Artwork Description
Virgil Ortiz – Recon Watchman: Mopez
Dimensions: 28 x 23 x 16″
Year: 2022
Medium: high fire clay and glazes
This remarkable sculpture premiered at the Vladem Contemporary Art Museum in Santa Fe New Mexico as part of the museum’s grand opening exhibition. Ortiz’s “Recon Watchmen” from the year 2180 are watching over the past, present and future of the Pueblo peoples in New Mexico. During the past two decades, Ortiz has been creating a combination of ceramic pots and busts as well as masks and costumes that depict 19 groups of characters representing the 19 Pueblos in New Mexico.
Here, you can see the Recon Watchman Mopez, with his shield at his back, ready to protect his culture in all the ways Ortiz envisions protection of Indigenous cultures from external threats in the future.
https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/story/Virgil-Ortiz-Recon-Watchmen