A journey into the American West

And the beat goes on!

2009-11-23T22:11:00.000-08:00

I love love love love! working with the Chuppers. I went down to practice tonight and did some poetry stuff with them - it was just flowing out of me - one about a girl walking back in time and being timeless and part of all things at once, and the other about a 19th century male prostitute who ran away to Paris to open a boy brothel - I'm not sure who these characters are or how they got in my head, but I like that Chuppers are channelling it all through me! I wish I could work with them longer - thinking cap on I'll have to collaborate more with these guys in the future - it is the FUTURE!!!

more Pictures From Last Wednesday Performance - Taken by Wenci Fan - Thanks Wenci!

2009-11-23T22:04:00.001-08:00

Liz and Manny in the picture!

So what's it all about?

2009-11-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

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.

The night of the Performance

2009-11-19T23:15:00.000-08:00

My tumble weed and barbed wire installation was under the stair well. I gave the Chuppers the audio I had recorded in El Paso, trains hurtling through the night. They had mixed the sound with clunky electronic beats. The guys had set one camera down the hallway on me and one on the tumble weed and barbed wire installation under the stair well. The images were mixed to appear on the wall next to where the audience were gathered. There were probably 50 or so people gathered together. Manny introduced the show and I started to stand up at the far end of the corridor. At this point the audience could only see me on the screen. As I made my way closer, the audience could see me, the installation and the projection. Some people were out of sight and they could only see the screen.

2009-11-18T15:38:00.001-08:00

My flyers!

Performance with the Chuppers

Wednesday 7.30pm at the tumble weed piece, after the show!

Finished phone booth piece!

2009-11-18T15:26:00.000-08:00

The piece can be found in the centre of the arts - northern corridor, nr the music department.

Dress Rehersal with the Chuppers

2009-11-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

Under the stair well

2009-11-15T15:28:00.000-08:00

my piece is installed under the stair well at pope joy!

Collaboration!

2009-11-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Met a fantastic arts ensemble who want to collaborate with me on my pieces!

We'll probably concentrate on doing a chupper audio and visual extravaganza with my tumble weed piece!

Phone Booth Installation Proposal and Flyer

2009-11-08T20:06:00.001-08:00

Phone Booth Proposal: El Paso Film Installation

The work will be installed in an abandoned phone booth in first corridor on the northern face of the music department. The location has been chosen to be inline with the artist's previous work that explores the dynamic create by situating mixed media work within liminal spaces.

The proposal is to create an environment within the booth that recalls ideas explored as a participant of the 2009 Land Arts program. The booth will be filled half with sand, on top on the sand will be a television set which will play a film made by the artist in El Paso. The film flips between scenes of a lonely girl sitting by a freeway with images of a lively bar. The piece explores ideas of placement and displacement, belonging and dispossession.

The materials included will be sand, a retainer for the sand, a television set and a red light. The work will be solely contained within the booth and will not obstruct the corridor in any way. Sound will emanate from the booth and the power socket to the right of the booth will be employed to power the television set.

Preparations for the show! Tumble weed and barbed wire piece

2009-11-08T19:46:00.000-08:00

This is my studio, Chris and Kenza's garage. One of my pieces is intended to be installed in the basement floor of the arts centre at UNM. Its a bit of a bureaucratic night mare and is taking a lot of head space to get approval from the powers that be. Basically I want to wrap tumble week in barbed wire and install them under a stair well in the building.

My proposal:

Stair Well Installation: Barbed Wire and Tumble Weed

The installation will be installed under the stair well on the main steps going down from first to basement level in the Pope Joy hall. This location has been chosen for 2 reasons. Firstly, the artist is interested in working within the pre-existing architecture of spaces. The space under the stairs forms an excellent structure reminiscent of Robert Morris minimalist sculpture. Secondly, the piece itself will be constructed from barbed wire and tumble weed and the location will evoke the idea that, like in disused and abandoned spaces throughout the west, tumble weed blows in and gets stuck. The use of barbed wire within the piece also relates to other concerns within the artist’s work regarding borders, spaces where access is allowed and denied.

Underneath the stair well there is a steel border delineating the space directly under the stairs. The work with be contained entirely within this space and will not infringe on the passing corridor spaces around the immediate vicinity. Should the tumbleweed be considered a fire hazard the artist would be happy to meet with the fire safety officer at the site to do a risk assessment and to contribute to costs to include extra safety measures if necessary.

My 2 Installations!

