EveNSteve

In the monumental black-and-white photographic artwork, The Blue Swallow by EveNSteve, a historic hotel on old Route 66 in Tucumcari serves as the stage for a small drama about tourism and changing notions of whiteness in the Southwest. Questioning the practice of attracting tourists by celebrating unsavory aspects of history or glossing over conflict altogether, the artwork also challenges transplants to New Mexico, tourists, and white-identifying viewers to truly consider the lasting effects of colonization, racism, and Manifest Destiny on New Mexico.

The text gives voice to the solitary figure who is thinking about what it means to be a white tourist in New Mexico. One privilege of whiteness is the freedom to choose amnesia over memory, to deny history or accept it. The figure in The Blue Swallow wrestles with her options: to hold the history; to slip out of her skin; to perform guilt or shame; or to retreat into the cloak of tourism. In the end, she hands the choice to viewers like herself.

About the Artists

In 2019, Stephen and Eve O. Schaub formed EveNSteve and began collaborating on monumental artworks that incorporate both photographic imagery and handwritten text. In doing so they bring together their diverse strengths to create exciting new mixed-media works that incorporate a variety of disciplines: innovative film and digital photographic techniques, works on paper, collage, both creative and historical writing, and installation. The Schaubs live and work in Pawlet, Vermont. www.evensteve.com