“Where Sky Touches Water” opens at OxyArts

by Tavi Lorelle Carpenter

Another successful opening for OxyArts as LA-based artist Mercedes Dorame (Tongva) took center stage with a combination of her photography and sculpture on display in a new show entitled Where Sky Touches Water. The exhibit explores “the profound beauty of the natural world” through Dorame’s perspective and connection to her ancestral homelands. As noted in the press release from Oxy Arts, this exhibition was greatly influenced by Dorame’s field research on the Channel Islands. 

This solo exhibition is on the heels of the group show The Iridescence of Knowing, curated by Dorame and her co-curator Joel Garcia. That collection, which featured the frequently underrepresented voices of California Indigenous artists, was a testament to Dorame’s devoted commitment to uplifting indigenous histories, narratives, culture, knowledge, and traditions. In many ways, Where Sky Touches Water continues this exploration by diving deeply into the complex relationship that exists when one’s homeland becomes a major metropolitan city. 

One of the walls in the exhibit contained a quote from Dorame, openly expressing this dichotomy. 

“My art is an expression of many overlays of experience, of moving through the land and sky as an indigenous person, being called a trespasser on my homelands and reconciling how to work through these experiences in an empowered way. I ask that we remember the ground we walk on, and who the original caretakers are, and I also remind us to look up. I collaborate with the earth and the cosmos to remove First People from the past tense and reimagine our decolonized sovereign future.” 

This particularly poignant statement rings true on many levels for any California indigenous person. But perhaps even more resonant for those whose people have not been federally recognized and are often put in a position of being even further marginalized. 

The exhibit’s photographic compositions bear a remarkable dimensional quality that creates an immersive experience. Each photograph adeptly invites the viewer to witness the profound beauty and inherent harmony present in the natural world through Dorame’s distinctive eye for showcasing the exponential range of textures and hues with the natural world. The innate intimacy of the OxyArts space, with its dramatic lighting, accentuates the technical excellence, and the layered dimensionality of the photographs makes the photos feel as though they are portals into the environments in which they were taken. In other words, they are as alive in the stillness of the image as they would be in reality.

Her sculptures continued her exploration of nature’s profound beauty by reflecting on what made the materiality beautiful. For example, her resin studies of obsidian, all formed in different colors, illustrate how shape and form uniquely play with one another.

There were also large rectangular pieces that were painted and formed to appear like sections of abalone. They are eye-catching and, like with natural abalone, beg the viewer to continue watching it as the light plays across the iridescent surface. 

In the center of the main exhibit room was a series of cement casting with pigment. Rounded with deep central dips, like grinding stones, they carried water, creating a reflective surface. Hanging pictures printed on transparent fabric surrounded this centerpiece, creating a circle of stillness. 

I was privileged enough to have the experience of a lifetime, something that would only happen at the opening of an exhibit. While coming to view the centerpiece of the show, the artist herself appeared to my right, filling one of the castings with more water, saying, “It’s supposed to have water in it!” One rarely gets to witness an artist in work, even if it is the simple action of pouring water. 

All in all, it was a successful event and a great beginning to an exciting new exhibit at OxyArts that continues in its purpose of supporting artistry, social justice, and community engagement. 

It should be on your winter bucket list if you are in the Los Angeles area. 

Currently on display until April 20, 2024, you can plan your visit anytime from Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information, visit the OxyArts website: OxyArts.Oxy.Edu.

Mercedes Dorame is part of the Wanlass Artists-in-Residence program with OxyArts, a unique program that allows artists to develop original curricula based on their practice and interests.