Nocturnal Visions (Nighttime), sublimation printed chiffon, LED lights, steel, porcelain, spotlights, discoball motor, and collage on wood panel, installation view, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (Nighttime), installation view, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions or Visiones Nocturnas is an immersive installation in a found space which had previously served as a nightlife space for queer and alternative communities. The installation incorporates textile sculpture, ceramics, and collage and has a nighttime and a daytime activation. The various works within the installation are informed by a decade-long research and photography project documenting ephemeral aspects of queer nightlife along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The installation’s largest piece consists of 27 panels of chiffon curtains, sublimation-printed with long-exposure digital photographs taken on the dance floors of queer clubs and bars. The images on the curtain panels display a mix of light trails and atmospheric, colorful abstract forms that evoke ghostly figures, the visual experiences of euphoric dancers, or memory-like light traces. The arrangement of the curtains creates a layered dissection of the space, allowing viewers to walk through paths formed by the curved panels. These same panels also act as shifting screens, partially obscuring interactions between bodies moving through different areas of the installation, veiled by a smoke-like atmospheric effect.
Specter, Nocturnal Visions (Daytime), metalic glazed porcelain, discoball motor, spotlights, 18” discoball, 2024.
Specter, Nocturnal Visions (Nighttime), metalic glazed porcelain, discoball motor, spotlights, installation view, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (Nighttime), installation view, 2024.
Specter, metalic glazed porcelain, discoball motor, and spotlights, 2024.
The installation also includes a series of disco ball collages composed of hundreds of hand-cut photographs pasted onto ultra-matte black painted wood panels. All the disco balls in the collages were photographed in queer nightlife spaces across various border cities, such as Ciudad Juárez, El Paso, Tijuana, San Diego, Mexicali, and Brownsville, among others. The finished pieces resemble collections of space exploration images, bearing visual similarities to planets, moons, or supernovas.
At the center of the installation is piece titled Specter which is a disco ball made from hundreds of handmade, metallic-glazed porcelain tiles. The disco ball hangs and rotates just a few inches above the ground, subverting both the function and spectacle typically associated with the object. During the nighttime activation, the disco ball is illuminated by two disco ball spotlights, casting a galactic or shimmering, water-like reflection throughout the floor and space.
Nocturnal Visions (Sodoma), collage and paint on wooden panel, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (El Viajero) and Nocturnal Visions (Pecado Night Club), collage and paint on wooden panel, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (Nighttime), detail view, 2024.
Specter, metalic glazed porcelain, discoball motor, and spotlights, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (Daytime), sublimation printed chiffon, steel, porcelain, spotlights, discoball motor, and collage on wood panel, installation view, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions combines both a somber and exploratory investigation into the value and ephemeral nature of queer nightlife. The installation celebrates the need to create safe spaces for individuals and communities to be and exist, whilst acknowledging the transitory, euphoric, melancholic and sublime components of them. Alongside the more poetic reinterpretations of queer nightlife moments, the work also brings together various places and objects from two different countries and cities, focusing on the similarities and possibilities of an imaginary, physical or emotional shared space for queer existence, resilience and joy.
Nocturnal Visions (Nighttime), detail view, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (Albatross), collage and paint on wooden panel, installation view 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (El Viajero) and Nocturnal Visions (Pecado Night Club), collage and paint on wooden panel, 2024.
Nocturnal Visions (Daytime), sublimation printed chiffon, steel, porcelain, spotlights, discoball motor, and collage on wood panel, installation view, 2024.