Fuerte Quebracho
Fuerte Quebracho
'Fuerte Quebracho' is a site-specific ephemeral intervention at Fort Tilden Beach, a former U.S. military site on the Atlantic coast. The intervention consists of deadstock silk dyed with quebracho, a tree native to the Gran Chaco region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Known for its deep reddish hue, quebracho has long been used in textile dyeing and leather tanning, including in the production of military gear.
The work extends a series of site-specific installations by artist María Elena Pombo—Kita Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop (2024), Onoto is Home (2023), and Entrelazado en la Fábrica de Concreto (2020)—that use plant-based dyes to surface overlooked histories embedded in materials and sites, from extractive forestry to industrial labor and military supply chains.
The name plays on the double meaning of fuerte: fort and strength. It also recalls the origin of quebracho from quiebra-hacha (axe-breaker) and the tradition of naming defensive sites as forts. Here, the fort is both a physical remnant and a metaphor. The ephemeral installation asks what forms of strength endure, and which histories are allowed to remain.
Fuerte Quebracho is made possible with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
K´itha Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop is supported by a Brooklyn Arts Council Grant and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and is part of New York Textile Month, a month-long celebration of textiles started in New York City in 2015 by Lidewij Edelkoort and directed by Ragna Froda.
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Inauguration
Sunday September 21, 2024
2:00pm - 5:00pm
H453+35C
Come One, Come All & Entren, que caben 100, but RSVP PLS TYSM <3
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Schedule
2:00pm - 5:00pm:
Gathering w/surprises & independent explorations
3:00pm - 4:00pm:
Walkthrough led by María Elena Pombo
-
Due to the rarity of Quebracho Red, this inauguration will not be accompanied with a workshop.
Participants will receive, on a first-come-first serve basis, a zine with reflections from the project, regarding the plant, the site, and their contexts.
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María Elena Pombo is a Venezuelan artist and researcher based in NYC since 2011.
She is artist in residence at Smack Mellon’s Artist Studio Program and has participated in residencies and fellowships at Yaddo, Wave Hill, LMCC, the Bronx Museum, and NEW INC, The New Museum’s cultural incubator.
She won the 2021 London Design Biennale’s Theme Medal, and has received grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, Queens Council on the Arts, and more.
Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been exhibited at Somerset House (London), Bronx Museum of the Arts (NYC), Yamamoto-Seika (Osaka), and more across the USA, Europe, Japan, and Latin America.
Pombo’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Slowdown, Metal Magazine, i-D, Vogue, Forbes, and the book ‘True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes”.
She is faculty at Parsons School of Design, teaching and developing curriculum for studio classes with a focus on research and experimentation. Pombo was previously instructor at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
For over a decade Pombo has researched natural dyes through a decolonial and non-extractivist lens and shared her knowledge through workshops, installations and other actions in cultural centers, botanical gardens, film festivals, nightclubs, a concrete factories, a mechanic shops, parks, and more, across the USA, Europe and Japan.
Fuerte Quebracho
'Fuerte Quebracho' is a site-specific ephemeral intervention at Fort Tilden Beach, a former U.S. military site on the Atlantic coast. The intervention consists of deadstock silk dyed with quebracho, a tree native to the Gran Chaco region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Known for its deep reddish hue, quebracho has long been used in textile dyeing and leather tanning, including in the production of military gear.
The work extends a series of site-specific installations by artist María Elena Pombo—Kita Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop (2024), Onoto is Home (2023), and Entrelazado en la Fábrica de Concreto (2020)—that use plant-based dyes to surface overlooked histories embedded in materials and sites, from extractive forestry to industrial labor and military supply chains.
The name plays on the double meaning of fuerte: fort and strength. It also recalls the origin of quebracho from quiebra-hacha (axe-breaker) and the tradition of naming defensive sites as forts. Here, the fort is both a physical remnant and a metaphor. The ephemeral installation asks what forms of strength endure, and which histories are allowed to remain.
Fuerte Quebracho is made possible with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
K´itha Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop is supported by a Brooklyn Arts Council Grant and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and is part of New York Textile Month, a month-long celebration of textiles started in New York City in 2015 by Lidewij Edelkoort and directed by Ragna Froda.
-
Inauguration
Sunday September 21, 2024
2:00pm - 5:00pm
H453+35C
Come One, Come All & Entren, que caben 100, but RSVP PLS TYSM <3
-
Schedule
2:00pm - 5:00pm:
Gathering w/surprises & independent explorations
3:00pm - 4:00pm:
Walkthrough led by María Elena Pombo
-
Due to the rarity of Quebracho Red, this inauguration will not be accompanied with a workshop.
