and the sound of the void flowed through your body, fused glass, oak, and sound installation, installation view, 2025.
and the sound of the void flowed through your body, laser print on paper (300 copies), installation view, 2025.
and the sound of the void flows through your body, is a site-specific exhibition installed in the former San Antonio Mining Co., a historic LGBTQ nightlife space that served the community around the El Paso, Texas region for over 30 years. The installation includes a large-scale wooden sculpture with an immersive sound component, drawing, and floor sculpture made of fused recycled glass. The various works that are part of the exhibition are informed by a decade long research project initiated by Payan Estrada that investigates ephemeral components of queer nightlife along the US/Mexico border.
The largest component of the installation consists of a to-scale wooden replica of a dance platform that existed in one of Ciudad Juarez’s longest standing queer nightlife space, Albatros. The wooden sculpture has a series of subwoofer speakers built into what would have been the dance platform’s underside. The built-in subwoofers and deep trembling sound piece turn the wooden structure into a sonoric object. The sound piece that emits and vibrates from the structure is a sound piece created from field and contact microphone sound samples recorded from different dance platforms and dance floors from queer nightlife spaces in the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez region.
and the sound of the void flowed through your body, white oak, sound equipment, and 74-minute audio, 2025. Wooden to-scale replica of dance platform from the former Albatros Cantina in Ciudad Juarez, built in collaboration with Laura Turon.
and the sound of the void flowed through your body, white oak, sound equipment, and 74 minute audio, 2025. Audio recorded from dance platforms using contact microphones. Audio edited in collaboration by David Delgado.
Take Me to the Edge of Here, kiln-fused glass, 600 beer bottles collected from LGBTQ nightlife spaces from the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez region, 2025.
Take Me to the Edge of Here, kiln-fused glass, 600 beer bottles collected from LGBTQ nightlife spaces from the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez region, 2025.
Take Me to the Edge of Here, kiln-fused found glass, detail view, 2025.
Along with the wooden dancefloor replica, the installation also includes a largescale floor sculpture made of recycled beer bottles collected from LGBTQ+ bars in the region. The piece is made of approximately 600 broken beer bottles that have been fused using glass working and kiln fusing techniques.
Additionally, a small drawing on an ultra-matte black painted wooden canvas board depicts a star constellation mapped out by using the geographic locations of LGBTQ+ nightlife spaces that have closed in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez border region. The installation also includes a written piece that combines language similar to that used in love/break-up letters with a eulogy written to a lover or a nightlife space that no longer exists. The final piece in the exhibition is the original disco ball from the San Antonio Mining Company, hung over the original location of the former dancefloor. The disco ball was on loan from a community member.
Last Night (San Antonio Mining Company), Restaged original disco ball from the San Antonio Mining Company, 2025. Disco ball on loan from the collection of Alfred Rossy and Mark Daniel Graham Padilla.
Last Night (San Antonio Mining Company), Restaged original disco ball from the San Antonio Mining Company, 2025.
One last flash of light, Paint and color pencil on wooden panel, 2025.
and the sound of the void flowed through your body, combines both a somber yet exploratory investigation into the value and ephemeral nature of queer nightlife. Focusing on the fleeting moments and memories from spaces that were once active nightlife refuges for the queer community, the artist looks to memorialize while at the same time complicate the transient, euphoric, melancholic, and sublime components of queer nightlite spaces.
I Have Been Writing to Smoke, laser print on paper, 300 copies, 2025.
Take me to the edge of here, kiln fused glass, 600 recycled beer bottles collected from LGBTQ nightlife spaces from the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez region, 2025.
and the sound of the void flowed/flows through your body, foil printed paper coasters, edition of 100, 2025.