Vpa 302 Broadening

Experimental Art Project Progress: Life-Cycles VPA 302

Cal State University San Marcos Stephanie Williams

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Pagnes, A., & Stenke, V. (2013). Antarctic dream - Ice as architectures of the human spirit. Performance Research, 18(6), 71-80.

Topic: Performance Art, Nature, Ice Antarctic Dream is about two performance artists who embarked on a journey to the Antarctic to study for the cultural programme of the DNA Argentine’s National Antarctic Direction. The artists, Andrea Pagnes and Verena Stenke, were inspired by the philosophical teachings of Peter Sloterdjik based on the study of spheres. Pagnes and Stenke were exploring the media of filmmaking through a series of live performances which they called sin∞fin - The Movie.

They embarked on their final episode of sin*fin The Movie on an Antarctic trip to document human behavior on the vast open glacial desert. The first three days on their journey, the artists explored the climate and allowed their bodies to acclimate to their surroundings. Through their explorations of human nature, the body, and open white glaciers the artist's observed, “we finally found ourselves creatures being torn between life and death, between the absence and misleading mirages,” (p. 72).

Pagnes and Stenke sought to study the spherical nature of the Antarctic glaciers. With daily observance of vast openness, blinding white and brightest blues, the performance artists states that the spherical nature of the Arctic begins with the whiteness and ends only in death. Glaciers have been around before people, and will remain after. They store history of the Earth since the beginning of time. Pagnes and Stenke use their creative minds to study the nature of ice and humans. They come to the conclusion that the Arctics are not meant for human interruption. These ecosystems have a way of self sustaining without any interference. Glacier water is the freshest water on Earth, and perhaps that is because it is still protected from the invasion of humanity.

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Here is a link to view a trailer for sin∞fin The Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYZCUmM02NI Images from sin∞fin Antarctica

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research

Pagnes, A., & Stenke, V. (2013). Antarctic dream - Ice as architectures of the human spirit. Performance Research, 18(6), 71-80.

Write reflection (connection seeking)

 After we created our mind-maps in the library and added onto our table member's mind-maps, I had several new insights to different media I would like to experiment with. I love to incorporate nature within my creative process, and I want to experiment with ice. On the library database I searched for artists who work with ice. I came across this article, and I was drawn to the artist's use of nature working with glacier ice and the human body. The connections Pagnes and Stenke made as human creatures being torn between life and death was a beautiful metaphor for the circle of life within nature. These performance artists were able to find a balance while exploring live art sequences on uneven spherical glacial landscapes. I love the observation they made that “Antarctica is a place where humans have neither roots nor a future, but only a frail and temporary presence that is always at risk,� (p. 72). In class the other day we discussed that there is the past and there is the future, but there is not really a presence because the presence is going by at such an accelerated rate. I think that experimenting with materials such as the melting of ice connects to lifecycles that are there and then they are gone.

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Rugg, J. (2001). Regeneration and reparation: Death, loss & absence in Anya Gallaccio’s Intensities & Surfaces and Forest Floor. Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, 4150.

Topic: Installation Nature Art, Life Cycles

Anya Gallaccio creates installations that represent presence, time, absence, death, ‘vulnerability’ of ‘femininity’, and questioning the ‘appropriate’ spaces for art in their deviating effects. Gallacio’s Forest Floor and Intensities & Surfaces both have metaphoric references to presence, absence, and space. When creating Forest Floor, Gallaccio placed a floral carpet over the bottom of a forest floor. This act reflected upon the vulnerability of femininity as women are generalized to be the house cleaner, the one cleaning the rug and the rug is being placed on a dirty forest floor. Over time the nature of the forest started to take over the space of the carpet, eventually completely covering the carpet until it is invisible.

Intensities & Surfaces was created in a large abandoned warehouse of large ice block cubes with salt added in between to slow the melting process. This installation melted slowly over three months time, representing the loss of beauty and the loss of life. The use of ice blocks within her art is a sign of masculinity in form. In the beginning, Intensities & Surfaces is a large clean beautiful sculptural ice block sitting in a bare space of an abandoned building.

