MARK NELSON | LONGPLAY
Artist Reception Saturday December 4, 6P to 8P
G Spot Gallery Presents Featured December Artist, Mark Nelson and his exhibit
“LONGPLAY” Opening Reception Saturday, December 4th, 2021 // 6p to 8p
Borders and immigration are among the most pressing cultural dialogs the world faces today and the Rio Grande Valley is a hotbed of daily activity that challenges families, communities and nationalities. The valley is divided, the political atmosphere in Texas is toxic, and the state is in dire need of more artists willing to put out work that questions authority and their actions. While people may need more creative ways of building bridges to overcome their differences, some despondent politicians are shoving medieval hate through the halls of government and throwing-up taxpayer paid for border walls in South Texas.
The title, LONGPLAY, is a wink and a nod to my late son Hunter, my love of music and a desire to live my life @ 33 1/3 RPM
Two weeks after the insurrection at the U.S. Capital, on January 19th, I set off on a solo journey of discovery from my home in Houston, Texas headed 350 miles south to the U.S. / Mexico border and the Texas Rio Grande Valley (RGV) to celebrate the end of Donald Trump’s miserable reign as the American President, and to welcome the new leadership. But, more specifically I went in hopes to find and document Trump’s week-old black sharpie marker signature he had scribed on one of the border walls in Alamo, Texas built by him, Steve Bannon and their cohorts at the We Build The Wall organization. On that trip I did not find his autograph but I did find a few of his border wall sections to photograph and video tape during the inauguration ceremonies on the next day. When I returned home to edit the material, a project was born that I would seek out and document south Texas border walls through the duration of Joe Biden’s first term as POTUS, and I started planning my drives to and through to the RGV. To this date, I have made six project visits, five times with my wife Maria: each time exploring and documenting the cracks and crevices of the border walls and fences stretching from Mission to Brownsville.
