Margaret Kimball

EWBA was a collective performance and installation held at the Museum of Art in Tucson, Arizona. This was also my MFA thesis, as it were. At the opening of the show, visitors arrived to find clipboards with instructions and a map to follow a treasure hunt. At each stop, they were greeted by me (a replica of me), and offered a piece of a drawing (the treasure). Each drawing consisted of an image of the space they were standing in (another replica), with commentary on my personal history of the space. The idea here was accessibility: I wanted participants to feel what I felt. On the last stop of the hunt, they were offered a free drink in exchange for a filled-out notecard of their experience. They also had the choice to help reassemble the original drawings. The idea began as a sort of protest of the museum as an institution of culture. The museum, a privileged, isolated space; a space in which power seems unfairly distributed. The piece sort of evolved into this idea of participation and autonomy. The “art” (ie. the drawings) were not sacred; in fact, they were destroyed, leaving only the digital replica of them. I also wanted this movement, if only for a moment, in which everyone who wanted to be was a part of the piece. I wanted participants to feel uncomfortable in the amount of control they were given, in the way they were asked to leave the space supposed to house the art. In some ways, I’m still thinking through these ideas. Certainly, they’ll resurface when it makes sense.

These banners were created for CEDO, the Intercultural Center for the Studies of Deserts and Oceans, on the occasion of their 30^th anniversary. They were initially designed to debut in the organization’s parade, which moved through the town of Puerto Peñasco. CEDO wanted to garner local excitement about conservation, their main priority, as well as make conservation accessible to the community. After the parade in Sonora, the banners were brought to Tucson, where they were showcased at the Hotel Congress during an event. The illustrations were turned into t-shirts and other ephemera. And indeed, if you’re so inclined, you can pick up some merch and support the organization right here.