Down by the River
Water and borders are prominent themes in Thomas “Breeze” Marcus’ new show at the Arizona Heritage Center.
TEMPE, AZ
Step into Thomas “Breeze” Marcus’ Phoenix area studio and you’re immediately struck by all the items that have paint on them, and not many of them are canvases. Guitars, violins, gourds, vinyl records, skateboard decks and a variety of other objects can be found in every corner. Besides having surfaces that seem to be begging for paint, they all share one characteristic: the objects are known to the viewer and their shapes are familiar, which gives Breeze an opportunity to take recognizable objects and spin new stories off them.
A perfect example is his work Borderless, which is made up of seven broken and painted skateboard decks, each one more chipped and mangled than the one before it. A viewer may look at the decks and make an immediate connection—maybe they have skateboarded before—but then the paint hints at a deeper meaning, one that plays off of and against the freedom associated with skateboarding. “For Borderless I wanted to talk about the traditional homelands of the Tohono O’odham, which are in Southern Arizona on both sides of the United States-mexico border,” Breeze says. “Certain administrations, not even just our current one, have chipped away at the border ever since 9/11.
Security has been tighter, and it’s hard for people to live. They can’t unite together for ceremonies, and their traditional migrations have been disrupted. It was forced upon them, a new adversity that they must deal with. Where there once was freedom now there is very little.”
Breeze, whose heritage is tied to both the Tohono O’odham and Akimel tribes, recalls how his brother from Oklahoma, a former United States Marine, came to visit him in Phoenix and the two decided to drive south to their homelands. “I wasn’t raised there, but I have friends and family there, so my brother and I decided to make a trip like old times together,” Breeze says. “My brother hadn’t been back in a long time. About 20 minutes from the border I told him to be prepared, because he was going to see some things he’d never seen before. There are militarized checkpoints, border patrol officers, Blackhawk helicopters, Humvees…even from a former Marine he was shocked at what it looked like.”
Breeze, a muralist and graffiti artist, will be showing new and old work, including Borderless, in the exhibition Current State opening November 13 at the Arizona
Heritage Center in Tempe. The show is being put on in cooperation with the Arizona Historical Society. The title of the show draws attention to issues related to Native Americans and Arizonans today, such as the U.s.-mexico border and immigration, as well issues related to water, which is why the artist chose to include the word “current” in the title.
“I haven’t had a proper show of this magnitude so I was very excited when I was asked. Especially because I’m local,” he says. “I’m happy with the variety of work that I’ll be sharing and what they represent to me. I want relay some important messages, messages that are much bigger than myself.”
Included in the show will be Suite for the Akimel (River), which features seven repurposed musical instruments—two cellos and five violins, each painted in Breeze’s graffiti-inspired linework. “Current State plays on a couple things: the current state of affairs, where we’re at in our country, and also the ‘current,’ like the current of a river. I come from the river people, the Salt River and the Gila River. So one piece I do have in the show is Suite for the Akimel, which got me thinking about how water is a big legacy of the [Phoenix] Valley, and not just for us, but for everybody,” he says, adding that he was with a fellow artist when he saw the one of the rivers swell up after a storm. “We just stood there and stared at it. We didn’t say anything to each other, but we knew, silently, that we were making an agreement to do art
related to the water and the rivers.”
In addition to three-dimensional objects and traditional canvas paintings, the museum will also be showing images of Breeze’s many murals from all over the Southwest, many within driving distance of the Tempe exhibition space.
When asked how he perceived his artistic journey—graffiti artist to muralist to respected fine artist—breeze said he doesn’t use titles, and instead works hard to break through barriers. “I don’t ever want to be stuck in one genre. I’m not just a graffiti artist, or just a muralist, or Native artist, or a museum artist,” he says. “I like to think of everything in front of me like a chessboard. I have to look five, 10, 15 and 20 moves ahead, and the pieces in front of me all have to move, and each one serves its purpose. To navigate through it all is a challenge, but making it work is what makes it all so worth it.”