2009-11-01T23:45:00.000-08:00

I propose 2 installations for the up coming show

1. A tumble weed and barbed wire installation to be installed in the building

2. An installation in an abandoned phone booth to house my El Paso film

El Paso

2009-10-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in El Paso. We spent 4 days designing and installing a huge 200 feet x 6 feet stone mural, in a little mexican barrio. I got interviewed by the El Paso times see the link click EL PASO TIMES to see the story. Whilst here I was facinated by the fact that El Paso is a border city, Juarez, Mexico being the other side of the town that was once one city, and is now divided in two. Driving through El Paso made me think of what Berlin must have been like before the wall came down.

Otero Mesa

2009-10-10T12:10:00.000-07:00

Such an amazing landscape - Otero Mesa, under threat from mining companies...

Gila Wilderness

2009-10-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

Spent a lovely few days at the Gila Wilderness...didn't take any pictures! But it was so beautiful, we camped by a river, really near some hot springs and bathed several times a day - wonderful!

Walter De Maria - Lightening Fields

2009-10-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

we aren't allowed to show (opps I mean take..) any pictures of the lightening fields - shame it would have been great if I could have photographed that 12 shot 180degree panarama of the fields at simultaneous full moon rise and sun set, it'll have to live on my hard dr...I mean imagination...

Click here to see images -
http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/lightningfield

Walter De Maria's Lightning Field was quite a profound experience for me. We were allowed to stay the small lodge house owned by the Dia Art Foundation. A beautiful log cabin made from salvaged wood from old log cabins in the area. The night we spent there there was an incredible full moon rise and a glorious sunset simultaneously. Over the course of the 2 hours or so that this was occurring the poles turned from being almost imperceptible to silver and gold,. like arrow spears.

It reminded me of the last line of Philip Larkin's poem, The Whitsun Weddings: here's a link to it online - it has so much reference to light and expectancy that I couldn't help think of it at the lightning fields
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=178047

Some muses from my journal whlst walking round...

Making space place
Something s happening here
I am happening within this place
Alignment leads me to anticipate
I am urged to comply with the promise
Soon I start to need it
Compulsion marches me on

Space has become place
Look the plane
Look the scrub
Look the clay soil
Look back how small is our dwelling
Here I am and here I am and look here I am again

How wonderfully perfect to be dead on line
This field of pawns is disarming
Whom are they poised for
Part of whose game
What do they want from me?
I am reduced by them, less than,
Enhanced, more than?
Imperceptible earlier, look how bold they are now.

Cibola - El Mal Pais

2009-09-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

The next stop was Cibola, a high desert site which was literally below freezing at night and hot enough to burn during the day. We spent several nights on this site. The first couple of days we went hiking around. The place used to be inhabited by indiginous tribes from the 9th - 12th century. The common practice was to make pottery and discard it around the site. Amazing the hillsides are still littered with these beautiful pot shards. It was like walking around the most amazing museum, to be able to pick these things up and feel them and see them and touch them, and leave them behind for the next group of lucky explorers. We also found bits of old tools and arrow heads in the area. And lots of pictographs and pectroglyphs - pretty AWESOME.

I loved my camping spot here in Cibola. I decided to camp a way a way from the group. It was a full moon rising whilst we were there and at night, my little spot on the hillock was bathed in glorious moonlight.

Chaco Canyon

2009-09-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

The first stop off point on the second trip was Chaco Canyon, an ancient anasasi indian site believed to be a mecca for spiritual worship. A potent and powerful place, there was definitely a strange energy in the air. We spent the day with Anna Sofaer of the Solstice Project who made major findings on the site in the late 1970s and has been committed to researching the site ever since - see the link to the solstic project on the links section.

A week back in Albuquerque

2009-09-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

A pit stop back in town gave us enough time to clean some of our clothes and some of our bodies and throw a part before being back on the road again sunday morning of the 27th September. On the friday night we all went to the "dispersal or return" exhibition at UNM gallery. I was collected works of Land Arts students from the previous 10 years - see link

http://unmartmuseum.unm.edu/exhibitions_events.html

More Swell

2009-09-16T16:02:00.000-07:00

I love how little Lauren and Joaquin look on this picture!

I left my sleeping bag outside all day and a lizard crawled inside! Luckily I felt it before putting my feet into the bag!

San Rafael Swell - THE COFFEE POTS!!

2009-09-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

We had an idyllic few days at the San Rafael Swell, everyone chilled and and warmed up after a cold time at spiral jetty. Getting to the Swell was a bit hairy, the road had eroded and we had to try and rebuild it to get the van through. Everyone was relieved to arrive safely!

