organizers with the Navajo Nation Museum and New Mexico Arts had every bit of the project documented with photographs and video so it could be virtually replicated for the rest of the world to see.

In the last two weeks, they have been working feverishly in preparation for Wednesday’s public launch some 220 miles away in Santa Fe.

Aside from a two-dimensional documentary, the scene at Coyote Canyon that June night will be screened inside a giant digital dome. Clouds will be drifting overhead as the flames from Benally’s piece illuminates the desert surroundings along with the interlocking stencils created with dozens of pounds of powdered porcelain sent by Ai from China.

“There’s just so much that went into it that we made the decision to have a more cutting-edge technology format. It will bring it more to the people in a way that will make them feel like they’re right there,” said Eileen Braziel, the project’s coordinator.

In a matter of days, nature reclaimed the site, erasing any signs of the artists’ creations. It was part of New Mexico Arts’ TIME project, or Temporary Installations Made for the Environment.

“What the state is doing is changing up, in a big way, what art in public places means,” Braziel said.

For the Navajos, it’s about changing outside perceptions of tribal members and forging new roads for Native artists.

“We’re experimenting and seeing where these new roads will lead,” said Navajo Nation Museum Director Manuelito Wheeler.

The “Pull of the Moon” digital dome will be on display this weekend on Museum Hill, and organizers plan to take the exhibition on tour.