Portal in U.S. Consulate Nuevo Laredo

Alma Allen

Follow the journey of this Art in Embassies project from the artist’s studio in Mojave desert, to a foundry deep in Mexico City, to its final home at the US Consulate in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Portal was conceived in the United States and constructed and installed in Mexico, following the artist’s own move from Joshua Tree to Mexico City, from a secluded corner of California to the most populous city on the continent. Installed outside the consulate’s entrance, the cast-bronze ovoid sculpture final work stands at a height of ten feet and a mass of 1,800 pounds.

Full Transcript

0:00:14.519,0:00:15.519
Art in Embassies U.S. Department of State
U.S. Consulate Nuevo Laredo

0:00:15.519,0:00:16.519
Portal (2018)
Portal is a site-specific sculpture by American

0:00:16.519,0:00:17.519
artist Alma Allen
Art in Embassies asked celebrated American

0:00:17.519,0:00:20.710
sculptor, Alma Allen, to create a new work
that would resonate with the landscapes of

0:00:20.710,0:00:33.059
Laredo and Nuevo Laredo
Alma Allen composes biomorphic forms with

0:00:33.059,0:00:47.220
surfaces from materials sourced from his environment
I work in clay and wax in small scale

0:00:47.220,0:00:53.690
and then expand it
using computers but still working by hand

0:00:53.690,0:01:03.450
You could also do another…(speaking low)
Here at this study we make shells of and then

0:01:03.450,0:01:08.880
cast in bronze
the object that we make is the mold, so it

0:01:08.880,0:01:12.780
allows us to make one of a kind bronzes more
simply

0:01:12.780,0:01:20.409
I have an idea but the idea never stays and
with clay and in small scale you can always

0:01:20.409,0:01:25.130
change very quickly like drawing, it lets
you sketch and work in three dimensions

0:01:25.130,0:01:29.619
which can’t be done with big things you have
to work it out as a small thing and then make

0:01:29.619,0:01:37.270
it larger
I spent 20 years making things with my hands

0:01:37.270,0:01:39.450
and it stills lets me make things with my
hands.

0:01:39.450,0:01:44.530
Which is nice since I don’t sit and click
on the computer I wouldn’t know how to do

0:01:44.530,0:01:50.380
it
Allen moved his home and studio from Joshua

0:01:50.380,0:01:53.085
Tree, California to Mexico City during the
process of creating Portal.

0:01:53.085,0:01:57.689
Mexico City is full of artists and craftspeople
of all kinds and you can make almost anything

0:01:57.689,0:01:58.689
you can imagine.

0:01:58.689,0:02:02.990
Whether you want to find leather worker or
bronze casting, it’s one of the largest cities

0:02:02.990,0:02:07.079
in the world and also one of the most creative.

0:02:07.079,0:02:14.950
The artwork also represents where they might
go this place that I see is a land with different

0:02:14.950,0:02:15.959
kinds of freedom.

0:02:15.959,0:02:18.040
and different kinds of opportunities.

0:02:18.040,0:02:24.700
the piece is now at the foundary where they
cut it apart and cast it into smaller sections

0:02:24.700,0:02:35.080
and then weld it together as the large scale
piece.

0:02:35.080,0:02:40.300
So much happens in this small space.

0:02:40.300,0:02:50.120
It’s probably will come to here and they have
so far done these sections.

0:02:50.120,0:02:55.260
It’s going to weigh about 1800 pounds, it’s
hollow, yes.

0:02:55.260,0:02:58.480
If it was solid it would weigh so much.

0:02:58.480,0:03:03.211
It is printed, then waxed, and will become
a section of this –

0:03:03.211,0:03:04.211
Allen’s undulating hoop frames a view from
one country into another.

0:03:04.211,0:03:09.520
It reflects the weight and magnitude of passage.

0:03:09.520,0:03:15.120
It doesn’t pop out looking right, there’s
a lot of stages that they do to make it look

0:03:15.120,0:03:16.120
correct.

0:03:16.120,0:03:17.120
Portal was cast in multiple parts from a 3D
printer mold, welded, and patinated to contrast

0:03:17.120,0:03:29.150
the desert landscape,
A lot of my work are made to symbolize psychological

0:03:29.150,0:03:31.740
states an moving between psychological states.

0:03:31.740,0:03:37.830
and I hoped that that would come across a
little bit with that piece.

0:03:37.830,0:03:42.080
There is the small version…for myself.

0:03:42.080,0:03:51.520
A cross-cultural collaboration, initiated
by Art in Embassies, the work was conceived

0:03:51.520,0:04:07.069
in the United States, fabricated in Mexico,
and installed at the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo

0:04:07.069,0:04:09.150
Laredo, Mexico.

0:04:09.150,0:04:15.080
The piece is a little bit rough but it almost
has the character of a tree in the roughness

0:04:15.080,0:04:16.459
of the materials.

0:04:16.459,0:04:20.090
Maybe to bring it a little bit into nature
and away from the building to separate it

0:04:20.090,0:04:23.560
from sort of the slick and smoothness of the
modern construction.

0:04:23.560,0:04:28.400
The piece of public art also can hopefully
allow someone to think of something different

0:04:28.400,0:04:34.009
than their normal workday concerns and to
have a different way of thinking or a different

0:04:34.009,0:04:35.099
idea.

0:04:35.099,0:05:12.070
I think that’s important for all of us.