Fort Makers is pleased to present In Situ: Tamika Rivera, the second installment of its In Situ installation series, on view June 19 — August 19. In reference to an object's original location, In Situ exhibits survey the work of individual Fort Makers artists, offering new contexts and narratives.
Stemming from her Puerto Rican ancestor's mixed Taíno heritage and an intuitive sense of ancestral webs, multidisciplinary artist and human rights activist Tamika Rivera seeks to create pieces that speak for unheard voices and untouched paths. Her work focuses on modern artifacts that cultivate a language between our existence and a parallel universe, all toward the goal of generating an explorative culture through compassion for others both around and before us.
Rivera’s In Situ presentation centers a mushroom-like grouping of Further Forms—a lively collection of bright and hairy ottomans that have creature-like qualities. The artist sculpts the Forms by wrapping, weaving and knotting yarn and string onto stuffed geometric forms. A sea of hot pink walls—reminiscent of brightly colored homes in San Juan or Ponce—envelop the hairy grouping, and acts as a support for Rivera’s zoomorphic network of graffiti-like nets, serpentine ropes, and a woven shrine to a Taíno goddess of the moon. (Diosa Luna 2021)
"We really enjoy the process of finding ways to exhibit work in unconventional ways, the mushroom-like quality of the plinths we made to elevate Tamika's Further Forms is the result of our conversation about how to integrate a pedestal, or a raised garden bed to amplify the organic nature of Tamika's work as well as bringing them up to a better viewing level," say Fort Makers Co-Founder Noah Spencer and Nana Spears. "We really tried to create an installation that uses the functionality of a platform, but with an intention to bring the viewer into a world that feels inspired by nature, but also perhaps another dimension or alien world. The Portal entry at the front door of the gallery is another example of this effort to transport the viewer, they can step through the weblike portal, passing through to this other dimension and place."