This immersive environment by designer Tanya Aguiñiga continues the museum’s multiyear series of inclusive and inviting commissions to activate an outdoor space and encourage community engagement. Drawing upon years of Aguiñiga’s collaborative practice, the project, on view on the Orkin Terrace, explores craft and its multiple connections to culture, tradition, materials, function, and community.
The installation comprises many layers, including custom papel picado (traditional crafts of cut tissue paper with global roots) designed by various people at workshops in Atlanta. In addition to the papel picado, decorations from celebratory traditions around the world, such as kites, lanterns, floral garland, and disco balls, envelop the terrace and create a spectacular panoply of layered signs and symbols. Aguiñiga created objects for the space that probe ideas surrounding cultural intersections and hybrid identities; the installation also features custom piñatas based on designs by several contest winners from the Atlanta region.
