Artist & Scholar
N'ap Balansé (Saved by…) by Gina Athena Ulysse
Large calabashes, cowrie strings, copper, cowries, wrapped bottle, wrapped sticks, and Haitian têt gridap lamps. Community rattle created with found, gathered, purchased and donated beads and family heirlooms at a community workshop at the MAH.
Transitions between solo, paired, and collective movements are central to Contredanse, a Haitian folkloric dance that creolized French Baroque styles. This ongoing historical entanglement and the balance between self, relationship, and group inspire layered multiplicity of forms, materials, and processes in Na’p balansé (Saved by…).
Created with raw materials from the Central Coast, West Africa, and featuring a community rattle made in workshops at the MAH and other gatherings in Santa Cruz, the work is a site-specific regrouping of African diasporic resonances in the Redwood forests. With both the materials and makers carrying their own origins and entanglements, concentric circles of relations emerge through tending to the discarded and, in deference, awe, and dialogue, with a world that has been harmed. This installation is the final location of Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins & Disentanglements, a multi-sited exhibition also on view at the Institute of Arts and Sciences (100 Panetta Drive, through August 16), The Quarry Amphitheater on the UCSC campus (1156 High St), and Variance Objects in downtown Santa Cruz (1537 Pacific Ave, Suite 101).
Redwoods Rasanblaj
Redwoods Rasanblaj is a site-specific regrouping of African diasporic resonances in the Redwood forests of the Central Coast.
Rasanblaj is a Haitian Creole term coined by the artist in 2014 and defined as assembly, compilation, and/or the enlisting and regrouping of ideas, things, people, and spirits— not necessarily in that order. An organizing principle in Ulysse’s hybrid and experimental art practice, rasanblaj (unlike European-based concepts of assemblage, bricolage, collage, and even pastiche) explicitly recognizes and embraces the spiritual to confront the fragmentation and dismemberment in the long lingering aftermath of colonialism.
Explore the satellite installations:
Redwoods Rasanblaj, 2026
the Institute for Arts & Sciences will host the flagship installation of Redwoods Rasanblaj. Many of the elements were created during formal and informal gatherings through repetitive practices of wrapping, tying, braiding and joining collected, found, purchased and donated materials from here and afar. With both the materials and makers carrying their own origin points and entanglements, concentric circles of relations emerge through tending to the discarded and in deference, awe, and dialogue with a world that has been harmed.
Location:
Institute of Arts & Sciences
100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Hours: 12-5 PM, Wednesday-Sunday
Fèy (Leaf) 2026
Large calabash from Senegal, Small calabash from Haiti, marine ropes, cowries, yarn wrapped bottles, sticks, and Haitian têt gridap lamps, fishing wire and found, gathered, purchased and donated beads in Quarry rattle
“I’m a leaf. Look at me on my branch. A terrible storm came and knocked me off. The day you see me fall is not the day I die…” These are the lyrics of a traditional Vodou folk song that has both religious and political overtones. Sung by the roots music group RAM, it was censored between 1992-1996. The artist imagines the song as a soundtrack to the piece in these redwoods that she reveres.
Location:
The Quarry Amphitheater (Campus)
1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
The work is suspended about 20 feet high between a ring of redwood trees as you enter the quarry from the plaza. It is free and open to the public to visit.
Lamercie’s Variance Residency, 2026
Body calabash from Haiti, head calabash from Benin, sticks and branches, copper, cowries, wrapped bottles, wrapped sticks, and Haitian têt gridap lamps, Jasper and redwoods sticks, and lichens. found, gathered, purchased and donated beads in Variance rattle.
40 x 24 in.
Named after the artist’s grandmother, Lamercie the spider took up residency at Variance Objects after the apocalypse. Safely secured surrounded by beautiful gemstones, minerals and crystals imbued with their metaphysical energies, she recharges. In the future, she balances on clouds.
Location:
Variance Objects
1537 Pacific Ave #101, Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Hours: Wed-Sun, 12-5pm
August 9th Event: Where Are We Going?
Join us for a day-long retreat and reflection with artists Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel and Gina Athena Ulysse. The morning walk, starting at the UC Santa Cruz Quarry, will be a chance to reflect on individual and collective futures together as we move between the nodes of Gina Athena Ulysse’s exhibition Redwoods Rasanblaj: Origins and Disentanglements. After a light lunch, Nicolás and Gina will then be in conversation together at the Institute of Arts and Sciences.
10am-1pm Where Are We Going?
A 6-mile pilgrimage traversing the four locations of Redwoods Rasanblaj from the UCSC Quarry to the Institute of the Arts and Sciences via Variance Objects and the MAH, both in downtown Santa Cruz. Please bring water and sturdy shoes and meet at the UCSC Quarry at 10am. Participants are also welcome to join at the MAH at approximately 11:30am.
1pm-2pm Lunch
A light lunch will be provided for people who plan to join for both the walk and the conversation. RSVP below.
2pm-3:30pm It Was Never Meant To Be Secular
A conversation at the IAS galleries between Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful Espejo Ovalles Morel and Gina Athena Ulysse.
About The Artist
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