Amy Stafford. Berlin: City of Oracles

26.6. - 24.7.2010
Opening: 25.6.2010, 7:00 p.m.

Sometimes cities can become the answer to a lost memory, or the inspiration for a different future. Amy Stafford’s (Seattle, 1970) careful attention to the messages brought by Nature’s unexpected guests in an urban context has been part of her Berlin experience since her first arrival in this city, ten years ago. Siguaraya Gallery is proud to present her second solo show, which has been conceived and produced entirely based on the artist’s understanding of the potential of the city to ‘explain’ forgotten dreams while simultaneously offering hints to interpret the present and envision the future. Amy Stafford’s maps are the remnants of another history, one that has touched the ‘real’ one only occasionally, or rather, only when it was strictly necessary. In Stafford´s mapping accounts, what reveals itself is the capacity of life to become understandable only in relation to a wider interface, one that intertwines a cosmic reality, the mysteries of Nature, through the grids of the unseen. Sometimes these grids materialize in her drawings by means of automatic writing; a bird finds branches to rest only after following the invisible path of intuitive articulation. Or more specifically, these branches were always part of the tree; what the automatic writing does is to reveal the presence of the tree by means of placing a carbon sheet (words) on top of the low-relief  of the (yet) invisible tree.

For this exhibition Stafford has created a new body of work on paper, devised both as installation and as conventional drawing, as a testimony to her passion for the art of careful observation of the hints from Nature revealing the trajectory of her own path, and therefore, of the city of Berlin. By keeping a diary of these observations, Stafford aims at following a long time journey, one that started in 1997 when she first encountered a bald eagle in its natural habitat while riding a ferry in her native Washington State. It passed her at eye level, its enormous wings beating with calm determination, taking her breath away. According to her “…it was the true embodiment of the word majestic and my first experience with anything of that magnificent a nature”.

Amy Stafford is an interdisciplinary artist with hands in many dimensions including fine art, graphic design, writing and performance/ storytelling. She has held professor positions at various art and design colleges and lectured internationally on the convergence of new science and creativity for both business and academic communities. A video portrait of Amy Stafford, realized by Osvaldo Budet (Carolina, Puerto Rico, 1979), who has been documenting fellow artists since arriving in Berlin a year ago, will be screened during the exhibition as part of the +1 Video-art program, conceived and produced by ArtLabour and proudly sponsored by VideoArtWorld. This exhibition has been curated by Berlin-based writer and scholar, Alanna Lockward.
Siguaraya Gallery was founded by Alejandro Villalon, in 2007, and it is pioneering the promotion of Cuban, Caribbean and Latin American art, and at the same time interacts with the vibrant international community that makes Berlin one of the most exciting cities for visual arts, with a varied and refreshing exhibition program.
A portion of the sales from this exhibit will be donated to the National Audubon Society’s efforts to aid the birds and habitat affected by the tragic BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.