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Posted On: July 15th 2026, 09:01 pm
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Art by Rica Maestas is on display in Fourteenfifteen Gallery’s exhibition “Declarations of Incongruence” on view in Albuquerque July 3-31, 2026
Fourteenfifteengallery.com > Current > Declarations of Incongruence
In “Father’s Day performance with yucca flowers,” Rica Maestas draws upon ritual, embodiment, and place to explore the enduring legacies of colonialism in the Southwest. Documented through a cross-shaped arrangement of photographs, the work reimagines a historical practice associated with the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when Pueblo peoples sought to cleanse themselves of Spanish influence following their successful resistance to colonial rule. Rather than presenting history as a distant event, Maestas activates it as a living framework through which contemporary systems of power can be understood and challenged.
The work depicts a performance of nude figure washes her hair and body with yucca flowers, a plant long associated with cleansing and survival in the desert landscape. The central image, in which a dish of yucca flowers is held above the river’s water, functions as an offering and a point of transformation from which the surrounding actions unfold.
Created in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread protests against racial injustice, the performance resonates beyond its historical reference. Maestas connects colonial violence to contemporary systems of domination, inviting viewers to consider what inherited structures continue to shape bodies, identities, and daily life. The work is grounded in care and imagines cleansing not as forgetting, but as an ongoing practice of healing, resistance, and becoming otherwise.
Image caption:
Rica Maestas, Father's Day performance with yucca flowers, 2020, Performance Documentation on Framed Kodak Pearl Prints
#DeclarationOfIndependence
#artivism
#decolonialart
#ResistanceThroughArt
#albuquerqueart
#newmexicoart
#newmexicoartists
#artexhibition
#contemporaryart
#visualarts
#galleryexhibition
#performanceart
#pueblorevolt
@ricaroux
@1415_gallery
Fourteenfifteengallery.com > Current > Declarations of Incongruence
In “Father’s Day performance with yucca flowers,” Rica Maestas draws upon ritual, embodiment, and place to explore the enduring legacies of colonialism in the Southwest. Documented through a cross-shaped arrangement of photographs, the work reimagines a historical practice associated with the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when Pueblo peoples sought to cleanse themselves of Spanish influence following their successful resistance to colonial rule. Rather than presenting history as a distant event, Maestas activates it as a living framework through which contemporary systems of power can be understood and challenged.
The work depicts a performance of nude figure washes her hair and body with yucca flowers, a plant long associated with cleansing and survival in the desert landscape. The central image, in which a dish of yucca flowers is held above the river’s water, functions as an offering and a point of transformation from which the surrounding actions unfold.
Created in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread protests against racial injustice, the performance resonates beyond its historical reference. Maestas connects colonial violence to contemporary systems of domination, inviting viewers to consider what inherited structures continue to shape bodies, identities, and daily life. The work is grounded in care and imagines cleansing not as forgetting, but as an ongoing practice of healing, resistance, and becoming otherwise.
Image caption:
Rica Maestas, Father's Day performance with yucca flowers, 2020, Performance Documentation on Framed Kodak Pearl Prints
#DeclarationOfIndependence
#artivism
#decolonialart
#ResistanceThroughArt
#albuquerqueart
#newmexicoart
#newmexicoartists
#artexhibition
#contemporaryart
#visualarts
#galleryexhibition
#performanceart
#pueblorevolt
@ricaroux
@1415_gallery
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