“What else can you offer the earth, which has everything?
What else can you give but something of yourself?
A homemade ceremony, a ceremony that makes home.”
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Sacred Bouquet forges new ways to step back into a similar space of community care through ritual and rest, offering audiences a sensual, secular route to accessing the ritual framework of Sukkot. Sacred Bouquet is the New Mexico debut of the four-channel video installation and sound bath of the same name, originally commissioned from Mira Burack by Los Angeles-based Bridge Projects and featuring contributions from Jason Janusch, Rachel Shuman and others. Debuting alongside this presentation of Burack’s meditative procession is a series of new collage works that continue the artist's practice of creating assemblage works from repeated motifs in her domestic environment.
Sukkot serves as a celebration of joy through the unity of shared history and is partially observed through the construction and occupation of a four-walled outdoor structure, called a sukkah, and activation of a ritual bouquet, often called the arba'a minim in Hebrew. The four Middle-Eastern plants grouped together in most Sukkot settings are replaced with Burack’s chosen Southwestern counterparts – the yucca, juniper, prickly pear and piñon – as the four walls of the sukkah expand into the high desert environment, acknowledging the importance of ecological health in enabling human celebration. Through engaging with Sacred Bouquet, Burack invites viewers to immerse themselves in an actionable, enmeshed dynamic between community and landscape, offering a chance to sit and rest, cradled by the luscious, rose-tinted desert landscape.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with CURRENTS 2023.
Sacred Bouquet Production Team: Mira Burack (@matterology), Artistic Director; Rachel Shuman (#rachelshuman), Editor; David Sampliner (#davidsampliner), Director of Photography; Jason Janusch (#jasonjanusch), Music Composition; David Sampliner & Erick Castillo (#erickcastillo), Camera Operators; Jonathan Mugford (#jonathanmugford), Drone Operator; Eric Shultz (#ericshultz), Field Audio; Lucas Millard (#lucasmillard), Colorist; Molly Burack (#mollyburack), Music Vocals; Kira Gone (#kiragone) & Kyle Molina (@elephanttears91)