Spiral Jetty

2009-09-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty is situated in a strange and hostile landscape. This place, Rozel Point on the northern tip of lake Utah oppressed me into intense emotions. Never had I been to such a alien landscape, yet never had I been anywhere so exquisitely beautiful. Lake Utah was an old inland. The saline only supporting a weird bacterial life which makes the water an eery pink on a silver shore with a black basalt shore line. Walking along the crisp salt crystal encrusted beach the terrain is littered with corpses of insects and bird that had been drawn into the landscape, then trapped, murdered by the heat, the lake of water. Drawn in by the beauty and left to die on the shore. I found some intensely beautiful corpses.

I wrote a poem whilst I was there...

She cried a thousand years or more,

Cried out her demons and fears,

And the sun beat down upon the shore,

Upon her salty tears.

For a time her sea was still,

Upon her salty shore,

And the violent sea, a deep blush red,

Abayed to the deep sea floor.

Upon the winds,

Upon the clouds,

She called to life around,

"Come to me , stay with me,

Make love upon my ground."

On the winds and on the clouds,

They came from miles around,

And struck by the beauty of the silver shore,

Made love upon her ground.

The violent sea abayed no more,

And the clouds swirled all around,

The coupling life was murdered,

Dead upon the ground.

She cried a thousand years or more,

For the death upon her shore,

As the sea a deep blush red,

Did batter her once more.

nancy holt - sun tunnels

2009-09-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Visit to one of the largest copper mines in the World!

2009-09-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

casino project CLUI

2009-09-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

project at CLUI

2009-09-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

the town is kind of a strange little island of contradictions within an alien landscape.

Casinos, religion, world war 2 iconic delapidated buildings, salt flats and ancient seas...

I thought it was ironic that one of the 3 main casinos was called montego bay and I started thinking about the area as an ancient inland sea (which it was thousands of years ago)

I started thinking about bays, haven, islands, in the area there are rock formations which would have been island at one point.

I was really interested in these juxtapositions so based my work their on filming and photographing inside and outside the casino.

I've posted some pictures but the most interesting stuff was video which is still in the edit!

CLUI and Wendover

2009-09-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

The Centre of Land Use Interpretation is in Wendover Nevada. Its a strange little town. Home to a World War 2 air base,the centre over looks the anola gay air port hanger (anola gay, as in the plane which dropped the hiroshima bomb). Wendover is half in Utah and half in Nevada the state border goes right the way through the centre of town. One side is higher religious mormon and anti gambling, drinking and prostitution and the other side is a weird gambling, drinking and prostitution mecca, think budget vegas and your on the right lines. Surrounding the strange little town is salt flat terrain. The bonneville salt flats are near by.

Time to update!

2009-09-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

I've been out of range for a good 10 days, but I'm now here in Wendover, Nevada. As I sit here I amsipping a glass of wine facing the anola gay airport hanger, opposite a military zone, behind me are mountains, in front of me are the bonneville salt flats, and to the side of me is the twon of wendover a drinking, gambling and prosituting blip of a toenm which people are flown into and flown out of for weekends of low bugdet indulgence. The whole thing is amazing and seeing it through the perspective of CLUI - centre of land use interpretation is amazing. CLUI was established about 10 years ago patly because of the amazing cultural position wendover occupies as a mid way point between new york and san fran it played an important role in communications, firtsly throught he pony express then as the midway point for the telegraph and then the telephone. CLUI amongst other things offer artists resdiencies which have produced some amazing work with slants on communications, environmentalism, polictics, culture, art, history.

Before getting here on Monday we have already had an amazing trip! I'm being called for dinner so I'm gonna post a load of photos next time I'm on.

Ms Greenwald and I have a blast driving to CLUI

2009-09-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

more joes valley

2009-09-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

My camping spot

Kevin, the friendliest nicest shepherd in the world ever!

2009-09-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Joes Valley - high alpine site

2009-09-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Working at Muley

2009-09-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

It's strange how the desert make you think of water. At times at Muley my brain would trick me into thinking that if I looked up I would see the sea. It felt like we were on a high cliff over looking the ocean. The terrain below would once have been carved by the melting of the ice, cutting into the rock. Now we looked on down and down into the ancient sea bed. "The Presence of Absence" was the term I coined for it and it would go round and round in my head. The shapes I made try to respond to ideas of empty volume, water, weight, space, place and time.

