A new tour from artist Carolina Loyola-Garcia and Shiftworks charts a surprising course through the alleyways of the East End — by way of private messages in Love Letters in Secret Gardens.
Taking a Journey With Carolina Loyola-Garcia’s Love Letters in Secret Gardens
Those who have experienced the work of Carolina Loyola-Garcia are familiar with being taken on a journey.
With Flamenco Pittsburgh, she’s transported patrons to the Andalusian region of Spain through music and dance. Fractal Dance in Transit Gardens, her collection of installations at the Pittsburgh International Airport, artfully conveys travelers from gates to gardens. With the video piece Elemental, viewers traveled deep into the volcanic landscape of Iceland.
In all of these pieces, the voyages undertaken are metaphorical. But with Love Letters in Secret Gardens, her upcoming work for Shiftworks Community and Public Arts, attendees will embark upon an expedition not only literate, but literal.
“The idea was to develop tours guided by artists that would expand and explore,” said Loyola-Garcia. Shiftworks put out a call for submissions and selected six artists to create pieces that would investigate ideas as well as neighborhoods.
Led by Rachel Klipa, program manager of education for Shiftworks, and writer Sherrie Flick, a half-dozen artists began weekly meetings in April for discussions, brainstorming sessions and homework. “It was like going back to school, which I loved,” said Loyola-Garcia. The result was a half-dozen 90 minute treks, on which artists delve into the subjects and neighborhoods of their choice. Loyola-Garcia describes the selection of tours as being very different — with “some overlap, but all unique.”
Movement, Creativity and Interaction, in Public and Private Spaces
“I’m very interested in ideas of caring,” she says. “How do we care about things? How is that expressed, how does it become manifested?” Here, it’s through the lost art of the love letter, which she uses to chart a path through feeling, memory and gardens both private and public, traversed by the intimacy of alleyways in East Liberty and Highland Park. “Part of my interest was to explore what’s hidden, in our inner selves, our emotional selves,” she said. “Alleyways are a physical expression of that.”
There’s an interactive element to each tour, as well, bringing each patron’s role from spectator to participant. With Loyola-Garcia, this inquiry will be completed with pen and paper, as she ferries the group through feelings and remembrances.
Love Letters In Secret Gardens, scheduled for September 19, is the second installment in the series; the lineup begins on September 12 with Miracles of Pittsburgh, Sarah Shotland’s silent pilgrimage through a trio of churches. Subsequent events, continuing through October, will include looks at utility code markings, geology and the life that grows on trees that don’t.
No matter where each tour begins, they move through time, thought and place. “Walking and moving can trigger certain things, bring forth our memories — and we can add other ideas and possibilities to that,” says Loyola-Garcia. “It’s an opportunity to think about these ideas, and connect them not only to how we move, but how we move through the world.”
Story by Lissa Brennan
Photos Courtesy of Carolina Loyola-Garcia