DECADE Site Project: The Fall of the Ten Suns
Created 2016, currently on view
LOCATION: Silver Street Market, 205 Silver Ave SW, Downtown Albuquerque (corner of Silver & 2nd)
516 ARTS, in partnership with Downtown ABQ MainStreet Initiative, announces the selection of the artist and design for the mural on the new grocery store, Silver Street Market in Downtown Albuquerque. Artist Jessica Angel will create The Fall of the Ten Suns in the late fall of 2016. The selection was made by a public art committee who chose this design from six proposals from finalists, who were selected from 49 eligible applications. The opportunity was open to the over 1,000 artists who have been presented by 516 ARTS over the last ten years, as part of the DECADE programs taking place this fall celebrating the 10th anniversary of 516 ARTS. The Fall of the Ten Suns mural is one of five site-specific artworks for DECADE, each located in a different quadrant of the city. While the other site projects are temporary, this one will remain on view long-term.
Finalists were asked to create a site-specific design for the Imperial Building, which is in the site where a Chinese laundry was once housed. In response, Jessica Angel’s design uses the story of the Ten Chinese Suns, in which all suns belonging to the ten Chinese days decided to go out at once, heating the earth and killing the crops. This mural design shows the fall of these suns into the night, bringing a dynamic change to Downtown Albuquerque, fostering the advent of an era with healthy food and accessible housing, paying tribute to the past while celebrating the future of this community.
516 ARTS has a history of creating adventurous contemporary art murals in Downtown Albuquerque that are presented in conjunction with its exhibitions, which serve as a thematic guide for the murals. The area between Copper & Silver and 2nd & 3rd Streets has become a showcase for 516 ARTS’ murals by acclaimed local, national and international artists.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jessica Angel is a Colombian artist living in Brooklyn, New York. Her upcoming major exhibition at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA) in 2017, will enable forms of collaboration among science, philosophy, music, art and education. This massive site-specific installation at AEIVA will be achieved during a three-month teaching residency in conjunction with the UAB Department of Art and Art History. Angel received her degree in Visual Art from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She received the Studios at MASS MoCA residency in 2016, and she was awarded the Teaching-Artist Residency at The Cooper Union in 2012, She maintains an active relationship with her hometown Bogota where she received the Art and Science Award with IDARTES in 2015 and “El Parqueadero” Laboratories fellowship in 2013. She has exhibited locally and abroad in cities like Bogota, Mexico, Miami, Washington, Denver, Albuquerque and New York.
This project was made possible by The City of Albuquerque Public Art Urban Enhancement Program, Geltmore, LLC and YES Housing Inc.