Judith Hidden Lanius Artist Talk-September 8

Historic Santa Fe Foundation is pleased to present an interview with exhibiting artist Judith Hidden Lanius, moderated by HSFF Deputy Director Melanie McWhorter, on the descansos featured in her exhibition “Mortal Highway” The Photographs.

This event is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required. To register please contact Hanna Churchwell at hanna@historicsantafe.org.

ABOUT THE SHOW:

“While the original memorials were made of simple wooden crosses, for the last forty years a profound change in the design and appearance of descansos has taken place with the availability of new commercial construction materials and store-bought objects and decorations … The sites of remembrance have become singular creations in design, materials, and objects, with the result that no two are alike.”

—Judith Hidden Lanius—

Despite the prodigious number of roadside memorials found in the Northern New Mexico landscape, unknown to most, is the significance of the powerful and poignant descansos erected for years by the Hispanic community. In the exhibition at the Historic Santa Fe Foundation September 2-30, 2022, Mortal Highway The Photographs Judith Hidden Lanius offers a unique and highly personal view of descanso culture through her photographs. The photographs show how descansos incorporate objects of religious significance and personal mementos from the life of the deceased. This public mourning ritual turns highway shoulders in the high desert Southwest landscape into sacred spaces holding memories and cautionary tales for those driving by.

Lanius began her long-term project 10 years ago. She shares, “Through the years of solitary driving and stopping, my connections deepened to the lost men, women, and children remembered in the sacred descanso space.  Families and individuals generously and courageously welcomed a stranger along the side of the road or into their homes and shared memories.” Lanius’s photographs show the variety of approaches, from simple to elaborate, in the creation of the descansos, noting, “The Latin cross, a visual and spiritual anchor, is the essential element around which the descanso is created. Recent crosses are made of wrought iron, steel, rebar, or galvanized steel tubing. Wood continues to be used and is thick or thin, hand carved, or saw-cut.” Flowers, flags, and hand-written messages also populate the memorials, providing insight into both the person who died, and the creators of the shrines.

Accompanying the exhibit is the book Mortal Highway (Daylight, 2022) of fifty-seven color photographs and text available at the Historic Santa Fe Foundation Shop. Read Blind Magazine’s review of Mortal Highway here.

To learn more about Lanius and her work, visit https://www.judithlaniusphotographer.com/mortal-highway/.

Descansos from the book Mortal Highway by Judith Hidden Lanius

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
Judith Hidden Lanius is an artist and writer, living in New Mexico, with an abiding interest in the Hispanic villages, and communities in the cultural landscape of Northern New Mexico. For many years, she has photographed and traveled the roads between the rural villages and towns north of Santa Fe. The book Mortal Highway (Daylight, 2022), and the accompanying exhibition is the result of many years spent photographing the Hispanic roadside memorials or descansos along the roads of Northern New Mexico. Lanius’s interest arose from being born into an old Western family in Colorado, while her photographic involvement with the less-visited areas of the world, such as the traditional desert communities of southeastern Morocco and the tribal villages of Northeast India, stems from living and traveling around the world since childhood. Her photographic vision has been captured in two self-published books: Rissani Gateway to the Sahara (2010) and Encountering the Journey (2013). Lanius, largely self-taught, has benefited from working with the noted landscape photographer and educator Eliot Cohen. Before her current work, she designed jewelry at Hidden Designs Jewelry, her Washington DC company, a city in which she also spent many years as an art historian and historic preservationist working in museums and cultural organizations.

Contact: Hanna Churchwell at hanna@historicsantafe.org or call 505.983.2567 for more information.