This is provocative, as the art is not generally meant to be in this space. As the ice melts it glistens in the sun's reflection showing the water that is being left behind. The melting of the ice is the loss of structure, the loss of body, the loss of life. Gallaccio’s floral installations have to do with the cycles of life and death as they slowly disintegrate over time. The use of flowers within her art such as Red on Green (an installation of hundreds of roses filling up a floor of a museum room) is a sign of femininity with beauty fading while aging. Women pressured to be perfect in form such as a beautiful young flower.

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Images of Gallaccio’s Forest Floor

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Images of Gallaccio’s Intensities & Surfaces

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Images of Gallaccio’s Red on Green

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Rugg, J. (2001). Regeneration and reparation: Death, loss & absence in Anya Gallaccio’s Intensities & Surfaces and Forest Floor. Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, 4150.

Write reflection (connection seeking) After I determined that I wanted to experiment with ice and nature in some way for my next project, I looked up artists who work with ice and nature. I came across a small sculptural nature piece that Andy Goldsworth created.

Goldsworthy has been inspirational to me with his nature work pieces. I looked up more about Goldsworthy, and I came across Anaya Gallaccio and her ice sculptural piece Intensities & Surfaces. Gallaccio’s work Intensities & Surfaces really inspired me in form and nature. In our library research database I looked up Gallaccio to find more information about her. In the article Regeneration or Reparation: Death, Loss & Absence, Gallacio’s Intensities & Surfaces and Forest Floor are analyzed in their representations to presence, absence, life and death. I like the representation of being here, and slowly fading away within natural processes such as melting, disappearing, or disintegrating. I think that life cycles have a relation in everything we do, as there is always a beginning and an end with in many cases the end being no more. In addition to the article I found on Gallaccio, I found three books which I requested through interlibrary loan to look more into her works.

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Colmono, M. (2016 November, 12). Pipeline - 19 - Blued Trees - Revised.

YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbJKUI9S_w&t=317s

Topic: Ecological Art, Activism

Aviva Rahmani is an ecological artist and activist. Rahmani explains that as an ecological artist she looks at degraded systems, analyzes them, and designs systems based on aesthetic principles. Rahmani started a project called The Blued Trees, an environmental art which was meant to prevent the algonquin incremental pipelines from being implemented. If an art is installed on a public landsight and is copyright protected, it is harder for the government to come in and make decisions on that land. Often the cost of the art will have to be determined within decision making, and there is a greater process to gain access to land with copyright protected artworks. The Blued Trees are painted in a sequence of a symphony with musical notes that are in tune with natural gasses. The trees are painted with a non-toxic ultramarine blue and buttermilk which will create a slight moss. Each painted tree becomes what Rahmani calls a tree note in the symphony. Rahmani says this is not a sight specific work, it is a biogeographical sculpture that connects with an entire geographical connection that can’t be removed. While painting the blued trees, Rahmani connects with families in the community who are participants in this ecological art process in attempts to save their lands from being invaded with pipeline. Parents and children work together painting the trees in the form of nature’s symphony notes created by Rahmani.

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Images of The Blues Trees

1. Broadening Follow Up: Artist Research Colmono, M. (2016 November, 12). Pipeline - 19 - Blued Trees - Revised.

YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbJKUI9S_w&t=317s Write reflection (connection seeking) When I met with my art adviser Kristen Moss, one of the artists she informed me about was Aviva Rahmani. I told Kristen that one of my passions is connecting with environmental issues and humans within communities.

Kristen told me about The Blued Trees project, and she later sent me a web article about Rahmani. I wanted to learn more about Rahmani after reading the article about The Blued Trees, because I was so intrigued to find that Rhamani is an ecological artist and activist. I found this video on YouTube which shows members of the community coming together to paint the musical blue notes onto the trees. Art that works to circumvent governmental activities is super powerful. I love that Rahmani and other activist artists are able to use their art as a form of political activism.

2. Practice Surrounding Last Friday I went to volunteer time at ECOLIFE Conservation in Escondido. At ECOLIFE we plant seeds and grow plants in ECO-Cycle systems using aquaponics in two large greenrooms. The plants that are grown are donated to local food banks. Planting seeds and harvesting the plants is peaceful and rewarding knowing that the work we put in is for a cause to help others. After I was done volunteering time, I took a long walk and enjoyed the beauty of the day.

