Vivarium: Exploring Intersections of Art, Storytelling, and the Resilience of the Living World

Albuquerque Museum, June 22, 2024 – February 9, 2025

Wall Text:

In the Twilight, There Is No Salvation

I began painting Coyote many years ago, when I lived in Phoenix, Arizona. It was sometime during the American subprime, mortgage and financial crisis of 2008 that I began a series of paintings that highlighted coyote as the dominant character in the narrative. Coyote became a metaphor of the time, as so much in our everyday life was being upended.

In Navajo/Diné stories and mythology, Coyote's actions often serve as a form of chaos to find balance. They are complex entities echoing a potent symbol of transgressive power, embodying a duality that both challenges and mirrors human morality.

In a contemporary sense, they are enigmatic creatures living at the edge of human civilization, traversing both the urban centers and rural landscapes. Despite being viewed as an invasive species by some, Coyote remains deeply entwined with human ecosystems, occupying a symbiotic role on the periphery of our existence.

It’s through this combined lens of both from indigenous stories and the contemporary relationship we have with Coyote that the narrative in these paintings exist. Coyote became a perfect conduit for what I was feeling at that time the series began and today they are still just as relevant. 

In this new installation, the interplay between Coyote and the human environment is magnified and I invite viewers to contemplate their own relationship with the natural world. Through Coyote's metaphorical journey, we are compelled to reconsider our place within the intricate web of existence, and perhaps recognize that the Earth is not a fragile thing in need of salvation, but a vivarium of incomprehensible complexity, indifferent to the whims of its temporary inhabitants. -SJY

LINKS:

ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM, New Mexico Sun, Albuquerque Journal