So, the cycle completes. I come to America for the Land Arts of the American West Program. Spend 2 weeks preparing, 2 months travelling, 3 weeks getting a show together, and now its all done. This blog is the archive and artifact of the whole crazy incredible experience that I don't even feel like I have begun to process. I know that being here and travelling through the West has fuelled my interest in the idea of displacement and borders. Wendover, half mormon and half budget Vegas...half Utah and half Nevada...El Paso, half Texas half Mexico, half El Paso, Half Juarez.
What does it mean to be stuck in the middle, placeless, torn, homeless, divided...
Tumble weed blowing freely across the west, an invasive species brought accidentally by Ukrainian farmers, migrants travelling with the wind, getting stuck in barbed wire, train tracks and lost spaces.
Barbed wire, farming, herding cattle, keeping things in their "rightful place", and keeping the unwanted out.
Phone booth, no phone, decommissioned, abandoned, no function, a liminal space along a corridor, once the sight of important conversations, once necessary, now a no-man's land, no one goes there anymore, lost space.
Film, girl sits by side of the road, screen goes blank, trains hurtle through the night - to where, from where - a busy bar, people put money in the juke box have a good time, all in a little border town, all in EL Paso, in a little old Barrio.
So what does it mean?
I guess it means that I have to work even harder to understand my aesthetic, to refine my aesthetic - My work is a far cry from minimalism, yet I'm constantly drawn in the direction. Performance, should I pursue it? I love performance, but does it make sense to any one other than me? Does it make sense to me on anything more than a gut level?
Photography, film, sculptural objects and performance - onward and upward, there an long way to go but the night is still young.
A synopsis by way of explanation before you start to read...
Hi, I'm Lucy. I started my blog July 2009, to document my journey across the American West, and it now forms an archive of the Land Arts of The American West program 2009. As you can read below the journey took me far and wide with wonderful people, seeing wonderful places. When we returned from travelling we had 3 crazy weeks to put a show together. In that time I printed many photos and did 2 installations "off-site" i.e. away from the gallery space. One in an abandoned phone booth and one under a stairwell, both in different spaces within the University of New Mexico (UNM) campus. The tumble weed and barbed wire piece evolved further when I met The Chuppers - an electronic arts ensemble based in a wonderful recording studio filled with weird and wonderful hybrid instruments forged together from old and new technology. The Chuppers saw my piece under the stairs and were inspired to create music and video projection with my piece which I then in turn decided to "perform" for an audience. Around 40 or so people joined us on the night of the 18th Novemeber our audio, visual and corporeal performance...all of which is documented in my blog. This Blog has formed part of the Land Arts 2009 show at John Sommers Gallery, UNM.
Saturday 21 November 2009
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