Fourth Person Singular

Low steel-legged tables stand in rows, each topped with white sheets and small mounds and rivulets of tan adobe, like land seen from far above. Behind them, a wall of hand-dyed paper glows in faded violet and rose.
A close-up of Christine’s work Fourth Person Singular, where rough, earth-toned clay forms meet a delicate black grid and sweeping golden-brown pigment. The contrasting textures create a quiet dialogue between organic materials, geometric structure, and the natural world.
Title
Fourth Person Singular
Artist
Christine Howard Sandoval
Date
2025
Description
Mounds and rivulets of adobe spread across sheets of paper laid in archival flat files, made by Christine Howard Sandoval, a member of the Chalon Indian Nation. Set out like an archive, the earth asks what records of land and memory can hold. Shown in Weather and the Whale at the Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, alongside her The First Color Is Red.
Artwork Type
Installation
Sculpture
Materiality
Clay / Earth
Soil
Paper
Climate & Ecology Themes
Indigenous Knowledge and Sovereignty
Land Stewardship and Conservation
Concepts
Colonialism and Decolonization
Memory and History
Place and Belonging
Methods & Approaches
Archival Research
Audience / Engagement Type
Public / General Audience
Location
Institute of the Arts and Sciences, 100 Panetta Ave, Santa Cruz, California
Geographic Scope
International / Global
Rights
Rights held by artist or creator
Website
Parrasch Heijnen Gallery
Encounters with Colonial Archives
Affiliated Organizations
The First Color Is Red
Weather and the Whale
UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences
Discipline / Field
Arts & Design
Item sets
California Art & Climate Archive
UC Santa Cruz
Media
Low steel-legged tables stand in rows, each topped with white sheets and small mounds and rivulets of tan adobe, like land seen from far above. Behind them, a wall of hand-dyed paper glows in faded violet and rose.Christine Howard Sandoval, Fourth Person Singular
A close-up of Christine’s work Fourth Person Singular, where rough, earth-toned clay forms meet a delicate black grid and sweeping golden-brown pigment. The contrasting textures create a quiet dialogue between organic materials, geometric structure, and the natural world.Christine Howard Sandoval, Fourth Person Singular 2