Spatial Poems Sam Frésquez: *

In ” * “, curated by Ninabah Winton, Sam Frésquez invites viewers into a dreamlike exploration of nested realities—a literal and metaphorical journey through time, memory, and intergenerational knowledge. Beginning with a life-sized kitchen that visitors can physically enter, the installation unfolds as a sequence of six increasingly miniaturized versions of the same space. Each contains meticulously crafted furnishings that shrink proportionally, until reaching the smallest room, which is merely inches tall. This recursive architectural experience creates a visual tunnel that allows viewers to contemplate the compression and expansion of lived histories. The installation’s robin’s egg blue interiors, deliberately contrasted with exposed construction materials on the exterior, evoke both the intimate familiarity of domestic space and the raw framework that supports our perception of reality. Through this juxtaposition, Frésquez examines how memory functions as both a container and that which is contained—a recursive loop where past experiences simultaneously shape and are shaped by the present understanding. Drawing from her background in the American Southwest, Latin American mysticism, and quantum physics, Frésquez’s work speaks to the disorienting nature of schizophrenic time perception, where multiple realities can exist simultaneously. The installation references the “Groundhog Day” time-loop genre of storytelling while transcending mere repetition to explore how information, trauma, and wisdom transmit across generations—sometimes visible, sometimes concealed, but always present within the architecture of our lived experiences. The title ” * ” frames the asterisk as a linguistic and symbolic portal—a connective mark that bridges separate textual moments and serves as a visual representation of the wormhole-like passage through Frésquez’s nested rooms. This punctuation mark embodies the exhibition’s central themes: connection across distance, the folding…