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Art in Embassies U.S. Department of State
U.S. Consulate Nuevo Laredo

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Portal (2018)
Portal is a site-specific sculpture by American

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artist Alma Allen
Art in Embassies asked celebrated American

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sculptor, Alma Allen, to create a new work
that would resonate with the landscapes of

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Laredo and Nuevo Laredo
Alma Allen composes biomorphic forms with

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surfaces from materials sourced from his environment
I work in clay and wax in small scale

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and then expand it
using computers but still working by hand

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You could also do another…(speaking low)
Here at this study we make shells of and then

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cast in bronze
the object that we make is the mold, so it

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allows us to make one of a kind bronzes more
simply

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I have an idea but the idea never stays and
with clay and in small scale you can always

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change very quickly like drawing, it lets
you sketch and work in three dimensions

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which can’t be done with big things you have
to work it out as a small thing and then make

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it larger
I spent 20 years making things with my hands

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and it stills lets me make things with my
hands.

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Which is nice since I don’t sit and click
on the computer I wouldn’t know how to do

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it
Allen moved his home and studio from Joshua

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Tree, California to Mexico City during the
process of creating Portal.

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Mexico City is full of artists and craftspeople
of all kinds and you can make almost anything

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you can imagine.

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Whether you want to find leather worker or
bronze casting, it’s one of the largest cities

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in the world and also one of the most creative.

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The artwork also represents where they might
go this place that I see is a land with different

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kinds of freedom.

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and different kinds of opportunities.

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the piece is now at the foundary where they
cut it apart and cast it into smaller sections

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and then weld it together as the large scale
piece.

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So much happens in this small space.

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It’s probably will come to here and they have
so far done these sections.

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It’s going to weigh about 1800 pounds, it’s
hollow, yes.

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If it was solid it would weigh so much.

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It is printed, then waxed, and will become
a section of this –

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Allen’s undulating hoop frames a view from
one country into another.

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It reflects the weight and magnitude of passage.

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It doesn’t pop out looking right, there’s
a lot of stages that they do to make it look

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correct.

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Portal was cast in multiple parts from a 3D
printer mold, welded, and patinated to contrast

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the desert landscape,
A lot of my work are made to symbolize psychological

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states an moving between psychological states.

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and I hoped that that would come across a
little bit with that piece.

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There is the small version…for myself.

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A cross-cultural collaboration, initiated
by Art in Embassies, the work was conceived

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in the United States, fabricated in Mexico,
and installed at the U.S. Consulate in Nuevo

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Laredo, Mexico.

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The piece is a little bit rough but it almost
has the character of a tree in the roughness

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of the materials.

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Maybe to bring it a little bit into nature
and away from the building to separate it

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from sort of the slick and smoothness of the
modern construction.

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The piece of public art also can hopefully
allow someone to think of something different

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than their normal workday concerns and to
have a different way of thinking or a different

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idea.

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I think that’s important for all of us.