Low flier: 'Flight Through Time' will have multiple lowrider-inspired airplanes cruising through the air at Sunport

As with a mosaic, the pieces had to be in the right place.

Despite taking years, a new project at the Albuquerque International Sunport is about to take flight.

Low flier: 'Flight Through Time' will have multiple lowrider-inspired airplanes cruising through the air at Sunport

On Saturday, Mayor Tim Keller and city officials announced four public art instillations that will make up the Sunport Reimagined city project. City officials said works will start to be installed in the Sunport this summer.

“Flight Through Time” is one of the projects selected by the Albuquerque Arts Board for the Sunport. The masterminds behind the project are Steve Mora, Joseph “Blast” Leyba, Rob Vanderslice, Dacia Vanderslice, Sandy Johnson, Max Baptiste and Vicente Griego. The group went through a more than a year process for the project.

When the call for “Flight Through Time” entries closed, there were 185 proposals. It got whittled down to 17 and then five, before one dropped out. The group was approved by the Albuquerque Arts Board on Jan. 15.

According to the conceptual design, “Flight Through Time” will have multiple lowrider-inspired airplanes cruising through the air. The suspended installation will capture the essence of movement, pride and cultural identity.

The group — each involved in New Mexico’s lowrider culture — said the project is heavily inspired by New Mexico’s rich artistic heritage and its decades-spanning lowrider culture.

“ Hearing that the city was doing this project and allotting space at the Sunport to do this was something I was very interested in doing,” said Rob Vanderslice. “It’s a blessing that we’re here. This time it was meant to happen.”

Rob Vanderslice has worked on lowriders for nearly 40 years.

Baptiste said the original concept for the project was to represent flight. Then Leyba said something about building a lowrider airplane.

“Each one of us brought something to the project,” Baptiste said. “It’s the truth when we say that it took all of the right pieces to come together. We’re going to be creating something that is full of New Mexico culture and we’re going to put it on display for the world to see.”

There’s more to lowriders than just the beautifully painted vehicles.

“It’s a community,” Rob Vanderslice said. “It’s a commitment … to roots, culture and family. It’s about heart and soul.”

Though Rob Vanderslice has worked on many big projects during his career, “Flight Through Time” is different.

It’s been a journey for the entire lowrider community to be seen in the mainstream — as a viable art medium.

“Life in general has been a build up of hitting rock bottom and doing one thing at a time to get back up,” Rob Vanderslice said. “This will be a legacy. What we are doing isn’t a simple task.”

The project proposal consists of many pieces — a full-scale airplane as the centerpiece with a handful of model airplanes to accompany it.

The team is grateful that the city picked the project.

Baptiste said Rob Vanderslice recently appeared on “60 Minutes,” which did a piece on lowriding in New Mexico.

“The art form is moving beyond the stigma,” Baptiste said. “It’s about artists and art.”

Mora said it’s exciting for the state and Sunport to get behind the New Mexico he grew up in.

“Seeing a lowrider airplane in the city that I was born and raised in is special,” Mora said. “To be able to be part of the process has left me speechless.”

Dacia Vanderslice, who works alongside her father, said the most impactful thing for her to see is lowriding and its culture breaking so many boundaries.

“It’s something the community has been chipping away at,” she said. “There’s always been this art and culture in New Mexico’s backyard. I think this project is helping to revive life, all while highlighting New Mexico’s culture. Being able to stand behind that, that’s what New Mexico is about. This is who we are.”

Leyba is an artist who works with graffiti and on vehicles.

In the last year, he was selected by the Albuquerque Isotopes to paint a mural inside the stadium.

While all his projects hold a special place to him, the Sunport project takes it up another level.

“People are finally taking notice,” Leyba said. “This is how culture comes back to community.”

The city set out to purchase and commission works created by New Mexican artists from across many communities, from the city of Albuquerque to the tribes and pueblos, and the various reaches of our state, according to Manny Manriquez, deputy director of Aviation for Innovation and Commercial Development at the city of Albuquerque.

“Our request for (Sunport Reimagined) interest garnered 384 responses, which truly impressed us,” he said. “But ultimately what we were most impressed with was the remarkable quality of the proposals our semifinalists and finalists submitted.”

The city selected the awardees for the $3.25 million Sunport Reimagined arts project, city officials will have the privilege of working closely with the artists and artist teams to bring their visions to life.

“About 5 million visitors and residents each year will see these works as they come through the Sunport,” Manriquez said. “What better way to celebrate our unique culture and the creative talents of our beloved artists than to showcase these works at a time when we’re actively reimagining the entire passenger experience at the Gateway of New Mexico.”