In his new multi-venue installation Navigators: On the Edges of Becoming, artist and Axle Contemporary co-founder Jerry Wellman attempts to redefine the concept of navigator from some human in the passenger seat holding a map into a more totemic and internal process of self-reflection.
Across various spaces in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos, Wellman presents 40 components total, including drawings, paintings and monoprints—plus a tee-shirt!—staged as semi-magnetic though hard-to-define visual invitations rife with emotional cues. Take the first installation, a window display at downtown gallery Hecho a Mano dubbed “Navigator of Carried Information” opening this week. Almost more important than its content to Wellman is its accessibility: viewers can gaze through the Hecho window anytime, day or night.
“The whole idea was to have this show at unexpected places,” Wellman tells SFR. “It’s so cool people can walk by and see it in the window.”
Following the Santa Fe install, Wellman will take subsequent navigational concepts to Albuquerque’s Ace Barber Shop and Taos’ Revolt Gallery (the latter of which will run during the Paseo Project arts event). Still, he’s trying hard to avoid major spoilers for the time being, at least in terms of visual specifics, but is happy to spill at least some of the tea.
“I’m trying to de-emphasize the human and to say all objects seen and unseen carry information that’s usable,” he says coyly. “I think, in a way, I just want people to consider that in everything and everywhere we look, there is meaning to be gathered, and whether that’s the journey in and of itself? It’s more like where will this take you? I want you to investigate.”
Perhaps it’s tricky to divorce the thought of navigation from a pre-determined end point, but similarly to how artist intent is always secondary to sincere viewer emotional response, Wellman is mostly hoping to start a conversation.
“I would hope there’s enough element of mystery in there and enough ambiguity to make you want to look further,” he adds.