share your 2020 experience with

the capsule

Get Involved

Concept

What is Capsule

Capsule is a large-scale, interactive sculpture made by artists Christian Ristow and Christina Sporrong. Unveiled in July, the artwork will be on view throughout summer and fall in the village of Arroyo Seco in Taos County New Mexico. Conceived as a response to the unrest of 2020, viewers are invited to contribute their written thoughts and prayers that will later be set ablaze as part of the sculpture’s mechanical and philosophical transformation. Organized and funded by two local arts organizations, Seco Live and Paseo Project, Capsule kicks off an ongoing program of rotating outdoor art installations.

Meet The Artists

Christian RIstow

Christina Sporrong

Christian Ristow has been building mechanical art since he was a child. After opting out early from a career in architecture, he became involved in his 20's with the underground robot performance-art scene in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the amazing world of Burning Man. A decade working in film special effects in Southern California rounded out his formative influences.

Upon moving to New Mexico in 2005, Ristow shifted his focus to large-scale interactive sculpture. These works have been showcased at arts and cultural events on four of the world’s continents.

While large kinetic sculpture remains Ristow’s lifelong focus, the scope of his artistic output has recently enlarged to include smaller-scale sculpture, traditional figurative clay sculpture, and oil painting.

Ristow lives with his family in Taos, New Mexico.

Christina Sporrong is a metal sculptor who uses fire, kinetics, and performance to provoke an interaction with her work. Sporrong has a cadre of large-scale sculptures that visit festivals across the globe.

She has worked in the blacksmithing trade for decades and founded her own commercial shop, Spitfire Forge in 1996. She teaches Women’s Welding Workshops as a means to empower women and de-mystify the process of working with metal, as well as teaches welding through UNM Taos.

Her latest piece is the Flybrary, a 40Ft tall steel head with book-like birds coming out of the open top. Within the contemplative and expressive head is a multi-level library filled with timely and socially relevant books for the public to enjoy. The piece was featured at Burning Man in 2019.

Sporrong currently lives with her family on the mesa in Taos, NM