Journey to Muley

2009-08-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

at unm just before heading off

2009-08-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

the day we set off

Setting off - first stage, trip 1

2009-08-31T10:35:00.000-07:00

Mr Bitty Takes a Bath

2009-08-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

Chris bathing Mr Leo Bitty

2009-08-22T10:08:00.000-07:00

And pools do exist! They are private generally - yesterday I was invited by a friend to chill out all day by her pool! Get in! I did :)

What I'm reading...

2009-08-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Lots of reading to do for next weeks seminars. Just read a great paper by Joseph Masco called Desert Modernism, Masco considers the landscape of the american west. The contemporary desert landscape has conflicting myths within it of historic colonisation of land and displacement of people, Utopian consumerism of Vegas, Dystopian militarism and abject land pillaging through mining and drilling. Masco writes, "To negotiate these conflicting approaches to the epic west, both citizens and officials have come to rely on tactical amnesias, temporal sutures enabling a precarious - if addictive - cosmology of progress, fuelled by high-octane combinations of risk, silence, utopian expectation, and paranoid anxiety. It is this dual process of mythologizing through cognitive erasure that I call 'desert modernism'." (Msaco, J (2004) Desert Modernism Cabinet MagazineFutures:13)

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/13/masco.php

This Utopian/Dystopian conflict resonates with me as an articulation of ideas about contemporary culture that I am interested in channelling and exploring in my work. Pieces that I would link this too are my performance in collaboration with Sacha, my photo series with the red phone and my casting of the light switches. The following images are images of previous pieces of work -

A good day!

2009-08-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

Met my tutor today who has helped me so much to make the trip, it was so great to put a face to the name. I feel so happy, it all feels so right! Walking round the campus everyone is so freindly, I'm starting to feel a little like I'm on the Truman show as strangers smile, wave or nod from a distance. The weather is idyllic, but there are no public outdoor pools, what is that about?

First few days

2009-08-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

Its interesting being on campus. Being here is like being in a small town. Band practice is a major and serious event. The first day the guys had to practice without instruments to get the moves down I guess, it looked funny. Today BIG BAND music drifts around the place and you see huge trombones walking round with small students underneath. The facilities are excellent around campus, there are computer labs everywhere and the whole place is wi-fi. There are some very nice recreational areas, the duck pond is a great place to chill out. The art college looks like quite a small faculty, but it is nicely laid out.

Safe Arrival!

2009-08-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

Great journey across, the last part of the trip was in a small plane. I awoke from a deep sleep to see the Sandia Mountains approaching, rising up out of the plain, the tail end of the Rockies the guy next to me told me. Sandia means water melon in Spanish, so called because they glow pinky orange in the evening sun. Chris and Kenza, my hosts from the International Student welcoming organisation are a lovely couple, they met me at the airport and took me to their home. They have a puppy who keeps licking my toes. Apparently in the back yard there are black widow spiders, Chris offered to find one and show me, I declined. Kenza is Moroccan, she and Chris met when they were both studying in Spain. Tonights supper was a delicious Gazpacho soup made with Olive Oil from Kenza's father's farm in Morocco. I'm nicely tired, it's 8.30pm which is 7 hours behind UK so its 3.30am UK time. Chris and Kenza have headed out to the supermarket and I am heading to bed...

2009-07-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

just found out we may also be going to Michael Heizer's City - So excited :)

counting down to the 17th August! My Itinerary

2009-07-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

Land Arts of the American West 2009

UNM

August 24 Seminar: discussion of fall program

FIELD

Aug 31-Sept 3 Muley Point, UT

Sept 4-6 Joe’s Valley, UT

Sept 7-13 Centre of Land Use Interpretation, Wendover UT

Guest Artists: Matt Coolidge

Sept 14 Spiral Jetty, Great Salt Lake,

Sept 15-18 San Rafael Swell, UT

Sept 19-27 Albuquerque, NM

UNM

Sept 24 Seminar: discussion second journey

FIELD

Sept 28-29 Chaco Canyon, guest artist Ana Sofaer

Sept 30- Oct 5 Cibolla Canyon

The Lightning field

Guest Artist: Catherine Harris

Oct 6-9 Turkey Springs, Gila Wilderness, NM

Oct 10-12 Otero Mesa, NM

Oct 13-19 Smelter Town, El Paso, TX

Guest Artist: Robert Salas

UNM

Oct 20-Dec 4 Weekly studio visits

Nov 16 Exhibition: John Sommers Gallery