Cabalgata was born from a shared desire to explore storytelling beyond traditional narrative. When our friend Britton Callioutte approached us with his new film project, we were immediately drawn to the way he was reimagining history through image and atmosphere.
The film, Cabalgata, is inspired by the legacy of Joaquin Murieta, a figure of legend and resistance whose story continues to resonate across generations. Every year, for the past forty years, Mexican Americans in California’s San Joaquin Valley ride on horseback for three days to advocate for farmworker rights and honor Murieta’s memory. Filmed in stark black and white against an industrial backdrop, the film places Western myth along- side contemporary struggle, inviting us to question whose stories are remembered, and how.
This exhibition allowed us to collaborate across mediums (sculpture, neon, pho-tography), building an immersive environment. A key piece, Historical Landmark 344, takes its name from a real California marker and speaks to the fractured way history is often told.
Throughout the years, Britton and I have often talked about filmmaking as a poetic act, one guided more by feeling, rhythm, and atmosphere than by linear narrative. Cabalgata became an opportunity to bring that vi- sion to life. With the support of Adler Smith Gallery, we were able to extend the language of the film into the physical world, creating a space where friends, neighbors, and strangers could gather and reflect on the com- plexity of memory, myth, and place.