I took these pictures of the small fish tank aquaponic system I worked on Friday.

I walked from the ECOLIFE office down a walking path past the new hospital down to Stone Brewery. At the Stone Brewery there is a beatiful garden area with flowing water and many places to sit. I found a quiet spot on a bench near a small flowing water fountain. While sitting out in the beautiful garden, I pulled out a few art books from my bag which I checked out through inter-library loan.

I focused on the artwork created by Anaya Gallaccio, and El Anatsui as I looked through the books. I thought about process that goes into creating along with what the art communicates to others.

2. Practice Surrounding

I took some pictures of the landscape on my walk. I love the view of the mountains in the background.

When I view most of Gallaccio’s work, I feel that her work relates to lifecycles as she creates things that will deteriorate over time in front of the viewers.

Whether its fruit hanging from ropes, flowers pinned between glass, hundreds of candles burning and melting down to wax, or large ice blocks slowly melting down to water, each of Gallaccio’s installations goes through a cycle and changes its presence over time.

2. Practice Surrounding El Anatusi creates his installation pieces out of left over found objects such as metals and caps.

Anatsui’s work brings the old and used back to life in a new way. The nature of Anatusui’s work is based on recycling materials. I love to represent the environment in ways such as preserving the earth and reusing materials. Gallaccio and Anatsui both have a beautiful way of connecting with the media they use. While I was broadening my knowledge of these two artists, I had nothing else distracting me in this quiet little spot.

Last week I cut out two wooden cuts that I want to use as part of my final piece. The pieces I cut are part of a design I created for the structure I am building. After I took them home I kept looking at them feeling like something was off from my design.

While I was sitting out in nature I drew out my design plan again, and I realized that the pieces i cut were meant to be rounded all the way in a bowl type shape and I cut them in more of a rectangle block shape. I need to go into the shop this week to work on rounding out these two cuts. I really enjoyed this study session being out in nature, and I plan to do this more often.

2. Practice Surrounding

On Monday afternoon, I went by my Spanish professor’s office to discuss with her my ideas within my experimental art. Professor Toledo-Yildiz is also one of my neighbors, and I have known her for years. I mentioned that I want to work with the melting of ice to express the passing of time and connect with how quickly ice melts as a reference to global warming. Professor ToledoYildiz loved my idea of connecting with time and using ice. She mentioned that if I boil the water before I freeze it then the ice will come out more clear like. Boiling the water may not work for my experimentation, as I am freezing slowly in layers and using some salt mixed within. I feel that this meeting was really successful, because its good to gain feedback from someone you know and connects with what you are trying to communicate.

3. Brainstorming

I think that time and life-cycles could come together within my experimental project in the process of the ice melting. The ice melts, and turns into water. Eventually the ice is no more. The audience gets to experience the presence of the ice, and afterwards it can only be experienced through photo and story.

3. Brainstorming

I am still broadening on the topic of time. I feel like time is what surrounds everything in life, and there are so many things I can branch off of this topic.

4. Project Progress Documentation

This is the design for the first layer of my next experimental nature sculpture.

4. Project Progress Documentation After the second layer froze, I added the rope which is supposed to freeze in the middle. The rope is for hanging the piece once it is done.

This is the second layer in my next practice piece.

4. Project Progress Documentation On the top outer layer I froze a small branch cut from a bush I walk by everyday. I wanted this part to be slightly frozen and popping out of the ice.

After the rope froze through the middle, I added this third layer with a rock design.

4. Project Progress Documentation

Last week I began to cut two pieces that are incorporated in the design I want to build for my final piece. I used the table saw at a slight angle to get the desired cut.

The cut I want to make is a curved inside bowl type cut. Judy helped me in the woodshop. Neither of us had completed a curved cut before, so we watched a few video tutorials before we attempted the cut.

4. Project Progress Documentation After I cut the two pieces last week. I realized that they weren’t matching the design I drew out. The pieces were square on the outside and they needed to be rounded out like a bowl type shape.

Here I am shaving the edges of the piece I cut with an adjustable block plane wood shaver. This is going to take some time, but eventually it will be rounded like the design I created.