DALLAS, Texas (October 22, 2021)—The Nasher Sculpture Center announces its next offsite Nasher Public project: Seeding the Path by artist Sara Cardona, presented in partnership with Katy Trail Art and located on the Katy Trail between Cambrick Street and Fitzhugh Avenue. The work will be on view October 25, 2021 – March 20, 2022.
The five sculptures suspended from the trees over the Katy Trail between Cambrick Street and Fitzhugh Avenue feature vibrant colors and dynamic geometric patterns, the latter recalling seed pots from the ancient Mimbres and contemporary Acoma cultures native to the Southwest, ceramic vessels which were used to secure and transport seeds and represented the potential for renewal.
The forms of Cardona’s sculptures resemble enlarged versions of these indigenous ceramics, as well as Akari lanterns, a traditional Japanese form enlivened in the mid-20th century by modernist sculptor Isamu Noguchi (an American artist of Japanese ancestry who lived 1904–1988). Cardona connected the spirit of the seed pots and Akari lanterns, which means “light” as well as “lightness of being,” with the sense of renewal contemporary users of the Katy Trail seek through exercise or connection with nature.
Cardona’s Nasher Public project is the inaugural commission for Katy Trail Art, a new initiative organized by Friends of the Katy Trail—a group charged with maintaining, enhancing, and advocating for the Katy Trail as the premier trail for recreation, wellness, and alternative transportation in Dallas. Katy Trail Art aims to partner with Dallas area museums, art collectors, and the community at large to expand the role of contemporary art in public spaces in Dallas.
“We are absolutely delighted to launch Katy Trail Art and could not be more excited about this first installation. As an immensely popular urban public space—used daily for reflection, immersion, and recreation—the Katy Trail is the perfect setting for contemporary art. We hope the project allows visitors the opportunity to experience the Trail in an entirely new way,” says Amy Bean, Executive Director of Friends of the Katy Trail.
For Seeding the Path on the Katy Trail, Sara Cardona considered the essence and history of the Trail as a site of transit, transport, and transition: “What intrigued me was the variety of speeds and movement implied by those various modes of transport, and the types of goods transported and exchanged: seeds, agriculture, cultural ideas, cattle, thoughts, human energy.”
On Thursday, October 28 from 6-7 p.m., join artist Sara Cardona in discussion with Nasher Chief Curator Jed Morse on the tree-lined Katy Trail as they delve into the inspiration and meaning behind Sara’s Nasher Public installation Seeding the Path. This event takes place in the Cambrick Plaza where Cambrick Street meets the trail. Street parking can be found on the roads surrounding 4000 Cambrick Street. Registration is requested.
About Sara Cardona
Sara Cardona was born in Mexico City and currently lives and works in Dallas. She uses the analog process of cut-and-paste to create collages in the tradition of early twentieth-century assemblage and in a nod to the editing process of film. These collages then become the foundation for large-scale sculptures in paper and metal, which are inspired by the idea of distributive human networks of capital and consumption. As an artist who grew up in a family involved in the film and theater industry, her work is informed by the intersection of artifice, spectacle, photography, and scenic construction. Her work was recently exhibited at the Erin Cluley Gallery, featured in the Nasher Windows series of installations at the Nasher Sculpture Center and included in Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art at The San Antonio Museum of Art. She is a recipient of a 2020 Nasher Artist Grant and a past recipient of the Dallas Museum of Art Kimbrough Award, as well as a C3 Visiting Artist at the DMA. Cardona studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, received her BA from UT Austin, her MFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, ME.
About Katy Trail
The Katy Trail, as most locals know it, began in 2000, but the history of the Katy Trail stretches back to the age of railroads. Union Pacific Railroad built the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and established the network in 1865. The route was also commonly called the K-T, and eventually the Katy. Following the heyday of the railroad, Union Pacific donated the abandoned lines to the City of Dallas in 1993. In the 1990s, a group of passionate neighbors and local businesses proposed that the line be converted into a public trail. Their idea resulted in the formation in 1997 of Friends of the Katy Trail, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in a private/public partnership with the City of Dallas. Friends of the Katy Trail is charged with maintaining, enhancing, and advocating for the Katy Trail as the premier trail for recreation, wellness, and alternative transportation in Dallas. Today, the Katy Trail is a treasured greenbelt destination for Dallas citizens and visitors and has over 1.5 million visits a year. The Trail is a key quality of life amenity in Dallas and has spurred more than $1 billion in economic development. During the pandemic, the Katy Trail has offered a safe, free, and inviting greenspace for all to connect with nature and each other during challenging times.
About Katy Trail Art
Katy Trail Art, a new initiative organized by Friends of Katy Trail, aims to partner with Dallas area museums, art collectors, and the community at large to expand the role of contemporary art in public spaces in Dallas. The Initiative plans to borrow, commission, and produce world-class art projects on and around the Katy Trail to inspire creativity, spark conversation, encourage self-reflection, challenge assumptions, foster community building, and promote civic ownership of the Katy Trail.
This Nasher Public project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Katy Trail Art Founding Donors: Ann and Chris Mahowald, Lindsay and Blake Shipp, and Amy and Les Ware.
About Nasher Public
Nasher Public is an ongoing, two-pronged public art initiative which aims to generate access to public art by North Texas artists at the Nasher and throughout the greater Dallas community. The project launched first at the Nasher in a newly formed gallery, presenting monthly exhibitions, followed by an ongoing series of offsite exhibitions in partnership with area businesses.