Portfolio

A temporary art installation celebrating life in the Santa Cruz River, past, present & future Artists: Maxie Adler & Kimi Eisele Landing Place features handmade, decorative windsocks to celebrate plants and animals that have returned to the river with the introduction of reclaimed water to the “Heritage Reach” through downtown Tucson. Windsocks are traditionally used to indicate wind direction, speed, and landing sites in industrial or aviation contexts. This installation uses windsocks to magnify life in the Santa Cruz River, a site of layered ecological and human history and the very reason Tucson exists. Loosely inspired by Japanese koinobori and Tibetan prayer flags, the installation … Read more

Digital prints on paper, 2023 This series celebrates the creative and adaptive strategies used by Sonoran Desert creatures to survive and thrive in a land of little rain and was commissioned by the US Water Alliance for the One Water Summit, held in Tucson, Nov. 14-16, 2023. I borrowed styles and design elements from traditions in paper cutting, one of my favorite forms, but created the portraits digitally, hand-drawn on an iPad. This is by no means an exhaustive collection—there are many more desert creatures and plants with adaptations to celebrate, and I hope to create more soon! The sample here offers a starting place … Read more

For over a decade–and still now, from time to time–I practiced compositional improvisation, a body-based form of collective making in an ensemble. With roots in jazz and the avant-garde work of the Judson Dance Theater in the mid-20th century, it emerged as a form opposed to the rigid structures of pre-determined choreography and sought to respond to the moment, in the moment. Participants show up, pay attention, tell the truth, and stay open to outcome while creating ephemeral dance pieces with no pre-planning. The only stated parameters are time and space. The work sometimes incorporates text, spoken extemporaneously, and is usually done in collaboration with … Read more

May 2020 Tucson, AZ Watercolors celebrating essential workers of the Sonoran Desert and the coronavirus pandemic. These paintings first appeared in ANTI/body, a site-specific collaboration between the University of Arizona’s Art+Feminism Collective and artist Natalie Brewster Nguyen, involving installation events in multiple locations around Tucson. The installations were viewable from a distance, on foot, or via car and bike. All were accompanied by a soundtrack.

CREATOR | PERFORMER A dance-theatre production exploring the forests of the sky islands through dance, sound, text, and shadow. 2018 with Vicki Brown “The Forest Is the Moon in Slivers” was a theatrical dance production of a work-in-progress presented on Dec. 30, 2018 at the Scoundrel and Scamp Theatre by myself and musician Vicki Brown. It incorporated the following elements: The performance lasted ~45 minutes, followed by Q/A and conversation, and hot cocoa. Special thanks to the Arts Foundation of Tucson and Southern Arizona for supporting this work via a New Works grant and to Scoundrel & Scamp Theatre for hosting it. Stills from video by … Read more

CREATOR/PERFORMER A video/performance at the border wall, 2019/2020 in collaboration with Julius Schlosburg PART 1: Sentient: adj., able to perceive or feel things  In late September 2019, I organized a group of human animals to bring attention to new construction of border wall, just south of Lukeville, Arizona and east of Sonoyta, Mexico. The wall is a project of the Trump administration. On the US side of this section of wall is Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, a federally protected wilderness area and a UNESCO-recognized international biosphere reserve. The administration has waived state and federal laws—including the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act—to … Read more

ARTIST, COLLABORATOR | 2018 | with SONORAN INSTITUTE & PIMA COUNTY OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY & CONSERVATION A public art installation celebrating the endangered Gila topminnow and its return to the Santa Cruz River. In collaboration with the Sonoran Institute and the Pima County Office of Sustainability In late 2017, the Gila topminnow, a tiny Sonoran Desert native fish, was discovered in the flowing stretch of the river in Tucson after a 70-year absence. Since the 1970s, the release of highly treated wastewater (effluent) has created a flowing river and a green riparian corridor extending over 20 miles. This habitat was enhanced in 2013 when Pima County … Read more

DIRECTOR & PERFORMER | 2016 | Saguaro National Park A 3-act performance project using innovative storytelling, public engagement and theater/dance performance to celebrate natural and cultural significance of the saguaro cactus, keystone species of the Sonoran Desert. Presented by Borderlands Theater and anchored in Saguaro National Park, it was part of the 2016 commemoration of the National Park Service’s Centennial. ACT I was a public campaign to befriend, celebrate, and connect with the cactus. Over 250 people stood (or sat) for up to an hour with a saguaro cactus in intimate individualized performances/meditations and shared their experiences and “saguaro selfies” online using #IStandWithSaguaros. ACT II gathered stories … Read more

DIRECTOR, PERFORMER | 2017 | with GREG COLBURN & VICKI BROWN An interactive installation/performance of light, shadow, human-animalism & forest. A sensual re-enactment of “forest.” A moment of suspension, to let the anger and the ugly and the nonsensical float away. To root in something else. To play with the shadows instead of hide from them. To listen with the eyes. To smell with the hands. To call in beauty. In healthy forests trees will nourish the older and weaker and ill trees. Because a tree is not a forest. Because a forest needs all of its members in order to create the conditions for … Read more

I’ve moved my artwork site to www.KimiEiseleArtwork.com. View my original papercuttings (and purchase originals, prints, and notecards) there!