The two individuals behind the SCUBA persona are artists Crockett Bodelson and Sandra Wang. The collaborative team also contributed work and vision to the Meow Wolf phenomenon in Santa Fe. During their residency at Tamarind in 2015, they worked together on plates and stones to produce a number of exuberant images of figures at play. Their vision for play includes the idea of a monumental jump rope, big enough to accommodate a hundred participants.

We thought sports and games were apt ways of expressing a range of relationship dynamics through dramatic body language. Our idea for Now Serving references our small paintings of “collectives,” groups of characters, limbs entangled, coexisting in fluctuating states of stability and unity. The Wrestlers (Crossing Over) portray more personal dynamics. They were fun to illustrate because we were working with a bunch of cut out paper figures. Together, we decided which pair told a unique story. Jump is interesting because the figures are more inscrutable. You’re not sure if their raised arms are celebratory, or a cry for help over their impossible endeavor to play a monumental game of jump rope. Whatever they are, we’re rooting for them.

-Sandra Wang