By Holly Beretto
Creating artwork that people could interact with was important for Discovery Green’s Art Lab Fellow Karen Navarro. She used her time in the program to strengthen her skills, explore and develop a project for Discovery Green visitors that would develop connections.
Navarro understands each viewer approaches a piece with different perspectives making each experience unique. She wanted to create a piece that plays with that reality.
The result is Chroma Collective, a 22-foot-long, six-and-a-half-foot tall serpentine structure in Discovery Green September 12 through November 2. The installation features 31 three-sided columns with images of individuals on some sides and mirrors on others. Visitors can turn the prisms to create patterns and images of their own. The idea, said Navarro, is to demonstrate both individuality and interconnectedness.
“The mirrors reflect not only the environment, but the people who are interacting with the work,” she said. “It invites them to have a connection to it.”
For Navarro, an experienced artist working with photography and design, building a large-scale public art installation is a new step in her career. As a fellow in Discovery Green’s Art Lab she worked with the inaugural mentor Jen Lewin, Houston-based design and architecture firm Metalab, and Art Lab co-creator and co-curator Weingarten Art Group. Art Lab gave her the support, guidance, contacts and budget for a capital-intensive project like Chroma Collective.
Through her art, the Argentinian-born artist with European and indigenous ancestry explores these identities, along with being a mother and an immigrant. Early iterations of the project used images of herself in clothing representing her intersectionalities. For one, she wears a pink cowboy hat; in another, the traditional guarda pampas worn by Argentinian gauchos of Mapuche origin and the aguayo fabric of Aymara and Quechua cultures.
She then invited other Houstonians to participate by taking their images and collecting their stories. To highlight their unique personal characteristics while maintaining their anonymity she refers to them by letters. She includes “S,” a first-generation American born to Lebanese parents.
“In the anonymous curve of her shoulders is a story of rebuilding, of holding space between two worlds,” said Navarro. “And the quiet power of belonging to both.”
There’s also “R,” a son of a member of the iconic Screwed Up Click and a French Canadian/Chippewa mother.
“R carries histories of rhythm, resistance, and reclamation,” she said. “His back tells a story rooted in cultural hybridity and Houston’s rich musical lineage.”
The rich details of their lives enhance the work, but she made the deliberate choice to show only their backs.
“That way anyone could feel something and identify with the different images, she said “Perhaps making them not only feel part of the work, but also feel part of the larger conversation.”
Large conversations and layered meanings are something Navarro strives for in her work and life. As a new mother she’s considering aspects of heritage. She recently rediscovered some fabric she brought to the States from Argentina believing it to be a family heirloom. When she finally asked her mother about it, she was told it had no significance or connection with her family.
“But I realized that I can still use it because it speaks about my wanting it to be significant,” she said with a laugh. “I think it’s interesting the way that we assign meaning to things ourselves that may not be meaningful to other people.”
She hopes when parkgoers interact with Chroma Collective, they’ll consider how meaning is assigned. How does the work resonate in their personal story? How does shifting panels change the perspective? Do the colors mirror a memory of importance for them?
Questions like these fuel Navarro’s art, which blends her personal history with curiosity. Art runs in her family: her grandmother made dresses, her grandfather drew, and her brother went to art school.
Navarro studied fashion, before discovering a passion for photography. She could witness the world, then use her artistry to comment on it, splintering or fragmenting images to be seen differently. Photography was also an opportunity to connect with Houston. Classes she took at the Houston Center for Photography gave her permission to explore, while improving her techniques as she experimented with her representations of the world.
The opportunity to challenge herself is what drew her to Discovery Green’s Art Lab. Through the experience, she’s gained insight on the administrative and business aspects of public art, while envisioning how her work can live in public spaces. Working with artist Jen Lewin inspired Navarro with ways to showcase her ideas while she learned how to craft stronger proposals for commissions and develop strategies for managing projects of this scale, she said.
As an artist who had her first baby shortly after being accepted to the program, it helped that Lewin is also a mother.
“It’s very hard to balance motherhood, being an artist, being a wife all together,” she said. “I realized that at the end, although it is chaos and it’s very messy, everything comes together. And I’m learning to love that part too.”
Art Lab is just one of the hundred of events and attractions that Discovery Green produces year round. Free events that showcase diversity, culture, music, art and so much more, reflecting the values of our city. These events are made possible by the generous donations of of people like you. Through your efforts Discovery Green can continue to provide a beautiful oasis in the heart of downtown Houston where memories are made.
