Virgil Ortiz: Slipstream, a groundbreaking exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum, explores the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and the Indigenous concept of slipstream, which is a nonlinear way of looking at time. The artist, Virgil Ortiz, uses ceramics, sculptures, costumes, videos, photography, and augmented reality overlays to reconceptualize historical figures who participated in the Pueblo Revolt as futuristic heroes living in the year 2180. Ortiz, an enrolled member of Cochiti Pueblo, employs traditional ceramic techniques while also embracing new technologies. By scanning QR codes in the exhibition, for example, visitors can experience augmented reality overlays that activate images on the walls.
The exhibition, which opened on October 18, 2024, will be on view until January 11, 2025. In addition to curating the exhibition, the Lowe recently partnered with the Center for the Humanities to bring the artist to campus in mid-December as part of the Center’s Stanford Distinguished Professors Lecture Series.
In this Q&A, Melissa Diaz, the Lowe’s assistant director for collection and exhibition services, shares more about the exhibition and the reaction from visitors so far.
What was the process of putting together this exhibition?
The exhibition was curated by Jill Deupi, Ph.D., our chief curator and Beaux Arts director. She conceived of the show after meeting with Virgil a few years ago and being introduced to his ceramic work, which is well-represented in the exhibition.
The exhibition includes works that Virgil had previously created and others that he made for this particular exhibition, knowing the context in which they would be shown. In particular, the more tech-forward, digital works were developed specifically for the Lowe.
The exhibition also includes Cochiti Pueblo ceramics that Virgil Ortiz selected from the Lowe’s permanent collection. What was the idea behind including those pieces?
When we invite a contemporary artist to come to the Lowe, it’s always artists that are in conversation with art history in some way, whether it’s a reference-point or a particular technique, because we want our contemporary exhibitions to also speak to the rest of the museum and our amazing collection.
For this exhibition, Virgil Ortiz wanted to include some of our permanent collection objects. It is important for us, and Virgil, to be able to show these off to the public, when they haven’t been seen in such a long time. It is wonderful to have these works displayed next to a contemporary artist who is working in the same techniques and traditions as those artists in the past, and I think it gives our audiences a fully developed and nuanced experience of art history.
What stands out to you most about this exhibition?
I really love the variety of media in this exhibition. I think it often surprises people that artists don’t just work in one technique or one style. They love to experiment. Virgil is an incredible creative force, and you can see him working and experimenting in ceramics, obviously that’s his main practice, but then also moving into glass, fashion, digital art, and now film. I think it’s great for people to see an artist really pushing boundaries and expanding their practice in different ways.
How is the concept of slipstream explored in the exhibition?
We conveyed the slipstream in a lot of different ways. You have the historic representation of these characters, and then their futuristic counterparts, so they exist in multiple manifestations within the show itself. Then you have a kind of color coding where the red represents the year 1680 and the blue is 2180. Walking through the exhibition, you’re also experiencing the slipstream by going through a digital portal, so to speak, where you’re engaging with the works through your phone and Instagram account. So, there are a lot of different ways in which we create a space where audiences will perceive themselves flowing in and out of the present and the future.
What has the reaction from visitors been like so far?
It has been overwhelmingly positive. I think people don’t know what to expect when they walk through the door, and then they’re literally transported into Virgil’s world. I always like to see how long people spend in an exhibition. It becomes a kind of internal litmus test for me to see how successful it is. With Virgil’s show, our audiences are staying inside the galleries for much longer, and they come back to revisit works, especially after they’ve experienced an activation.
