Opening reception Friday, September 13, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
TEN NINETEEN welcomes the return of Milagros (Felici Asteinza and Joey Fillastre) with Crud Lore, a site-specific installation that tells the genesis story of the artists’ distinctive creations, the Crud Buddies.
Milagros’ Crud Buddies are ocean-bound chunks of foam, salvaged from the waterfront and anthropomorphized through artistic intervention. They are painted and embellished with recycled acrylic and resin, rhinestones, ceramic facial features, and the artists’ signature patterns. Every Crud Buddy has a name and a backstory, a unique identity that seems to spring directly from the creature.
This September, visitors to Ten Nineteen will encounter the Crud Buddies’ mythical birthplace, a fantasy batture where trash is transformed by the power of the river. Driftwood and flotsam swirl above. Reptiles lurk at the edges. Color, pattern, and reflected light shoot through space, activating a magical plant species that sprouts the egg-like growths that are the nascent Crud Buddies. In the chaotic blender of the river, everything exists in a dynamic state of metamorphosis.
Asteinza and Fillastre remind us that in spite of the exuberant beauty, what we’re viewing is salvaged waste. The entire exhibition is fabricated from marine debris, construction site trash, pulped paper, cast-off furniture, and scraps from previous art installations. Drawn in by the improbable transfiguration of these materials, viewers enter into a complex meditation on the consequences of our dependence on disposable goods.