Collaboration with Chris Nagler

 

“Amate Amante” is a dual channel video installation conceived in collaboration with Azin Seraj and Chris Nagler. In attempt to express unison between the group from the Colima project, children of Colima, and nature itself, the artists decided to utilize an Amate tree as the mediator and lover between two groups. This tree is located on a hill, facing an open field that leads to local farms. The title “Amate Amante” has symbolic roots to our project’s concept. “Amante” means “lover”, and the Amate tree is historically known in Central America to be a gathering spot for communities. There is a myth associated with this tree about two lovers that went up on a hill to get away from everything to be together. One time on the hill, they were struck by a storm. The lovers huddled together so close, so tight, far so long, that they started to transform, grow roots and become one.

 

 

Installation view, Time is a River, Martin Wong Gallery, San Francisco State University, August 2009