Untitled (Without) variation 1, 2020, Ruptures (Opus 1), 2019
Ballroom Marfa, Texas.

From a distance, Tsabar’s flag Untitled (Without), 2020, is a long piece of fabric with a rectangular cut-out. Where we expect to see a flag, we instead see empty space. In the courtyard, the flag’s details are seen and experienced on a more intimate scale. With closer inspection, the flag is made of white strips of fabric that are sewn together with colored stitches. The colors derive from the LGBTQIA+ Progress Pride Flag, an updated version of the iconic LGBT Rainbow Flag. Untitled (Without) suggests that perhaps identity is far more subtle than the bold symbols and objects that attempt to represent us.

Tsabar’s installation includes a sonic work titled Ruptures (Opus 1), a live recording of FIelded, Rose Blanshei and Wolf Weston singing, sighing, groaning, and breathing. Ruptures (Opus 1) explores the female musical voice as a “historically expressive anomaly, a place where a disruption of the patriarchal order happens under the cover of beauty and melody,” says the artist. As the voices reverberate throughout the courtyard alongside the flag, we are reminded to recognize the unseen and undefined that can hold power.

Photos by: Sarah M. Vazquez.