The Blaffer Museum is a wonderful place for UH students to dive into the creative world around them. Through the constant updates of the galleries, students can gain introspection, reflection and inspiration. The Blaffer Museum is the perfect opportunity to travel elsewhere without leaving the UH campus.
On Sep. 23, the Blaffer Museum began showing Tania Candiani’s Lifeblood exhibition. She is a Mexican artist who, in this project, serves to highlight the history and impact of the waterways in the Houston area.
Living in Mexico City, Candiani’s inspirations are deeply rooted in the environment surrounding her. She is an experimental artist who dips her feet fully into the strangeness of noise, texture, and different language.
“Echoing Landscape” is the first portion of the Lifeblood exhibit. It is a video and sound installation characterized by unique somber noise and visuals representing the story of Houston’s waterways.
Organized through four chapters, it goes through the story of the Karankawa, Atakapa, and Akoksia people as well as the cotton production past. Resonating with the viewers, this piece creates an open mind for the next part of the exhibit.
“Brownwood Subdivision” is a canvas drawing depicting the subdivision of Brownwood in the Baytown and Pasadena areas. It relays the story of this area from the ’70s to ’80s when Hurricane Alicia sank many houses.
Two installations sit in the middle of the gallery room, “Nothin’ to Keep” and “I Got a Rainbow.” Both are made with cotton sacks, wood and embroidery work.
These pieces derive from the history of cotton fieldwork and further provoke an intense feeling of reflection. On the wall, photo books with stills of the bayou from Louisiana and Texas highlight the changes that have occurred through colonization and urban development.
“Lifeblood” is narrated with audio of birds chirping and water sound effects. Through this feature, each viewer is guaranteed to gain their own personal understanding of Candiani’s purpose in her project. Through the quiet foot shuffling of other observers, this gallery holds a beautiful and camouflaged tranquility.
The Blaffer Museum will show the Lifeblood exhibit until Nov. 19.
With each visit, students are met with helpful staff and space to grow rich in the knowledge of culture. The University of Houston offers many places to indulge in authenticity and The Blaffer Museum is one of those places.
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