Participants will receive, on a first-come-first serve basis, a zine with reflections from the project, regarding the plant, the site, and their contexts.
-
María Elena Pombo is a Venezuelan artist and researcher based in NYC since 2011.
She is artist in residence at Smack Mellon’s Artist Studio Program and has participated in residencies and fellowships at Yaddo, Wave Hill, LMCC, the Bronx Museum, and NEW INC, The New Museum’s cultural incubator.
She won the 2021 London Design Biennale’s Theme Medal, and has received grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, Queens Council on the Arts, and more.
Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been exhibited at Somerset House (London), Bronx Museum of the Arts (NYC), Yamamoto-Seika (Osaka), and more across the USA, Europe, Japan, and Latin America.
Pombo’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Slowdown, Metal Magazine, i-D, Vogue, Forbes, and the book ‘True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes”.
She is faculty at Parsons School of Design, teaching and developing curriculum for studio classes with a focus on research and experimentation. Pombo was previously instructor at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
For over a decade Pombo has researched natural dyes through a decolonial and non-extractivist lens and shared her knowledge through workshops, installations and other actions in cultural centers, botanical gardens, film festivals, nightclubs, a concrete factories, a mechanic shops, parks, and more, across the USA, Europe and Japan.
Fuerte Quebracho
'Fuerte Quebracho' is a site-specific ephemeral intervention at Fort Tilden Beach, a former U.S. military site on the Atlantic coast. The intervention consists of deadstock silk dyed with quebracho, a tree native to the Gran Chaco region of Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. Known for its deep reddish hue, quebracho has long been used in textile dyeing and leather tanning, including in the production of military gear.
The work extends a series of site-specific installations by artist María Elena Pombo—Kita Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop (2024), Onoto is Home (2023), and Entrelazado en la Fábrica de Concreto (2020)—that use plant-based dyes to surface overlooked histories embedded in materials and sites, from extractive forestry to industrial labor and military supply chains.
The name plays on the double meaning of fuerte: fort and strength. It also recalls the origin of quebracho from quiebra-hacha (axe-breaker) and the tradition of naming defensive sites as forts. Here, the fort is both a physical remnant and a metaphor. The ephemeral installation asks what forms of strength endure, and which histories are allowed to remain.
Fuerte Quebracho is made possible with public funds from the Queens Arts Fund, a re-grant program supported by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by New York Foundation for the Arts.
K´itha Tarwi en el Mechanic Shop is supported by a Brooklyn Arts Council Grant and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant and is part of New York Textile Month, a month-long celebration of textiles started in New York City in 2015 by Lidewij Edelkoort and directed by Ragna Froda.
-
Inauguration
Sunday September 21, 2024
2:00pm - 5:00pm
H453+35C
Come One, Come All & Entren, que caben 100, but RSVP PLS TYSM <3
-
Schedule
2:00pm - 5:00pm:
Gathering w/surprises & independent explorations
3:00pm - 4:00pm:
Walkthrough led by María Elena Pombo
-
Due to the rarity of Quebracho Red, this inauguration will not be accompanied with a workshop.
Participants will receive, on a first-come-first serve basis, a zine with reflections from the project, regarding the plant, the site, and their contexts.
-
María Elena Pombo is a Venezuelan artist and researcher based in NYC since 2011.
She is artist in residence at Smack Mellon’s Artist Studio Program and has participated in residencies and fellowships at Yaddo, Wave Hill, LMCC, the Bronx Museum, and NEW INC, The New Museum’s cultural incubator.
She won the 2021 London Design Biennale’s Theme Medal, and has received grants from Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Brooklyn Arts Council, Queens Council on the Arts, and more.
Her work is part of the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been exhibited at Somerset House (London), Bronx Museum of the Arts (NYC), Yamamoto-Seika (Osaka), and more across the USA, Europe, Japan, and Latin America.
Pombo’s work has been featured in The New York Times, The Slowdown, Metal Magazine, i-D, Vogue, Forbes, and the book ‘True Colors: World Masters of Natural Dyes”.
She is faculty at Parsons School of Design, teaching and developing curriculum for studio classes with a focus on research and experimentation. Pombo was previously instructor at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
For over a decade Pombo has researched natural dyes through a decolonial and non-extractivist lens and shared her knowledge through workshops, installations and other actions in cultural centers, botanical gardens, film festivals, nightclubs, a concrete factories, a mechanic shops, parks, and more, across the USA, Europe and Japan.