GHOST ORCHID: FEVER DREAM :: Cristina Molina
TEMPUS VOLTA
JANUARY 5 - FEBRUARY 2, 2023
MEMBERS COCKTAIL HOUR :: THURSDAY, JANUARY 5 @ 6-7PM (BECOME A MEMBER)
OPENING RECEPTION :: THURSDAY, JANUARY 5 @ 7-9PM
1624 E. 7TH AVE., YBOR CITY
Gallery hours :: Wednesdays & Thursdays 11am-6pm, Fridays 11am-2pm, and by appointment - text 813-340-9056 :: Follow us for Saturday hours
In Ghost Orchid: Fever Dream the elusive flora Dendrophylax lindenii is personified as an apparition, oracle, and provocateur that positions the viewer as an orchid hunter trespassing the swamp. Throughout the video, the Ghost Orchid delivers poignant and sage-like monologues about climate change, humanity’s dominion over the wetlands, and its impact on species’ survival.
Rendered as a fever dream, footage of dancers donning a ghost orchid costume is cut to atmospheric singing and field recordings made in the South Florida Everglades. Drawing from true stories of orchid hunters and their desperate obsessions with capturing ghost orchids in the wild, the videos are paced and structured so that they appear and disappear throughout the space, never to be fully grasped.
Cristina Molina is a visual artist who hails from the subtropics of Miami and currently lives and works in New Orleans—two environmentally precarious sites that have influenced her research on identity, loss, and disappearing landscapes. Spanning performance, video installation, photography, and textile design, Molina’s artwork is set amongst vulnerable terrains both real and imagined. Using the language of magical realism, her works reshape and centralize little-known narratives to upend dominant histories. Molina’s projects are typically collaborative and often include the participation of The Crystal Efemmes—a collective that produces immersive installations and performances with feminist agendas and mythical proposals. From 2014-20 Molina was a member of the New Orleans artist-run project, The Front where she curated artwork and co-organized The Front’s annual film festival. Cristina Molina is an Associate Professor and Gallery Director at Southeastern Louisiana University where she received the 2018 President’s Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity and was the recipient of the Viola Brown Endowed Professorship in Visual and Dramatic Arts from 2020-22.
Recent accolades include a fellowship at the Artist in Residence in Everglades program (2019), the Joan Mitchell Center (2021), and project support from the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2020 Molina was one of 61 artists selected for the national exhibition State of the Art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Previously, her work has been featured at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, The Polk Museum, New Orleans Film Festival, and Syros International Film Festival among others.
Tempus Volta is located at 1624 E. 7th Ave. in Ybor City.
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Tempus Projects is dedicated to nurturing established and emerging local, national, and international artists through exhibitions, collaborations, residencies, and events. Our non-profit organization promotes artists working in all media, and develops, organizes, and hosts exhibitions that engage the Tampa Bay community through the arts.
Our vision is to foster a vibrant and critical arts nexus that connects grassroots efforts to an international arts dialogue through innovative, equitable programming. Tempus Projects is committed to inclusion, accessibility, collaboration, innovation, and integrity.
