The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit

The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit JANUARY 17–MARCH 11, 2020 A BIG IDEA PROJECT

MUSEUM 191 Fifth Street East, Ketchum, Idaho Mon–Fri, 9am–5pm Sats in Feb & Mar, 11am–5pm HAILEY CLASSROOM 314 Second Ave South, Hailey Scheduled Class Times LIBERTY THEATRE 110 N. Main Street, Hailey, Idaho 208.578.9122 SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART P.O. Box 656, Sun Valley, ID 83353 208.726.9491 • svmoa.org

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COVER: William Lamson, Solarium, 2012, digital Chromogenic print, courtesy the artist; site specific installation at Storm King Art Center BACK PANEL: Richard Barnes, Unabomber Cabin, Exhibit D and Unabomber Cabin, Exhibit A, 1998, silver gelatin prints, collection of Jeanne Meyers, images courtesy the artist INTRODUCTION PANEL, LEFT TO RIGHT: Claire Sherman, Trees, 2016, oil on canvas, courtesy the artist and DC Moore Gallery, New York Lesley Dill, Poem Suit (Beige), 2006, fabric and thread, Jeri L. Wolfson Collection INTERIOR, RIGHT TO LEFT: Spencer Finch, Walden (surface/depth), 2013, rope, cloth, twine, 298 watercolors on watercolor paper, courtesy the artist and James Cohan, New York Jane D. Marsching, Ice Out at Walden 3, 2010, collograph, drypoint, Japanese woodblock, digital print, courtesy the artist

he mid-19th century in the United States saw the emergence of Transcendentalism, a movement of progressive thinkers who advocated for a new understanding of the relationship between the individual, the divine and the natural world. Ralph Waldo ­Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller, among others, came together in a shared belief in a variety of humanitarian causes (women’s suffrage, abolition, p ­ rogressive education) but also religious purpose. Transcendentalism advocated for a personal ­knowledge of God based in a rejection of materialism in favor of a spiritual experience of nature. The movement was centered in Concord, Massachusetts, where Thoreau famously spent a year living in a small, spare cabin on Walden Pond, focusing on the spiritual rewards of a life lived in harmony with nature.

This BIG IDEA project asks what lessons Transcendentalism offers us today. It proposes the notion that Transcendentalism’s retreat from the material in favor of a spiritual or divine encounter with nature is an idea that continues to resonate.

The Bottomlessness of a Pond: Transcendentalism, Nature and Spirit JANUARY 17–MARCH 11, 2020 A BIG IDEA PROJECT OF SUN VALLEY MUSEUM OF ART VISUAL ARTS The exhibition includes work by six contemporary ­artists responding to Trancendentalism and its legacy.

Richard Barnes has made a series of photographs of the Montana cabin once inhabited by Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), now kept in an FBI storage locker. Four present the cabin floating against a black background, like evidence. Kaczynski’s cabin, modeled on Thoreau’s, offers an extreme interpretation of Transcendentalist ideas.

Sculptures and collages by Lesley Dill include fragments of text from the poetry of Emily Dickinson and writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne, both affiliated with Transcendentalism while never fully embracing it.

Spencer Finch made the sculpture Walden (surface/depth) after learning about Thoreau’s 1846 survey of Walden Pond. Finch performed that survey again, creating a sculptural record of his project that consists of the 120-foot-long rope he used for his ­survey along with watercolor swatches he made at each sounding.

In 2014, the deCordova Museum commissioned William Lamson to make the film In the Roaring Garden, which he filmed using a floating camera obscura inside a 1:5 scale model of Thoreau’s cabin. The exhibition also includes photographs of Lamson’s Solarium, a structure similar to Thoreau’s cabin.

Jane Marsching made the prints in Ice Out at Walden in response to Thoreau’s notation of the day the winter ice cover disappeared at Walden Pond each year. Marsching’s prints use marks to pair ­Thoreau’s notes in his 1847 weather almanac with measurements collected from a contemporary ­Concord weather ­station.

Claire Sherman is known for large-scale paintings that envelop viewers in the natural world, placing them in tangles of dense tree branches or vines. Her dynamic and richly painted images celebrate nature as a place to escape the material world.

EVENING EXHIBITION TOURS Thu, Feb 13, and Thu, Mar 5, 5:30pm FREE at The Museum, Ketchum Enjoy a glass of wine as you tour the exhibition with The Museum’s curators.

GALLERY WALK Fri, Feb 14, 5–7pm FREE at The Museum, Ketchum

CLASSES A WINTER WALK WITH MATT GREEN Sat, Jan 18, 10am Meet at The Museum, Ketchum $15 / $17 nonmembers (includes $5 snowshoe pass) Matt Green, the subject of the film The World Before Your Feet, has undertaken a Thoreau-esque task: walking all the streets and alleys in New York’s five boroughs. Join Matt for a winter snowshoe walk in the woods, followed by an optional no-host gathering at Galena Lodge. Please bring snowshoes and any food, drink, and clothing you’ll need.

CREATIVE JUMP-IN: ON BEING THOREAU WITH TIM PRICE Wed, Jan 22, 29, Feb 5 & 12, 6–7:30pm The Museum, Ketchum $40 / $50 nonmembers In Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking,” written near the end of his life, he admits that, despite what many of us may like to think of him, he had, “with regard to Nature,” only “led a sort of border life.” This was true for him even at Walden Pond, the site of his great transcendental experiment. As we spend four weeks in study of Thoreau’s Walden, surveying its literary and philosophical “depth,” we will, too, likely fall a bit short of truly understanding what it means to be “transcendental.” Yet we will try.

