The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Photographs/Archival Pigment Prints
wood stage
2021
Twenty-One Silent Stages: A Ballad responds to the life-changing events brought about by this generation’s pandemic in ways that envision silence, emptiness, and voids in cultural and social spaces. Our photographs depict a sampling of the empty and silent stages of San Antonio music venues, performance spaces, and theaters that went dark during 2020 and 2021. The venues include The Bang Bang Bar, Carver Community Cultural Center, Cowboys Dancehall, Esperanza Center for Peace and Justice, The Lonesome Rose, Mission Marquee Plaza, and Paper Tiger, among other local favorites, some of which may close permanently as a result of substantial financial losses.
Installation view, Artpace San Antonio, Photo Beth Devillier, 2021.
The empty stages portrayed in the photo series do not merely query the effects of the pandemic on performance venues but also the entirety of their related institutions: the musicians, performers, stagehands, audio engineers, and office staff whose creative and financial livelihoods depend upon the activities and opportunities of performance.
Twenty-One Silent Stages: A Ballad marks the social, cultural, and economic impact of COVID-19 on both macro and micro levels. Viewers are invited to consider the very potential of empty stages, postponements, and cancelations, and the new possibilities as people gather and performers take the stage once again.
Alameda Theater, March 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Arneson River Theater, March 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Bang Bang Bar, March 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Carmens de la Calle, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Cowboys Dancehall, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Esperanza Center for Peace and Justice, March 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Faust Tavern, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Howl at the Moon, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
The Lonesome Rose, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Majestic Theatre, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Merkaba, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Mission Marquee Plaza, March 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Paper Tiger, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Tucker’s Kozy Korner, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Rosedale Park, March 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
The Mix, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Tuesday Musical Club, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
Carver Community Cultural Center, February 2021, Archival Pigment Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta, 17 × 30 inches.
© Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere, 2021.
Commissioned and produced by Artpace San Antonio, TX. Thanks to Gary Nichols of Hare and Hound Press and the Artpace team, who assisted in making this work possible.