Tim Price has written and presented extensively on the roots of the American public education system, including how the Transcendentalists have influenced it since the 19th-century.

CREATIVE JUMP-IN: DIVING DEEP INTO WINTER BLUES: HEALING THROUGH NATURE WITH CAL MILLAR Thu, Jan 23, 6–8:30pm Hailey Classroom $40 / $50 nonmembers Cal Millar will share her knowledge of the power of the winter water element, one of Chinese medicine’s five elements of nature. Using mixed media and the winter color palette, students will create art that empowers their own healing reservoirs.

Cal Millar works as a licensed acupuncturist, designing treatments based on the rhythms of the natural world.

TEEN WORKSHOP: LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY WITH A TWIST WITH WENDEL WIRTH Sat, Jan 25, 9am–12pm Hailey Classroom $10, registration required Teens are invited to study landscape photography with photographer Wendel Wirth. The class begins with a brief history of photography and consideration of a landscape photograph. Students will venture out into the neighborhood to photograph landscapes using a smartphone, leaving the workshop with 1–3 prints. (For kids in grades 6–12.)

Teen workshops are generously sponsored by Joyce B. Friedman, and scholarships are available through the support of the Crisis Hotline.

FREE FAMILY DAY: NATURE PLAY Sat, Jan 25, 11am–4pm The Museum, Ketchum This activity-packed afternoon will focus on the rewards of a life lived in harmony with nature. Families can drop in anytime between 11am and 4pm to enjoy live music, participate in story time, engage in printmaking from nature and more.

CREATIVE JUMP-IN: FINDING THE TRANSCENDENTAL IN STILL LIFE PAINTING WITH SARAH BIRD Mon–Fri, Feb 10–14, 9am–1pm Sawtooth Botanical Garden $250 / $300 nonmembers Explore the intersection of 19th-century oil ­painting techniques with 19th-century American ­transcendental philosophy. Class participants will read excerpts from the Transcendentalists and apply their close observation of nature to creating plant-focused still life paintings. A comfort with oil painting will be an asset, as the techniques are advanced, but all painters are welcome.

Sarah Bird was raised in Concord, Massachusetts, just down the road from Walden Pond, and studied oil painting at the Grand Central Atelier in New York.

CREATIVE JUMP-IN: SELF-CARE WORKSHOP: GREEN STUDIO WITH JORDYN DOOLEY Sat, Mar 7, 10am–2pm Sawtooth Botanical Garden $12 / $15 nonmembers, registration required Discover how the combined power of art-making and interacting with nature can increase your well-being.

Art therapist Jordyn Dooley will facilitate therapeutic art-making using natural materials. Workshop participants will reconnect with the Earth through mindful techniques.

This event is co-presented with the Sawtooth Botanical Garden.

FILM THE WORLD BEFORE YOUR FEET Thu, Jan 16, 4:30pm and 7pm Magic Lantern Cinemas, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmember There are 8,000 miles of roads and paths in New York City, and for the past six years Matt Green, a modern day Thoreau who gave up his job and apartment, has been walking them all—­every street, park, cemetery, beach, and bridge. The film is a tribute to an endlessly fascinating city and the freedom to be found in simply taking a walk.

FIVE SEASONS: THE GARDENS OF PIET OUDOLF Thu, Mar 5, 4:30 and 7pm Magic Lantern Cinemas, Ketchum $10 / $12 nonmember Five Seasons immerses viewers in landscape architect Piet Oudolf’s work and takes us inside his creative process, from his beautifully abstract sketches, to theories on beauty, to the ecological implications of his ideas. Intimate discussions take place in Piet’s own gardens at ­Hummelo, and on visits to his public works around the world.

LECTURE AN EVENING WITH CHERYL STRAYED Thu, Jan 30, 6:30pm Church of the Big Wood, Ketchum SOLD OUT Cheryl Strayed is the author of the #1 New York Times best-selling memoir Wild. At age 22, Strayed found herself shattered by two major life events: her mother’s sudden death from cancer and the end of her young marriage.

After hitting rock bottom, Strayed decided to confront her emotional pain by trekking over 1,000 miles along the Pacific Crest Trail, a personal journey of a transcendental nature.

This lecture is presented in partnership with The Community Library and is generously ­supported by an anonymous gift.

PERFORMING ARTS

TAIMANE – “ELEMENTAL” TOUR Sun, Jan 26, 7:30pm The Argyros, Ketchum Born and raised in Hawaii and of hapa Samoan ­descent, Taimane was discovered by the ­legendary Don Ho when she was 13. She is renowned for her pyrotechnics on the ukulele and her prowess in ­using music and movement to paint vibrant images.

Taimane’s performance will also feature a Polynesian dancer.

REHEARSED READINGS: THE NIGHT THOREAU SPENT IN JAIL

BY JEROME LAWRENCE & ROBERT E. LEE Thu, Jan 23, 7pm Liberty Theatre, Hailey FREE ($10 suggested donation) In 1846, Thoreau spent a night in jail after refusing to pay taxes that would support the US war against Mexico, which inspired his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience.” This essay serves as the inspiration for Lee and Lawrence’s fictionalized account of the that single night in jail, giving us insight into ­Thoreau’s world view and his thoughts on nature and civil ­disobedience.

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS

BY CHERYL STRAYED Sat, Feb 1, 7pm, and Sun, Feb 2, 3pm Liberty Theatre, Hailey FREE ($10 suggested donation) The uplifting and richly funny Tiny Beautiful Things is based on the best-selling book by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild.