Public Art Review issue 16 - 1997 (spring/summer) by forecastpublicart

PublicArtReview REGARDING

LAND

FOREWORD

D e b o r a h Karasov

E K N O W THAT PUBLIC ART IS IMPORTANT, BUT IT C O U L D MATTER MORE. ONE WAY IS BY

re-

framing how we think about land. As we think about land, we cannot avoid the self-reflecting tone of this decade and the last. Looking back, we

see important flaws in the relationship between the human-dominated world and the natural world. Looking ahead, we see a need to reform that relationship, but find it hard to know how. As artists, what kind of land do we want to help shape? W h a t kind of art would describe this land? Artist Robert Smithson admonished us not to be Utopian or romantic. He said,"the gardens of history are being replaced by sites of time." The "gardens of history" refer to all our concepts of the beautiful, sublime, or picturesque in nature. Even though we think these concepts are universal, they actually are very timebound, a product of a certain era and, perhaps, outmoded. In contrast, the "sites of time" are those locations that manifest the forces of growth, decayâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and human intervention. Presumably Smithson would have us create works that are not illusions of some eternal ideal, but rather radically social and thoroughly temporal. There is yet another problem with abstract ideals about humans and land:They lull us into overlooking the local lands where our wastes go and where our goods come from. W e easily become detached from the extensive strip mines, the eroding farm fields, the pesticide-laced aquifers, the buried hazardous-waste drums, and the utility smokestacksâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all operating to meet our demands. This issue of PAR is dedicated to those local lands and to sites of time, to specific art projects that critically assess our concepts of landscape and experimentally minister exploited, abused, and rejected lands. W e hear from artists like Agnes Denes and Mel Chin who have reflected deeply on our modes of thinking. W e also hear from humanists and scientists who argue that collaboration is the key to our land's future health and integrity. And finally, this issue ushers in a number of changes at Public Art Review. Most visible is the new format by Craig Davidson of Civic, who has reconfigured our publication to better differentiate its sections and emphasize graphic clarity and readability, supporting our concept of a magazine that is a forum for fresh ideas and clear expression. This issue also inaugurates other significant staff changes: Jack Becker, co-founder of Public Art Review, has taken on the role of publisher; I have now become editor; Judy Arginteanu, long-time copy editor, is assistant editor; and Paula Justich remains as production director and is this issue's designer. W e welcome your response to our new look and evolving outlook, as well as suggestions for feature topics.

A P R O J E C T OF

FORECAST

PUBLIC

ARTWORKS

PublicArtReview REGARDING

LAND

features T E A C H I N G DE-DESIGN

SUBVERTING LANDSCAPE:

MEL CHIN

Michael Mercil 19 A P L A C E OF R E G E N E R A T I O N

Patricia C. Phillips 04

T. Allan C o m p , et al. 14 F I E L D S FOR THOUGHT:

A R E M E M B R A N C E OF J . B . J A C K S O N

AGNES DENES

R o b Silberman

James Clark 09

project

and exhibition

reviews

ART AND P U B L I C T R A N S P O R T

Catherine Hammond

25 PITTSBURGH RIVERFRONT PROJECT

DESIGNED LANDSCAPE FORUM

D o n a l d Miller 28

Anita Berrizbeitia 32

TOKYO W A T E R F R O N T N E W CITY

TRILOGY: ART-NATURE-SCIENCE

Leni S c h w e n d i g e r

D e b o r a h Karasov 26

and M a r k K r a m e r 30

book REPRINT: EPIPHANY

R O B E R T SMITHSON

Terry Tempest Williams

H e a t h e r W a i n w r i g h t 34

letters

reviews

to the editor

P U B L I C ART

Hilda K u r t z 37

and Sandra Lopez 33 W I L D CITY

THE T H I N G S YOU SEE W H E N

Paula Pentel 34

YOU DON'T HAVE A G R E N A D E

listings

B i o d u n Iainla 35

publisher .Jack Becker editor . Deborah Karasov journal f o r m a t . C i v i c issue designer & production manager .

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SUBVERTING LANDSCAPE THE W O R K OF MEL C H I N

Patricia C. Phillips

ANDSCAPES HAVE A RANGY ELASTICITY, THEIR MEANINGS ARE ENDLESSLY NEGOTIABLE; C O N T O U R S

shrink and stretch, often catapulting into n e w locations and dimensions. Science, politics, economics, and o t h e r forces each c o n t r i b u t e to their c o n t e n t and

o u r perception. Ideologies as contradictory and embattled as Marxism, d e c o n s t r u c tivism, anarchism, and feminism have challenged the hard edges of sites, p r o d u c i n g m o r e resilient and supple meanings. T h e r e are many reasons w h y landscapes d o n ' t stay in o n e p l a c e — w h y what w e see isn't necessarily w h a t we get. Landscape has never been a solely exterior, accessible p h e n o m e n o n . I n terior, psychic spaces have b e e n reconfigured by the high-velocity technological develo p m e n t s of the last half-century. N e w images and virtual spaces have b e c o m e part of the psychological landscapes that w e carry within u s . T h e r e is a startling, perhaps u n s e t tling, similarity of images p r o d u c e d by medical devices deployed to e x a m i n e the body's inferiority to those p r o d u c e d by satellites to study landforms. At times, micro and macro scales are indistinguishable. Perhaps the c u r r e n t preoccupation w i t h the b o d y is an att e m p t to r e c o n f i r m o u r relationship with the world's perpetually shifting spaces. Clearly, space—landscape—is a "practice" rather than an inanimate situation. O n the o n e hand, landscape suggests vista or distance. M o r e directly, it is a repository for places and p h e n o m e n a , including gardens, middle grounds, c o m m u nities, and wilderness. Landscape has b e e n urbanized, mediated, and virtualized. A c o n structed, malleable idea, it a c c o m m o d a t e s w h a t is discovered, e n c o u n t e r e d , and built. It is artifactual and spatial. It also represents the u n m a p p e d and u n k n o w n . T h u s it is an imaginative d o m a i n that enables us to negotiate in the world and to accept its d o m e s t i cated and unruly representations in o u r minds. At a time w h e n environmental i m p e d i m e n t is threatening, it n o t i m m i n e n t , the idea of landscape—always a historically and ideologically coded s u b j e c t — remains fruitful and volatile. Picnickers or poachers, o n e person's sweet refuge is a n -

Phillips

other's exploitable resource. Landscapes are beloved and besieged. Unquestionably, artists have played a significant role in the representation of landscape as a culturally p r o d u c e d idea. In the past three decades, earthworks, environmental art, and public art have recorded and interrogated the layered conceptions of landscape as the place w h e r e natural processes, cultural conditions, and h u m a n expectations chronically entangle. T h e legacy of earthworks is about w h a t artists can d o to a landscape (with the notable exception of s o m e of R o b e r t Smithson's w o r k , w h e r e the " d o i n g " e x h u m e d an entire h u m a n history of modifications or exploitations). M o r e recently, a growing n u m b e r of artists are seeking ways to w o r k in and w i t h landscape, raising u r gent questions of sustainability in rapacious e c o n o m i e s obsessed w i t h p r o d u c t i o n and (left) Revival Field, plot marker #33,

c o n s u m p t i o n . At the same time, they have enlarged the scope of i n q u i r y to include

St. Paul, Minn., 1991-93

metaphors of the body, technology, politics, and social issues in relation to landscapes.

(inset photos) Revival Field,

For m o r e than a decade, Mel C h i n has been this k i n d of i n q u i r i n g presence. His insis-

St. Paul, Minn., 1991-93

tent, poetic w o r k stimulates critical dialogue about the skein of factors that regulate

Photos: courtesy Mel Chin

c o n t e m p o r a r y landscapes.

SPR SUM 97

landscape, the exploited landscape, the ambient landscape, and, inevitably, the e m b o d i e d landscape. In spite of its frailty, landscape is an idea that continues to be p r o m o t e d , perpetually sentimentalized. Chin's work presents a politicized, t o u g h e r view of natural (and unnatural) spaces. For if landscape is to remain an operant part of o u r consciousness, conventions need to be suspended so that n e w realities develop. His w o r k offers some access to this challenging relationship of insurgent action and landscape perception. W h e t h e r we feel indignation or inertia, C h i n challenges the thinking that i n f o r m s response. In 1991, w o r k i n g with Real Art Ways in Hartford, C o n n e c t i c u t , C h i n was invited to develop a project for the city. Interested in forgotten histories, displaced communities, and the invisibility of particular constituencies, h e e x h u m e d a historical f o u n d a t i o n at the

Ghost, Hartford, Conn., 1991

site of an amnesic parking garage. C h i n discovered that

Photo: courtesy Mel Chin

the ubiquitous structure had been constructed on the site of a p r o m i n e n t black church f o u n d e d in 1826. As the first Landscape

offers a f r a m e w o r k

and

fluenced

lific aesthetic interests. H e is a superb o b j e c t - m a k e r w h o

m o r e than 150 years. H e read extensively about the

is deeply interested in the instrumental potential of art.

parish, its history, key participants and events, and c o n -

His m a n y concerns and influences c o n t r i b u t e to the

struction and subsequent renovations of the original church. Providing support and a space for worship for

seductive w o r k engages o u r curiosity, yet dodges easy

generations of Hartford's A f r i c a n - A m e r i c a n community,

categorization.

the church was razed in the 1950s to build a warehouse.

rable e n c o u n t e r s with Chin's work. Its complexity of subject and syntax offers an intriguing challenge to e x -

SPR|SUM 9 ;

Later, this building was torn d o w n for a parking garage, part of a formulaic urban redevelopment scheme. C h i n p r o d u c e d a haunting representa-

plore underlying connections b e t w e e n his many objects

tion of a b a n d o n e d histories and marginalized c o m m u n i -

and interventions. His m e t h o d o l o g y is idiosyncratically

ties. Ghost was a theatrical, short-lived

intervention.

systematic and brilliantly layered, producing a b o d y of

Using w h i t e chalk on a black scrim, the artist drew an

work that is politically incisive and poetically enigmatic.

architectural rendition of the front elevation of the orig-

encounter

inal m e e t i n g house. Spanning o n e bay of the e n o r m o u s

with Chin's w o r k is to seek an o p e n - e n d e d precision—a

parking structure, the ethereal image was anchored by

focus that generously embraces the work's multiplicities.

broken concrete stairs. N e i t h e r a solid wall n o r a p e n e -

A productive critical approach may be to establish a lens

trable space, Chin's full-scale, translucent architectural

t h r o u g h w h i c h to experience the w o r k . In many ways,

blueprint was a resonant apparition.

T h e challenge of a close

Review

the religious and political life of the city for

work's robust, restless dimensionality. T h e challenging,

O v e r the years I have had some m e m o -

Pubik

free black church in C o n n e c t i c u t , its congregation has in-

m e t a p h o r t h r o u g h w h i c h to consider his discursive, p r o -

Chin's w o r k itself operates as a focusing and reflective

D u r i n g its brief life span, Ghost reminded

lens; he has stated his desire to "intensify the mirror." Ac-

viewers that there is a vulnerability and depravity of the

cepting that there is n o singular optical or intellectual

built landscape. Following seasons and cycles of shifting al-

angle that can a c c o m m o d a t e the artist's protean interests

liances of p o w e r and money, there is an inherently transi-

and agile intelligence, the metaphorical lens of landscape

t o r y — o f t e n v i o l e n t — d i m e n s i o n to urban space. Ghost re-

offers a persuasive critical strategy. B u t the landscape lens

verberated with the temporal dynamics of place—even

is defiantly multi-focal, representing the multiple ways

institutions of c o m m u n i t y worship are subject to the va-

that landscape is f o u n d and f o r m e d .

garies of corporate ambition and city planning.

Chin's w o r k suggests its o w n

provi-

C h i n was involved with place-making

sional taxonomy. But the system is h y p o t h e t i c a l — m o -

and m e m o r y - m a k i n g . H e e n d o w e d this troubled site

mentarily useful and ultimately subject to change. M y

with an insight to a past that triggered individual and

m e m o r i e s gravitate to Chin's insights on the f o r g o t t e n

collective memory. Ghost was about the landscape of

erasure and suppressed i n f o r m a t i o n . Its fate irreversible, C h i n appealed for a past that had been missing in action. In the late 1980s, at the same time that C h i n was developing Ghost he applied for a grant to the National E n d o w m e n t for the Arts to support a n e w p r o ject entitled Revival

Field. A profoundly collaborative

process with a noted agronomist, the vanguard scienceart initiative was approved by peer panels, but vetoed at the final stage by then National E n d o w m e n t for the Arts director J o h n Frohnmayer. H e questioned the project's aesthetic value: It's an interesting idea, but where's the art? Ultimately, C h i n went to Washington to m e e t with Frohnmayer and his eloquent testimonial led to the reinstatement of the grant. Revival Field has had a n u m b e r of iterations. T h e first was in St. Paul, Minnesota, at Pig's Eye, a sludge landfill contaminated by industrial waste. T h e site was not far f r o m the Walker Art Center, the sponsor of this first field. Revival Field has b e c o m e legendary for the aesthetic ideas it embodies and the e n v i r o n -

GALA Committee,"Mosquito Brooch," set piece for Melrose Place. In the Name of the Place, 1997. Photo: courtesy Mel Chin

mental issues it raises; it dynamically enhances b o t h science and art. Starting with a h u n c h about t o x i n - a b -

site. In this impeccably orchestrated, ersatz landscape,

sorbing plants, the artist contacted scientists t h r o u g h o u t

C h i n and collaborators planted a n o t h e r Revival Field. It

the world. Eventually he learned of a research paper that

it was not a site that required aggressive remediation, it

led him to his collaborator. W o r k i n g with U.S. D e p a r t -

was a p r o m i n e n t o p p o r t u n i t y to p r o m o t e its viability f o r

m e n t of Agriculture agronomist R u f u s Chaney, the artist

other m o r e dire situations to an international audience.

proposed an art project dedicated to "green remedia-

T h e circular pattern of carefully delin-

tion." Introducing a variety of species called hyperaccu-

eated planting beds a c c o m m o d a t e d a n u m b e r of e x p e r i -

mulators that C h a n e y has been studying, the

Revival

mental sites and species. Each area included a stake w i t h

Field is cultivated in sites that have b e c o m e saturated

a small sealed jar holding a specimen of o n e of the c o r -

with heavy metals and other pollutants.

rosive metals absorbed and extracted by the h y p e r a c c u -

A circular field enclosed by a square cy-

mulators. Certain plants seem to stalk particular metals.

clone fence, it follows a typical agricultural sequence.

A tall, black, square cyclone fence c o m p l e t e d the c o s m o -

T h e crops are planted, maintained, and harvested w h e n

logical diagram. T h e circle w i t h i n the square had a f o r -

they reach maturity. In m a n y ways the transformative

mal reserve and m e n a c i n g intrigue. O r d e r l y and o m i -

significance of Revival Field is entirely invisible and inac-

nous, a Revival Field planted at a c o n t a m i n a t e d site is n o t

cessible. T h e dense, viscous roots of the hyperaccumula-

a user-friendly place. It is a therapeutic strategy for e x -

tors absorb the contaminating metals f r o m the soil. T h e

ploited, abused, and rejected landscapes.

harvested plants are incinerated at low t e m p e r a t u r e s . T h e

U n d o u b t e d l y Chin's most

recognized

planting process is repeated until the site's toxicity

landscape project, it, too, is a s u m m o n s to consciousness

reaches acceptable levels. C h i n refers to sculpting of sites

of w h a t is unseen, u n k n o w n , and u n e x p e c t e d in land-

through gradual transformation of materials.

scapes. Still seeking support for its large-scale, l o n g -

M y o w n e n c o u n t e r with Chin's Revival

t e r m viability, the project has psychological p o w e r as

Field was in Z o e t e r m e e r , T h e Netherlands, at the 1992

well as the tedious e n v i r o n m e n t a l r e m e d i a t i o n

Floriade, an international horticultural exposition staged

takes place over successive plantings. T h e ecological re-

every 10 years. It was a titanic extravaganza

pair that occurs over time is often imperceptible except

where

that

mountains of landfill reconfigured a f o r m e r l y watery,

to specialists m o n i t o r i n g the soil. Like Hartford's

marsh-like site. A c o m p a n i o n project to the exposition,

Revival Field calls for a m o r e attentive and critical read-

Ghost,

Allocations, enlisted a large roster of artists including Vito

ing of landscape. In c h a n g i n g proportions, the project

Acconci, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Matt Mullican, Ian

succeeds as both functional and symbolic remediation.

Hamilton Finlay, David Nyzio, D e n n i s Adams, and o t h -

It is inconceivable that s o m e o n e can understand

ers, to create installations for this spacious, manicured

many insurgent implications of this art w i t h o u t sus-

the

p e n d i n g s o m e assumptions about the political e c o n o m y of landscape degradation. W h i l e these projects address m o r e c o m m o n notions of landscape as spaces in the physical world, Chin's investigations have led to a growing preoccupation with the interiorized, psychological landscapeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to the far m o r e supple, if p r o f o u n d , ways that concepts of landscape operate. C u r r e n t l y a visiting professor at the University of Georgia at Athens, C h i n has conceived a n e w project that is a subtle, subversive intervention in the pervasive landscape of media. Working co-operatively w i t h producers ot the weekly television show Melrose Place, C h i n and GALA,

a collaborative team of artists, designers, and stu-

dents, altered the sets and a m e n d e d props of this wellk n o w n weekly series. T h e work, In the Name of the Place, adjusted objects and images inserted with judicious restraint. This cunningly revised television

environment

had an incalculable quality. W h e t h e r providing labels for liquor bottles that describe a history of alcohol c o n s u m p tion or incorporating a tasteful overall print of unrolled c o n d o m s on bed sheets, an alternative political presence insinuated itself in o n e of television's most notorious, often maligned, series. R e s p o n d i n g to concerns for e n v i r o n mental i m p e r i l m e n t , impoverished immunological systems, and the epidemic dimensions of lence, C h i n and

GALA

AIDS

and gun v i o -

explore the significance of these

ideas in the mediated landscape. Melrose Place, with its bizarre entanglements of urban professionals in an apartm e n t c o m p l e x , is a stunning, trivialized context to insert these agitational viruses. In addition to what had been fortuitously discovered by television viewers (there are n o credits or explanations of the project on the television program, but a fantastic W e b site was developed to "leak" information), the scope of the subversive e n t e r pubiic

prise was revealed at the March o p e n i n g of an exhibition titled " U n c o m m o n Sense" at the M u s e u m of C o n -

Art

t e m p o r a r y Art in Los Angeles. Review

As C h i n reveals, landscape

negotiates

those regions between virtuality and viscerality, seeing and believing. In a 1993 presentation at the DIA Art C e n 08

ter in N e w York, he appealed for critical artistic practices w h i c h are accepting of the half-done, and w h o s e conclusiveness cannot be predicted. Perhaps because landscape

SPRS | UM 97

(top) "Infectious Clock" (middle) "Total Proof"

still stimulates both righteous and reactionary responses, it remains Chin's most beautiful and sublime subject. His viral, mutating, aesthetic strategies produce ideas that are a challenge to stalkâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and an impossibility to dismiss.

(bottom) "Chinese Takeout" GALA Committee, set pieces for Melrose Place, In The Name of the Place, 1997.

Patricia C. Phillips is an independent critic and is currently interim dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts at SUNY-New Paltz.

Photos: courtesy Mel Chin

FIELDS FOR THOUGHT THE ART OF AGNES DENES

James Clark

GNES DENES, AS AN INDIVIDUAL A N D AN ARTIST, IS C O N C E R N E D A B O U T H U M A N VALUES A N D

the fate of the Earth. " F o r the first time in h u m a n history the w h o l e earth is

b e c o m i n g o n e i n t e r d e p e n d e n t society with o u r interests, needs, and problems

intertwined and interfering.. . T h e threads of existence," she continues, "have b e c o m e so tightly interwoven that o n e pull in any direction can distort the w h o l e fabric, affecting millions of threads." Inspired by the h u m a n intellect and its accomplishments, c o n c e r n e d about h u m a n greed and its b y - p r o d u c t s — d i s t o r t e d values and misplaced priorities—and awed by the Earth's capacity to e n d u r e and heal itself, Agnes D e n e s , at her core, is a humanist d e t e r m i n e d to illuminate the universal truths that propel us through time. B o r n in Budapest, she was educated in Sweden and the U n i t e d States. In 1955, she moved to N e w York City, w h e r e she continues to live and w o r k . She was trained as a painter at C o l u m b i a University, but in 1968 she laid aside her paint brush because "[painting] did not answer the questions I w a n t e d to ask. I was constantly fighting against the edge of the canvas." She then began a lifelong inquiry into the very nature of o u r existence, launching investigations across the range of h u m a n k n o w l e d g e that included the sciences, technology, philosophy, linguistics, t h e ology, art history, music, ecology, and global issues of survival—toward the creation of a n e w aesthetic. In terms of environmental and conceptual art p r o d u c e d in A m e r i c a , Agnes D e n e s stands alone, a visionary b o r n of the t u m u l t of the late 1960s. H e r w o r k can b e viewed within the context of an entire crop of environmental or earth artists: R o b e r t Morris, R o b e r t Smithson, Mary Miss, Michael Heizer, Alan Sonfist, and N a n c y Holt; although her c o m p a n y of compatriots is greatly reduced, after sorting o u t the artists w h o created earthworks in r e m o t e territories many of w h o m had exhausted the possibilities of formal sculpture. Stronger parallels can be f o u n d w i t h E u r o p e a n

ciark

artists Joseph Beuys and J o c h e n Gerz and A m e r i c a n artist Suzanne Lacy (whose art is m o r e political and social than environmental). T h r o u g h their public projects or " p e r formances," these artists have engaged n o n - a r t publics in the process of making, e x ploring the n o t i o n of citizenship and social responsibility. Likewise, these ideas are f u n d a m e n t a l to D e n e s ' exploration, but her a r t - m a k i n g m e t h o d s differ considerably f r o m those of Lacy and Gerz.

D e n e s ' art is the result of a highly intellectualized yet intuitive process, a b y - p r o d u c t of her intellectual curiosity. Lacy and Gerz create o p e n social structures p e r m i t t i n g their collaborators to shape the a r t - m a k i n g process and, ultimately, the art, reflecting a type of social activism not f o u n d in D e n e s ' w o r k . N o n e t h e less, D e n e s believes that collaboration can be achieved w i t h o u t c o m p r o m i s i n g one's concepts. " T h e future of the world is collaboration," she says. "As m u c h as I love to work alone, it is collaboration f r o m hereon in. T h e challenge is to get that collaboration on a high level so that everybody puts in their best."

SPRJSUM 97

(above) Wheatfield—A Confronta-

to the World Financial C e n t e r . For those w h o witnessed

tion, Battery Park, N.Y. 1982.

it, Wheatfield remains a vibrant m e m o r y — t h e j u x t a p o s i -

Photo by John McGrail

tion of a golden wheatfield gently b e n d i n g in a s u m m e r

(inset) Agnes Denes in the

breeze, within sight of the Statue of Liberty and, l o o k -

wheatfield, 1982.

ing west across the H u d s o n River, the c o u n t r y beyond. W h e n people realized that Wheatfield was an art project, its multiple associations could not go u n n o t i c e d : w h e a t

SPR|SUM

O n e of D e n e s ' best k n o w n earthworks,

as a commodity, the e c o n o m i c s of world trade, and

(1982), was realized on a

f a r m i n g as an A m e r i c a n ideal. For Denes, however, the

t w o - a c r e section of a landfill created with debris from

c o n f r o n t a t i o n was o n e of misplaced priorities and social

the c o n s t r u c t i o n of the World Trade Center. In the

values; of world hunger, m i s m a n a g e m e n t , waste, and

s u m m e r of 1982, D e n e s b r o u g h t in 285 truckloads of

ecological concerns.

Wheatfield—A

Confrontation

dirt, and planted and harvested 1,000 p o u n d s of w h e a t

Apart f r o m the obvious " c o n f r o n t a -

o n the site that was to b e c o m e Battery Park City, next

tions" and references to global concerns, this e c o - p r o -

j e c t speaks to the c o n f r o n t a t i o n of urban versus rural

pyramid as a symbolic f o r m is at the core of D e n e s '

that resides at the very core of this nation, p r o b i n g a

w o r k : " T h e s e f o r m s e m b o d y h u m a n k n o w l e d g e and the

deeply held sentiment that agrarian life is m o r e v i r t u -

paradoxes

ous, m o r e " A m e r i c a n " than city life, especially life in

m e t a p h o r s for o u r time, vehicles t h r o u g h w h i c h analyt-

N e w York City. " Wheatfield was an intrusion into the

ical propositions can be visualized."

citadel," she says, "a c o n f r o n t a t i o n of H i g h Civilization. But then again, it was also Shangri-la, a small paradise,

existence. T h e y

serve

" T h e i r perfection," D e n e s

complex

continues,

"is the language of logic and m a t h e m a t i c s — a s simple

one's c h i l d h o o d , a hot s u m m e r a f t e r n o o n in the c o u n -

and pure as nature's striving toward a kind of p e r f e c t i o n

try, peace, forgotten values, simple pleasures."

by w e e d i n g o u t the superfluous and m a k i n g d o w i t h

O n yet a n o t h e r level, Wheatfield speaks

only the essentials...They c o m m u n i c a t e ideal measures

to the evolution of the A m e r i c a n e c o n o m i c system,

of principles and values w i t h simplicity and clear the

f r o m agrarian to m a n u f a c t u r i n g to the post-industrial

path to n e w associations and insights. T h e pyramids are

"industries" of finance and mass e n t e r t a i n m e n t . At each

symbols of ethical structures that deal w i t h social reality,

phase of this evolutionary process, the d e p e n d e n c e on

thus representing fate w h e r e the individual's d i l e m m a is

land as a source of p r o d u c t i o n grows less intense. Wheat-

superseded by the p r e d i c a m e n t of the species."

field highlighted the e c o n o m i c discrepancy b e t w e e n the

R e g a r d i n g her public eco-projects, h e r

$158 exchange value of a w h e a t crop b e i n g g r o w n on

view of society is perhaps best reflected in Pascal's Perfect

land valued at $4.5 billion. T h e value of land in M a n -

Probability Pyramid and the People Paradox—The

hattan, and o t h e r world capitals, is n o longer attached to

ment (1984). Sixteen t h o u s a n d h a n d - d r a w n h u m a n fig-

w h a t it produces, but to the symbolic value and global

ures serve as the building material for the pyramid. At

prestige it imparts to multi-national corporations. B u t

first glance, the figures appear to b e u n i f o r m , b u t o n

D e n e s believes it goes b e y o n d even these issues to

close inspection their individuality b e c o m e s apparent.

s o m e t h i n g m o r e p r o f o u n d , c o m i n g from a relation with

O n e m i g h t i n t e r p r e t the pyramid as expressing the

the Earth and a reassessment of h u m a n values.

artist's d e m o c r a t i c ideals: each figure has a role to play,

Predica-

(1968), h e r first

each is u n i q u e b u t similar, each has a place and a re-

project and o n e of the first site-specific ecological

sponsibility to p e r f o r m . T h e paradox is that each i n d i -

works of its kind, she created a dialectic—thesis, a n -

vidual must trust the structure in that h e is i n d e e d ful-

tithesis, and synthesis—dealing with the Earth and o u r

filling s o m e social role, for if o n e attempts to remove

In Rice/Tree/Burial

relationship to the soil. A c c o r d i n g to D e n e s , we use the

himself f r o m it, a void is created, and the w h o l e struc-

same soil to grow o u r f o o d and plant o u r trees as w e use

ture w o u l d collapse.

to bury o u r dead and c o m m u n i c a t e ideas, such as time capsules b u r i e d to c o m m u n i c a t e Rice/Tree/Burial

with

the future.

T h e influence of the pyramids can also be seen in Tree Mountain—A

Living Time Capsule (1992-

consisted of a small crop of rice planted

96), w h i c h , according to D e n e s , is a collaborative, envi-

by the artist, trees chained together, and the artist's

r o n m e n t a l a r t w o r k that addresses global, ecological, so-

haiku sealed in a container and b u r i e d in the soil. W h i l e

cial, and cultural issues. "It is a massive e a r t h w o r k and

it's t e m p t i n g to view the w o r k as polemical—East ver-

land reclamation project that tests o u r f m i t u d e and t r a n -

sus West, life versus death, M a n against N a t u r e — t h i s is

scendence, individuality versus t e a m w o r k , and measures

not the artist's intent. D e n e s seeks to reveal the links

the value and evolution of a w o r k of art after it has e n -

that b i n d the h u m a n mental process inextricably w i t h

tered the e n v i r o n m e n t . Tree Mountain

nature. C r i t i c R o b e r t H o b b s states that " I n addition to

u n i t e the h u m a n intellect w i t h the majesty of nature."

representing the forces of industry's attempt to harness

is designed to

Located in the Pinzio gravel pits in

and retain the p o w e r of nature, this piece is c o n c e r n e d

Ylojarvi, Finland, Tree Mountain—A

with

occupies a site m e a s u r i n g 420 by 2 7 0 by 28 meters, and

c o n n e c t i n g natural elements through

mental

Living Time

Capsule

processes w h i c h the chains symbolize. Since the m i n d is

is elliptical. Ten t h o u s a n d F i n n i s h p i n e trees

created by nature, it is part of nature."

planted in a spiraling f o r m a t i o n by a like n u m b e r of

As with Rice/Tree/Burial,

were

D e n e s often

people f r o m a r o u n d t h e w o r l d , and are to b e preserved

visualizes her intellectual concepts t h r o u g h m a t h e m a t i -

for at least f o u r centuries. D e n e s refers to this project as

cal forms, such as the triad, triangle, and pyramid. T h e

a " t i m e capsule," but unlike traditional t i m e capsules

n u m b e r three and its g e o m e t r i c equivalents are rich in

that are filled with time-specific material, this o n e will

theological symbolism and are expressions of sublime

grow and change. It is a c o m m u n i c a t i o n f r o m this late-

mathematics as well as dialectical analysis—a

ciark

never-

t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y g e n e r a t i o n t o f u t u r e generations e x -

e n d i n g proposition of e v e r - e x p a n d i n g knowledge. T h e

pressing society's reawakened reverence for nature. T h e

SPR|SUM I I

feet fusion of the h u m a n intellect, mathematics, and "nature's frugal spacing design." Like prehistorical earth patterns, Tree Mountain

is best witnessed f r o m above, in

order to e x p e r i e n c e the sensation that the m o u n t a i n is t u r n i n g , "a spiraling expansion system that changes b e fore you and repeats itself as you move." Although the vision of Tree Mountain is strictly D e n e s ' , it involves a collaborative process. Tree Mountain

was realized t h r o u g h a c o m p l e x n e t w o r k of

the U n i t e d

N a t i o n s E n v i r o n m e n t P r o g r a m , Finnish

Ministry of E n v i r o n m e n t , foresters and surveyors, local citizens, and the 10,000 people w h o came together to plant the trees. Tree Mountain expresses D e n e s ' views on c o o p e r a t i o n , ownership, and social responsibility. She uses the word "custodianship," w h i c h brings to m i n d the Presbyterian n o t i o n of "stewardship," w h e r e o n e does n o t own the things of this world, but is entrusted m o n u m e n t serves t w o functions: O n the o n e hand, it

with t h e m , implying a moral obligation. Each tree will

memorializes the ravaged forests of the Earth; on the

bear the n a m e of the person w h o planted it and remain

o t h e r , it

h i s / h e r " p r o p e r t y " t h r o u g h succeeding g e n e r a t i o n s . T h e

acknowledges

the

human

commitment,

t h r o u g h o u t generations, to correct the ecological p r o b lems and to seek a m o r e h a r m o n i o u s life with nature.

trees can change "ownership," but Tree Mountain

itself

will never be o w n e d or sold, and the trees o n it cannot

T h e 10,000 pine trees are arranged ac-

b e removed. " W h a t ' s i m p o r t a n t is that Tree Mountain is a

c o r d i n g to an intricate mathematical f o r m u l a m i x i n g

m o n u m e n t n o t at the service of the h u m a n e g o . . . b u t

the G o l d e n Section and nature's p i n e a p p l e / s u n f l o w e r

reaches into the future."

pattern. T h e result is the appearance of several long

In his essay "Earthworks: Land Recla-

c u r v i n g lines w h i c h , in fact, are m a d e up of shorter i n -

mation as Sculpture," R o b e r t Morris states that earth-

tersecting curves in flowing c o n t i n u o u s lines, creating

work, as an art f o r m , "does not adorn

an e x p a n d i n g spiral. D e n e s ' intent was to create a p e r -

spaces, but in most cases has a dialectical relationship to

architectural

the site it occupies." This is very m u c h the case with (top) Tree Mountain—A Living Time

Denes' earthworks. T h e artist adopts a despoiled, m a n -

Capsule, after planting,Ylojarvi, Finland,

made site, then through her art c o n c e p t — a n o t h e r h u m a n

June 1996. ( b o t t o m ) Tree Mountain—A LivingTime Capsule, 1992-95 (detail). Images: courtesy Agnes Denes Public

imposition—reclaims the land. O v e r time and in response to natural processes, the site becomes "nature." D e n e s ' North Waterfront Park Master Plan (1989-91) transforms a 97-acre municipal

garbage

d u m p , along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in Berkeley, i n t o a sustainable natural ecosystem

Art

Review

that

D e n e s believes unites people with nature and each other. " T h e art c o n c e p t and planning process go b e y o n d traditional notions of a park, suggesting that it can be an expression of h u m a n values and of o u r sense of respon-

sibility to each o t h e r and to the planet." T h e plan was designed as an o p e n system: what was originally structured as concise, formal, and even mathematical is ulti-

SPR SUM 97

mately susceptible to natural change, decay, erosion, and n e w growth, a softening that will eventually subsume the artist's plan. T h e randomness of change is expected and w e l c o m e d by the artist. T h e art c o n c e p t is fully realized w h e n the casual visitor is unaware of any overarching artistic or ecological intervention. W o r k i n g with landscape ar-

chitects R i c h a r d Haag, professor of landscape architecture at the University o f W a s h i n g t o n , and J o h n R o b e r t s , a Berkeley landscape architect, the artist has envisioned a master plan that erases its o w n signature. O n e of the artist's goals is to d e m o n strate "intelligent regeneration," the m i x i n g of the artificial with the natural, rather than m a k i n g o n e t h i n g d o m i n a n t over the other, as in nature preserves that att e m p t to remove all traces of humanity. Instead, the m i x i n g will reinforce the idea that h u m a n s are i n e x t r i cably linked to the survival of this specific landfill and the Earth in general. D e n e s envisions the park as "an expression of h u m a n consciousness and o u r collective destiny, represented by petroglyphs carved into earth and stone." D e n e s p u r p o r t s that c o m m u n i t y participation and education is achieved t h r o u g h a q u o t a t i o n plaque project, fundraising committees, and tree and flower

p l a n t i n g projects, w h i c h

will i n c l u d e

(above) North Waterfront

wild

Master Plan, Berkeley, Calif., site plan for 97-acre landfill, 1989-91.

flower m e a d o w s and a n o t h e r spiraling tree m o u n t .

Drawing by Agnes Denes

T h e spatial organization of the park creates a " t i m e warp," says D e n e s . T h e entrance initiates the transition from "civilization" and leads us toward a

This is w h y Agnes D e n e s crosses i n t o o t h e r fields of i n -

"wilderness": curving paths, u n d u l a t i n g g r o u n d rising

q u i r y â&#x20AC;&#x201D; t h e sciences, m a t h e m a t i c s , philosophy, t h e o l -

up to m e e t o u r feet, obstructed sight-lines giving way

o g y â&#x20AC;&#x201D; s t r i p p i n g away the protective shell of languages

to vistas. Eventually we are led to the land's edge, w h e r e

used by the respective specializations to get at the

a boardwalk, jetties, and piers draw us out into the

essence, the u n i f y i n g truths, the " l a n g u a g e " that t r a n -

water and to the world beyond. T h e r e are also a fresh-

scends words.

water lake, brackish marsh, tidal pools, and water catch-

" W h a t I am talking a b o u t is...[a] n e w

ments replete with sculptural f o r m s that change with

method

the tides. Brooks and rivulets traverse the park, e n h a n c -

o n e . . .balancing that t r e m e n d o u s ego that y o u n e e d to

of c o m m u n i c a t i o n

f o r t h e artist, or

any-

ing its natural beauty but also testifying to nature's abil-

create great w o r k w i t h giving u p that ego in order to

ity to "reclaim" this m a n m a d e e n v i r o n m e n t . T h e master

think universally and for the g o o d ot others." D e n e s

plan has b e e n approved by the city, but its fate is u n c e r -

sees a great need to simplify concepts in this w o r l d in

tain. Regardless of the o u t c o m e , the imaginative plan

w h i c h we c a n n o t hear o n e a n o t h e r over the noise ot i n -

will certainly influence the t h i n k i n g of city officials

f o r m a t i o n , mass e n t e r t a i n m e n t , self-interest, specializa-

w h e n it comes t i m e to take action.

tions, and o t h e r forces that mask the true i n t e r d e p e n -

At this m o m e n t in art history. D e n e s '

dence

o f society

and

n a t u r e . S h e dares t o

assert

w o r k stands in sharp contrast to art that r u m m a g e s

objective truths in a t i m e w h e n " o b j e c t i v i t y " is v i e w e d

t h r o u g h the past or probes c u r r e n t sociopolitical c o n d i -

w i t h suspicion. T h a t is reason e n o u g h to say that Agnes

tions. Instead she investigates universal truths, h u m a n

D e n e s is o n e of the most t h o u g h t - p r o v o k i n g

values, nature's capacity to e n d u r e the pollution

w o r k i n g today.

artists

greed and indifference, and the power of timeless s y m bols, desiring to c o m m u n i c a t e w i t h generations far into

James Clark is a public art curator and writer living in N e w York City.

the future. In many respects, the m o r e expansive and less politically charged art that dares to ask the " B i g Q u e s t i o n s " has b e e n shunted aside by art that is direct, bombastic, and " o f its time." W h i l e there is m u c h to be

Sources:

gained f r o m p o s t - m o d e r n sensibilities specifically learn-

Hobbs, R o b e r t . "Agnes Denes'

Morris. R o b e r t . "Earthworks:

ing to appreciate multiple perspectives there is also

Environmental Projects and

Land R e c l a m a t i o n as Sculpture."

s o m e t h i n g to b e gained f r o m l o o k i n g u n d e r the skin of

Installations: S h o w i n g N e w

I n Critical Issues in Public Art,

Concepts." In Agnes Denes, exh. cat.

edited by H a r r i e t Senie and

Ithaca: H e r b e r t F.Johnson M u s e u m

Sally Webster. N e w York: H a r p e r

of Arts, C o r n e l l University, 1992.

Collins, 1992.

difference to find the c o n n e c t i n g fibers, the universal truths that are at the core of the h u m a n experience.

- * far*

- ''J',

A PLACE OF REGENERATION

FROM THE PROJECT DIRECTOR AND HISTORIAN

T. Allan Comp, Ph.D.â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Acid manager of the Allegheny

Mine Drainage &Art (AMD & ART) project director, historian, and

Heritage Development

Corporation (AHDC) research, education, and

training programs.

O U T H W E S T E R N PENNSYLVANIA IS A R E G I O N OF REMARKABLE BEAUTY AND STARK DEGRADATION,

w h e r e residents and visitors alike often miss the attractions of the r e g i o n by f o cusing on its problems. Today, the Heritage D e v e l o p m e n t C o r p o r a t i o n is e n -

gaged in a three-site national demonstration project that transforms place and past into a w o r k i n g asset for communities. W h e n I started this project I called it the " A r t T h i n g . " I purposely refused to define it, searching for a way to destabilize residents, and visitors' negative expectations of large-scale public landscape art that actually solved e n v i r o n mental problems. As a team, we have learned that by taking science, history, art, and c o m (top) Railroad skeleton buried

m u n i t y interest w i t h equal seriousness, we strengthen the c o n t r i b u t i o n s of each discipline and o p e n the way for a truly innovative collaboration, b r i n g i n g deep c o n n e c t i o n

in slag, 1996.

with each place we work.Vintondale, the site discussed here, is o u r first demonstration ( b o t t o m ) Site view from a "bony pile" with "red streaks," 1996. Photo montages by Julie Bargmann

project; at a second site, we are at w o r k o n a h u g e m i n i n g waste discharge that will heal the waters that long ago dissolved the bones of scores of m e n killed in a m i n e e x p l o sion. A third site will c o m b i n e what w e learn in the first t w o in addressing an entire w a tershed, a first tiny step toward the Appalachian coal region. (Artists w o r k i n g o n o t h e r sites are Michael O p p e n h e i m e r , Peter Richards, Angelo Ciotti, and LilyYeh.) Acid m i n e drainage (AMD) in southwestern Pennsylvania is the most significant environmental problem in the region, a problem created by the direct actions of the fathers and grandfathers of the region's residents. G r o w i n g u p in an area of streams that ran with orange water, dead waters, and black hills of c o a l - m i n e refuse has left many with a sense that their personal history was stained, m a r k e d by an i m m u t a b l e condition that w o u l d neither dissolve n o r disappear. Residents here recall t h i n k i n g as children that the many streams were filled with orange juice, only to learn that their o w n grandfathers w o r k e d the mines that created the toxic streams of their y o u t h . For a historian, this problem has many different facets. In a region of

The AMD&ART project has benefited from support from the

Southwestern

Penn. Heritage Preservation

Comm.,

the Penn. Council on the Arts, local government, arts programs, the

Heinz

heavy industry and hard work, there is still great pride in its a c c o m p l i s h m e n t s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; t h e massive steel mills, vast coal mines, miles of m o d e r n railroad, and immigrants f r o m across the planet at work. This sense of p r i d e exists alongside an equally strong sense of shame in the failure of that world and those w h o worked in it, the vast post-World War II e c o -

Foundation, the Studio for Creative

n o m i c free-fall of the region from heavy industry to u n e m p l o y m e n t , u n d e r - e m p l o y -

Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon Univ., the

m e n t , early retirement, and the exodus of w o r k i n g youth. O f t e n still caught in a c o m -

Penn. Mountain

Service Corps of the

National AmeriCorps EarthTech, Inc.

Program and

p a n y - t o w n mindset that waits for T h e C o m p a n y to take the lead, residents can b e history-proud, history-shamed, anxious about their future, yet incredibly passive.

It is this u n d e r s t a n d i n g of the past that

elements, such as the use of limestone u n d e r anoxic

creates the basis for successful c o m m u n i t y action. From a

(oxygen-deprived) conditions, and what had o n c e been

historical perspective, AMD is the result not of purposeful

called wetland treatment gave way to a m o r e general

evil, but of earnest individual efforts to make a living,

termâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;passive treatment. W h i l e not always completely

create a better life, and help build a nation, a quest that

successful, these projects have shown that dealing with

unwittingly p r o d u c e d a problem for succeeding genera-

the "biggest and baddest" discharges is possible.

tions. Leaving the problem to us as "unfinished w o r k "

F r o m a purely scientific s t a n d p o i n t ,

creates a personal challenge, especially in a region w h e r e

AMD&ART

family ties, the traditional w o r k ethic, and a sense of

passive treatment systems on very large discharges. It will

c o m p l e t i n g a j o b r u n so deep. B r i n g i n g the perspectives

be a giant step forward in researching h o w to make these

of history to mix with the discipline of science, the heal-

large-scale systems viable. However, the concepts of u n -

ing, accessibility and delight of art, and the energy of

finished w o r k , landscape evolution, and engaging the

c o m m u n i t y e n g a g e m e n t creates a productive path for

c o m m u n i t y add special m e a n i n g to this project. Instead

action, a pathway out of a problem that challenges the

of just constructing a system for treating water, the site

peoples of the entire Appalachian coal region. Equally

itself must put the reason for treatment in its historical

will be the first time that we can construct

i m p o r t a n t , the Vintondale site will take a place o n c e e n ergized by the activity of hundreds of miners and r e - e n ergize it w i t h the activity of residents, visitors, hikers, and bikers f r o m the adjacent Ghost Town Trail, and the ghosts of a past will be transformed into a p r o u d and creative park.

FROM T H E SCIENTIST

Bob Deasonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;partner,

EarthTech, Inc. consulting scientists and

engineers, Somerset, Pennsylvania, and a hydrogeologist for the design and management of wetlands for treatment of AMD. In the C o n e m a u g h River Basin in western Pennsylvania, ready access to minable coal has resulted in a long history of coal extraction, and an equally long history of AMD. Changes in mining laws n o w require that mining operations treat AMD generated o n site. M o r e importantly, they are implementing AMD prevention and reduction strategies as integral elements of their m i n i n g plans. W h i l e these innovations hold promise for the future, we must still deal with the vast inventory Public

of a b a n d o n e d and untreated mine discharges that have severely affected the aquatic habitat in o u r region. These

Review

discharges are f o r m e d

when

g r o u n d w a t e r is captured by the extensive m i n e w o r k ings created by b o t h surface and u n d e r g r o u n d m i n i n g m e t h o d s . Iron sulfide minerals within the coal and its

associated strata are exposed d u r i n g the m i n i n g process, and react with the water captured by the mine. T h e result is an unstable, aqueous solution that has high

SPR|SUM 97

metal concentrations (usually iron, manganese, and alum i n u m ) and is o f t e n acidic and toxic. O v e r the past 15 years, a natural way of treating AMD has evolved. After noticing that native wetlands were effectively removing the metals f r o m AMD, scientists began e x p e r i m e n t i n g w i t h

manmade

wetlands as treatment alternatives. O t h e r s added n e w

"Yellow boy" stream toward Blacklick Creek, 1996. Photo montage by Julie Bargmann

context. Instead of forcing a rigidly

The

pre-engineered

treatment plan o n t o the site, the system must "sit lightly

flood

1977

that

rushed

through Vintondale and destroyed the railroad added

u p o n the land" and accentuate the current and future

to a sense of loss in this m i n i n g t o w n . However, a f e w

landscapes. T h e design will require good science, good

years later, w h e n this rail c o r r i d o r was converted into

history, and good art, which at this level are approxi-

the Ghost Town Trail for walking and biking, s o m e -

mately the same thing. However, even a good design will

thing interesting began to h a p p e n . Visitors by the tens

fail if it does not engage the c o m m u n i t y in every step of

of thousands began traveling through

the process. If the people w h o live there help to plan it,

N e i g h b o r s began v e n t u r i n g along the old rail c o r r i d o r

the

borough.

help to build it, and enjoy seeing it, they will see to it

and r e n e w i n g ties with adjacent c o m m u n i t i e s . Walking

that the system outlives it creators.

this trail reawakened their awareness of the town's history and h o w their parents and grandparents had c o n -

FROM THE COMMUNITY

James and Laurie Lafontaine—local

tributed to it. O n e day, o n e of us remarked to a c o m -

advocates deeply involved

with the Blacklick Creek Watershed Association and the Ghost

panion that this path along the Blacklick C r e e k and

Town Trail.

t h r o u g h Vintondale is ruggedly beautiful except for the h u g e remains—called " b o n y p i l e s " — o f coal m i n i n g that pollute the creek and turn it red. T h e c o m p a n i o n saw s o m e t h i n g different in the waste piles and a b a n d o n e d m i n e portals: the results of his father's lifetime of w o r k as a coal miner. T h a t w o r k put f o o d o n the table and risk into each day. T h a t industry provided the resources to fuel and build the nation. Coal m i n i n g in this valley

provided

jobs, but left b e h i n d an unpaid debt. T h e m i n i n g that occurred

b e f o r e today's

regulations

left

abandoned

mines that dispirit the lives of those w h o live there and spew o u t red, metal-laden water that destroys all life in the creeks and streams. E v e r y o n e has heard their grandfathers' stories of the a b u n d a n c e of fish and the w o n d e r f u l times spent in the creek. O n e can

only

w o n d e r at h o w beautiful this place must have been. A c o m m o n reaction is despair: " T h e r e is n o way this stream will be like that again in my lifetime." But w h a t if there were a way? H e r e is w h e r e the

AMD&ART

project

plays its i m p o r t a n t role. Just as the trail b r o u g h t excitem e n t and a n e w o u t l o o k , the proposed art project has

comp

the p o w e r to change perceptions, to instill p r i d e and h o p e and to re-create an enjoyable place to be. H e r e is an o p p o r t u n i t y to interpret the town's past w i t h the proper reverence to a large audience. H e r e is a challenge to create beauty w h e r e the casual observer sees only ruin. And here is an o p p o r t u n i t y to provide h o p e by

restoring clean water t h r o u g h simple means. FROM THE ARTISTS

SPR SUM 11

Julie Bargmann and Stacey Levy—respectively, Assistant

Pro-

fessor of Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia, and award-winning

artist based in Pennsylvania

whose materials

for this project are time, history, sciencc, "yellow boy," "red dog," acidic water, limestone, and a landscape in trouble.

T h e pollution has lasted so long that the

It's Friday night, 1897. T h e coal miners

rocks in the creek are stained and an orange stain rings

are e m e r g i n g f r o m the dark portal of M i n e N o . 6. In

every household's toilet. T h e coal is gone, used to build

the evening shadows they pass hulking piles of shining

the country's industry and wealth,yet the poisonous r e m -

black slag as they head towards their h o m e s in V i n t o n -

nants remain. It will take an industrial-strength biological

dale. T h e y cross Blacklick C r e e k . T h e dying light d o u -

system to cleanse the water that wells up from the depths

bles the intensity of the orange-stained rocks lining the

into neighbors'basements. It will take acres of engineered

stream. T h e r e are n o fish s w i m m i n g in these waters, n o

ponds and constructed wetlands to create a productive

life at all. All the layers of the f o o d chain are locked in

landscape, as a part of the region and the town.

a golden a r m o r of iron oxide. T h e acid water kills

everything in its path.

It's Sunday m o r n i n g , 2007. A retired

Several h u n d r e d miles of fluorescent

coal miner is walking with his grandson along the Ghost

streams w i n d t h r o u g h the verdant rolling hills of C a m -

Town Rail Trail. Stepping o n t o a w o o d e n boardwalk,

bria C o u n t y . T h e miners and their families see the col-

they float above pools of water: a chain of pools like a

ored streams, shrug, and call it "yellow boy."They glance

necklace, changing f r o m orange to green and then a re-

up at giant m o u n d s of black b o n y piles with s m o l d e r i n g

flective

blue as it flows toward the Blacklick. At each

red streaks: "red dog." T h e miners k n o w the fishing has

dike, water spills over a h u g e slab of limestone inscribed

g o n e to n o t h i n g , but there are m o r e pressing concerns

with words the grandfather recognizes: names of coal

these days: layoffs at the mine, feeding their families. T h e

camps that are n o longer present and of m i n i n g tools

train whistle blows, and the miners have to fill those

that left the reclamation w o r k for succeeding genera-

carts w i t h coal.

tions. As his eyes follow a trace of yellow boy back to a dark recess in the m o u n t a i n , he tells the child another

II It's Saturday a f t e r n o o n , 1996. V i n t o n -

story about w o r k i n g in N o . 6.

dale citizens are walking along the Ghost Town Rail

T h e m a n and child w i n d their way

Trail w i t h a group of artists, designers, historians, and

t h r o u g h the grassy wetland. T h e bent stalks chart the

scientists. T h e y are recalling w h e n the b o n y piles were

ever-changing direction of the w i n d . Silently the grasses

trucked away and left traces of black slag in the weeds

are soaking up the metal and acidity, filtering the water

T h e y cross a w o o d e n

through the capillary system of their stems. Stands of red

bridge over a long stream of bright orange-yellow crusty

maples map the twists and turns of the subterranean

deposits, with " K e e p O u t " signs sticking up from u n -

mines. T h e slabs of limestone exchange the p H level

k n o w n d e p t h s . T h e yellow boy emerges f r o m a dark hol-

with the acid w a t e r . T h e revived water leaves b e h i n d the

low in the mountainside. It's M i n e N o . 6.

stain that inscribes the text about the site.

and saplings of the

floodplain.

At the next bridge the Vintondale folks

Wandering

over

another

dike,

the

flashing

red

and the visitors look d o w n at the stained Blacklick and

grandfather and child stoop to decipher

up at the remaining m o u n t a i n of b o n y piles w i t h red

numbers on a nearby device: " p H 6.1." Together they

dog streaks. T h e scientist dips his p H m o n i t o r into the

follow the clear stream of water and watch it splash

creek: "2.9," h e reportsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like battery acid.

d o w n into the Blacklick. Later, they may go fishing.

(left) Julie Bargmann and T.Allan Comp at the Hughes Borehole, 1996. Photo by Roberta Moore ( r i g h t ) Vintondaleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;field sketch, September 29, 1996. Drawing by Julie Bargmann and Stacey Levy

TEACHING DE-DESIGN

Michael Mercil

UBLIC ARTISTS NOW COMMONLY FIND THEMSELVES TEAMED W I T H A R C H I T E C T S AND LANDSCAPE

architects to work on public projects. This past a u t u m n , 1 was invited to c o teach a studio class in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University

with Michael Van Valkenburgh. Just what, I w o n d e r e d , w o u l d landscape architecture students k n o w of c u r r e n t public art? And still m o r e broadly, h o w well do today's designers c o m p r e h e n d both the relations and contradictions b e t w e e n the traditions of m o d e r n a r t - m a k i n g and socially-oriented strategies of c o n t e m p o r a r y art practice? T h e s e questions r e m a i n e d touchstones while we explored landscape design as a means to integrate c o n t e m p o r a r y public artworks in d o w n t o w n Cleveland as a case study. For if the Harvard studio challenged us to develop fresh approaches for artists and landscape architects w o r k i n g together, it also allowed us to r e - e x a m i n e e x isting relationships b e t w e e n the t w o disciplines. As w e closely studied the landscape and architectural conditions along and adjacent to East N i n t h Street in Cleveland, w e also explored a variety of historical and c o n t e m p o r a r y examples of artists w o r k i n g within the public realm. Cleveland is a city quickly on the remake, f r o m sadly rusting steel t o w n to vigorous post-industrial c o n s u m e r services and tourist center. East N i n t h Street, the physical and e c o n o m i c spine of this urban t r a n s f o r m a t i o n , directly c o n (left) Melanie Moossaian, Plan illustration of Lake Erie waterfront landscape, Cleveland, Ohio, 1996.

nects the central business district to the Lake Erie shoreline. At the Lake Erie e n d of the street sits the $93 million R o c k and R o l l Hall of Fame, designed by I.M. Pei, w h i c h o p e n e d in 1995. N e i g h b o r i n g this, the $55 million Great Lakes Science C e n -

( r i g h t ) Willett Moss, Illustration of

ter, by E.Vernor J o h n s o n & Associates, o p e n e d its d o o r s in 1996. At the nearby s h o r e -

Willard Park bluff, Cleveland, Ohio,

line site of the f o r m e r Cleveland Browns football stadium, a n e w $250 million sports

1996 (detail). Photos: courtesy the author

stadium will be c o m p l e t e d by 1998. Elsewhere, at the opposite (south) end of East N i n t h Street, the first baseball was tossed in 1994 o n t o Jacobs Field (HOK Sport w i t h Sasaki Associates), h o m e of

the A m e r i c a n League Cleveland Indians. Between these

aesthetic; "any discussion c o n c e r n i n g nature and art is

points, mostly retail, office, and b a n k i n g buildings line the

b o u n d to b e shot t h r o u g h with moral implications."

street. St.John's Cathedral, the H u n t i n g t o n Bank, and the Cleveland Trust C o m p a n y comprise a cluster of landmark

cupation with remote geographic and

buildings here, while Cleveland Town Hall lies adjacent

dis/locations toward an e n g a g e m e n t with social, cul-

to the site on the n o r t h end of the street.

tural, and ecological systems within cities. C o n c u r r e n t l y this c o n c e r n with the " m o r a l implications" b e t w e e n n a -

circumstance has always provided the f r a m e w o r k for

ture and art shifted to b e t w e e n art and urban e c o n o m i c

architecture and landscape design in the public realm.

and political structures. In their shaping of this urban

But linking c o n t e m p o r a r y art to civic revitalization

public realm, designers offered artists few models and

and r e d e v e l o p m e n t schemes first began w i t h the N a -

little guidance. " T h e city has all the design it needs,"

tional E n d o w m e n t for the Arts' Art in Public Places

n o t e d artist Vito Acconci in 1990. " T h e f u n c t i o n of

P r o g r a m . In

public art is to de-design."

1967, a f o r t u i t o u s e n c o u n t e r

between

H e n r y Geldzahler, then director of the E n d o w m e n t ' s Visual Arts

Program, and

city

officials of

Grand

Rapids, was a catalyst for an award of $45,000 toward

King C o u n t y in W a s h i n g t o n state, R o b e r t M o r r i s in-

sisted that " t h e antecedent to the w o r k we are dis-

Alexander Calder that b e c a m e the centerpiece of the

cussing is sculpture and not architecture" (or landscape

city's u r b a n renewal effort. This was the first grant

architecture). And whereas formal innovation is not the

a w a r d e d by t h e E n d o w m e n t , and

focus of such artwork, we need here to c o m p r e h e n d its

of La

Grande

Vitesse,

a work

forward-looking

the Calder sculpture was a "symbol of o u r citizen's

tory, we recognize in Smithson's description of O l m sted's m o r a l landscapes an earlier

Grande Vitesse captured "a dramatic and significant m o -

ethic. For R a l p h Waldo E m e r s o n , "art has not yet

m e n t . . . [it] illuminates o u r city in the eyes of us allâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;

c o m e to its m a t u r i t y if it is not practical and moral, if

and not only in o u r eyes, but those of the state, the n a -

it does n o t stand in c o n n e c t i o n with the conscience."

tion, and of the world."

O r , we hear some e c h o of the Utopian strategies of the

transcendentalist

Coincidentally, in this same t i m e - f r a m e

European avant-garde artists, designers, and architects

many visual artists first came to k n o w landscape archi-

b e t w e e n the t w o world wars in the later remark of

tecture t h r o u g h Frederick Law Olmsted's designs for

artist Krzysztof Wodiczko: " t h e aim of critical public

Central Park in N e w York City. M o r e particularly it was

art...is [to] question the symbolic, psychopolitical, and

t h r o u g h the writings and works of R o b e r t S m i t h s o n â&#x20AC;&#x201D;

e c o n o m i c operations of the city." T h e s e

w h o in 1973 declared O l m s t e d "America's first ' e a r t h -

artists insisted that "art today is n o longer a dream set

w o r k a r t i s t ' " â&#x20AC;&#x201D; t h a t a generation of y o u n g Americans

apart f r o m and in contrast to the realities of the

began c o n s i d e r i n g landscape itself as a m e d i u m for aes-

w o r l d . . . [ b u t is] in just the same way as science and

thetic expression. Conversely, even as Olmsted's land-

technology, a m e t h o d of organization w h i c h applies to

scapes b e c a m e a m o d e l , t h r o w i n g "a w h o l e n e w light

the w h o l e of life."

landscape architects recognized in Smithson and o t h e r

When

avant-garde

artists or designers ignore

misunderstand the social and political impulses shaping

artists of the 1970s a n e w f o r m of landscape art outside

the terrain of c o n t e m p o r a r y experience, too often we

the picturesque tradition established by O l m s t e d in the

simply pictorialize the conceptual strategies of recent

n i n e t e e n t h century.

W i t h i n that rich and c o m p l e x t e r r i -

sion," and to R e p u b l i c a n congressman Gerald Ford, La

Smithson saw O l m s t e d as an "ecologist SPR|SUM

social and political g r o u n d i n g .

c o n c e r n for the spirit-lifting values of artistic expres-

o n the nature of A m e r i c a n art," as Smithson argued,

Indeed, at the 1979 dedication cerem o n y to his untitled land reclamation sculpture for

the commission

civic leaders applauded the result. To Mayor Sonveldt,

Review

topographic

political

Such social, e c o n o m i c , and

Pubiic

Artists eventually moved f r o m a p r e o c -

aesthetic practice. Consider, for example, Paradise Transformed: The Private Garden for the Twenty-First

Century by

of the real" and h e u n d e r s t o o d Central Park in N e w

G u y C o o p e r and G o r d o n Taylor, in w h i c h the self-

York City as a " c o n c r e t e dialectic b e t w e e n nature and

consciously m a n n e r e d manipulations of landscape f o r m

people." Central Park is not, in Smithson's view, "a

appear to domesticate the radical landscape proposi-

thing-in-itself." It should be seen rather as "a process

tions (many c o m p l e t e d m o r e than 15 years ago) f o u n d

of o n g o i n g relationships existing in a physical r e g i o n "

in the early chapters of Earthworks and Beyond:

that b e c o m e s a " t h i n g - f o r - u s . " T h e material dialectic

porary Art in the Landscape, w h i c h was revised in 1989.

within this region, t h o u g h picturesque, is n o t merely

To begin correcting such

Contem-

misunder-

standings w i t h i n the Harvard studio, I had each design

Melanie Moossaian explored harnessing winds f r o m Lake Erie to shape a shoreline and to disperse native seeds for planting. Willett Moss designed a s e q u e n c e of urban spaces that respond to the geologic compression of the lakeshore, as well as to the socially restraining c o d e of c o n d u c t enforced by the m a n a g e m e n t . Such e x p e r i m e n t s will n o w guide the C o m m i t t e e f o r Public Art in Cleveland in its o w n r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s for d e veloping an integrated public a r t / d e s i g n f r a m e w o r k in the area. Still, m o r e than 2 0 years after R o b e r t Smithson so sympathetically described the landscape legacy of Frederick Law O l m s t e d , the larger lesson of Louise Wyman, Cast wax study model for East Ninth Street,

o u r e x p e r i e n c e in Harvard remains to b e learned. For as long as c o n t e m p o r a r y artists, architects, and l a n d -

Cleveland, Ohio, 1996. Photo: courtesy the author

scape architects c o m e t o g e t h e r in the public realm by bureaucratic and institutional prescription rather than by shared aesthetic and ethical necessity, o u r efforts to

assigned

effectively engage the shape of public e x p e r i e n c e will

artist, developing a conceptual proposal for a nearby

remain t o o o f t e n a superficial " t h i n g - i n - i t s e l f " and t o o

site in C a m b r i d g e . T h e i r research provided students an

rarely an inspired " t h i n g - f o r - u s . " T h e public arena is

o p p o r t u n i t y to consider, for example, h o w a T-shirt

n o t an aesthetic landscape but a social

W i t h i n this c o m m o n g r o u n d w e n e e d to imagine n o t

ability of the b o r d e r b e t w e e n the private landscape of

only w h a t it is that public art should be, b u t w h a t w e

an individual's b o d y and the social landscape of the

h o p e that public art should do.

student do a m o c k

collaboration

with

experience.

street; h o w a bridge by Siah Armajani transposes utilitarian f u n c t i o n with the shape of individual civic e x -

Michael Mercil is currently a team member with Ann Hamilton and

perience; or h o w a landscape project of artist

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates for the Allegheny Riverfront Park in

Mel

C h i n works simultaneously to restore b o t h an ecologi-

Pittsburgh, Penn.

cal and an imaginative territory. As we strayed f u r t h e r w i t h i n this field of c o n t e m p o r a r y art, I e n c o u r a g e d students to freely speculate o n the relationships b e t w e e n their o w n ap-

Sources:

proach and that of an artist's to the given site in C a m -

Acconci,Vito. "Public Space in a

Smithson, R o b e r t . " F r e d e r i c k Law

bridge. W h e n asked about the conceptual f o u n d a t i o n s

Private T i m e . " In Art and the Public

O l m s t e d and the Dialectical

Sphere, edited by W.J.T. Mitchell.

Landscape." In The Writings of

C h i c a g o : University of C h i c a g o

Robert Smithson, edited by N a n c y

Press, 1992.

H o l t . N e w York: N e w York

of those relationships, they frequently f o u n d it easier to describe (and sometimes to overdetermine) the role of

University Press, 1979.

an artist within a project than to establish a clear place for themselves. Yet for some students, their research i n -

B e a r d s l e y j o h n . Art in Public Places. A survey of c o m m u n i t y - s p o n s o r e d

" S t a t e m e n t by t h e International

deed inspired n e w approaches to c o n f i g u r i n g a land-

projects s u p p o r t e d by the National

Faction of Constructivists." R e p r i n t

scape that neither imitated n o r simply appropriated an

E n d o w m e n t for the Arts.

f r o m D e Stijl (Amsterdam), vol.V,

already existing artistic f o r m .

Washington. D.C.: Partners for

no. 4, 1922. In The Tradition of

O u r Harvard studio did not, in the end, develop a specific plan for public art along East

Constructivism, edited by S t e p h e n

Livable Places, 1981.

B a n n . N e w York: V i k i n g Press, 1974. E m e r s o n , R a l p h Waldo. "Art." In

N i n t h Street. Students instead explored a variety of ap-

The Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo

Wodiczko, Krzysztof. "Strategies of

proaches to designing a civic landscape context, newly

Emerson, edited by Brooks Atkinson.

Public Address: W h i c h Media,

N e w York: M o d e r n Library, 1968.

W h i c h Publics?" Ill Dia Art

i n f o r m e d by their individual sympathetic u n d e r s t a n d -

Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Discussions

ings of c o n t e m p o r a r y public art. In o n e student p r o -

Morris, R o b e r t . " E a r t h w o r k s : Land

Contemporary

ject, the castings of British sculptor R a c h e l W h i t e r e a d

R e c l a m a t i o n as Sculpture." In

edited by Hal Foster. Seattle: Bay

Critical Issues in Public Art:

Press, 1987.

moved Louise W y m a n to m o d e l in wax the voids b e -

Content,

Context, and Controversy, edited by

tween the buildings along N i n t h Street as a means to

H a r r i e t F. Senie and Sally Webster.

e x a m i n e its landscape typologies. A n o t h e r project by

N e w York: H a r p e r Collins, 1992.

Culture: No. 1,

A REMEMBRANCE OF j.B. JACKSON

R o b Silberman

N A U G U S T 6 L A S T Y E A R , I W E N T W I T H A F R I E N D T O SEE J . U . J A C K S O N A T H I S H O M E

OUTSIDE

of Santa Fe. O n August 31, I discovered his obituary in my m o r n i n g paper.

Jackson was 86, so his death was not a total surprise, yet he was in better health the last time w e saw h i m than w h e n we had seen h i m a year earlier, and I had h o p e d he w o u l d s o m e h o w manage to live on and o n . T h e n we could c o n t i n u e to enjoy the special pleasure of the conversations in his kitchen as h e c h a i n - s m o k e d unfiltered Camels, his dog at o u r feet, the discussion m o v i n g f r o m Julia Child to Los Alamos as a c o m p a n y t o w n to the remnants of the old Anglo culture in southern Colorado. Jackson was usually described as a "cultural geographer," but n o label really worked. W h e n he taught at Harvard it was at the C a r p e n t e r C e n t e r for the Visual Arts; at Berkeley, it was in the D e p a r t m e n t of Landscape Architecture, w h i c h later b e came the College of Environmental Design. H e must have greeted that n a m e change with irony, because at Harvard he had objected to the w o r d " e n v i r o n m e n t " in the course title "Studies in the M a n m a d e Environment." T h e course finally was called " T h e History of the American Cultural Landscape," w h i c h he said meant " t h e natural e n v i r o n m e n t as modified by man," adding

Public

Art

Review

SPRISUM 11

Waiting at the Crossing, Lincoln, Neb., 1993. Photo by Chris Faust

that he wanted his students to be "alert and enthusiastic

t h o u g h I suppose he saw m o r e than his share of it, and

tourists." O n e could not h o p e for a better guide.

participated in any n u m b e r of symposia w h e r e the topic

In Jackson's case, b e i n g a cultural g e o g -

came up. H e did w r i t e a b o u t the social role of m o n u -

rapher m e a n t drawing on any n u m b e r of disciplines,

ments in the title essay of his b o o k

a m o n g t h e m geography, architecture, landscape architec-

Ruins (1980). His discussion is as suggestive for a consid-

ture, economics, sociology, and history. His 1972 b o o k

eration of public art as any I have read.

The Necessity for

The American Space is a magisterial study of the transfor-

Jackson's w o r k inspired not only archi-

mation of the A m e r i c a n landscape in the t w o decades

tects, landscape architects, and city planners, but also

after the Civil War. It provides the b a c k g r o u n d for his

p h o t o g r a p h e r s and o t h e r artists. T h e first time I saw

larger effort, to make people familiar with, in his words,

Jackson in person, at a symposium on landscape p h o -

" t h e c o n t e m p o r a r y American landscape and recognize

tography at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, he re-

its extraordinary complexity and beauty."

marked that the national parks as depicted by Ansel not-

Adams were n o t "landscapes," just "scenery." Jackson

withstanding, he was i m m e r s e d in European history; as

Jackson's c o n c e r n with America

had an eye for the picturesque, but he was also i n t e r -

I re-read his essays after his death, it r e m i n d e d m e of

ested in social relationships and social values, h o w they

h o w m u c h his ideas developed out o f the Western tradi-

were created by different kinds of landscapes. In a key

tion. In what may n o w seem an old-fashioned m a n n e r ,

passage from Discovering the Vernacular Landscape (1984),

he frequently referred to the classical world, citing Aris-

he said the beauty of landscapes "derives f r o m

totle's description of the ideal public square, or consid-

h u m a n presence."

the

ered h o w boundaries were established by the R o m a n

T h e title of that b o o k suggests o n e of

Empire. Yet he was anything b u t parochial, and w o u l d

Jackson's o t h e r special qualities as a t h i n k e r and writer,

grant equal attention to the plaza in a Pueblo village as

his interest in the everyday. Jackson's style displays an

to the agora in Athens.

aristocratic elegance, yet his o u t l o o k was unmistakably

Jackson did not, as far as I know, often

democratic. H e w r o t e essays on garages, m o b i l e h o m e s ,

w r i t e about art directly, but he was always c o n c e r n e d

backyard gardens; a three-page g e m in his final b o o k , A

with the aesthetic aspects of landscape. W h a t we w o u l d

Sense of Place, A Sense of Time (1995), approached A m e r i -

describe as public art gets m e n t i o n e d only in passing, al-

can car culture by r e c o u n t i n g h o w he had enrolled in an

â&#x20AC;˘

- - - - -

Conveyor Belt Leading from Black

a b o u t the changes that had m a d e Santa Fe a p l a y g r o u n d

Mesa Mine, Navajo Reservation

for the rich, and h e was a n g r y that public services w e r e

near Kayenta, Arizona, 1996. Photo by Chris Faust

n o t p r o v i d e d fairly to the H i s p a n i c - A m e r i c a n s in t h e poor neighborhoods.

a u t o m e c h a n i c s school w h i l e t e a c h i n g at the University

argu-

o f Texas. Jackson w r o t e early o n a b o u t h i g h w a y strips a n d s h o p p i n g malls w i t h o u t i n d u l g i n g in glib, d i s i n g e n -

order and p u r p o s e , yet h e was always f o r w a r d - l o o k i n g .

uous celebration

Even

H e did n o t a d m i r e Utopian w r i t i n g b u t h o p e d that a

w h e n h e expressed personal o p i n i o n s h e s e e m e d to i n -

n e w civic ideal, a n e w i n f o r m i n g belief, m i g h t b r i n g a

vite r a t h e r t h a n cut off the e x c h a n g e of ideas.

k i n d of w h o l e n e s s and h a r m o n y to the landscape.

or knee-jerk c o n d e m n a t i o n .

For all Jackson's historical

SPR SUM 97

A r o u n d t h e edges of Jackson's

m e n t s t h e r e is a t o u c h of m e l a n c h o l y for a lost sense of

knowledge

At t h e t i m e of o u r last visit h e was

a n d his d e v o t i o n to an essentially classical n o t i o n of civic

p r e p a r i n g a lecture o n roads, o n e of his great subjects.

virtue, h e was a c o m p l e t e l y m o d e r n individual. H e t o o k

W e spoke a b o u t c o m p u t e r s . T h a t h e w o u l d never learn

c h a n g e as a given, t h e n t r i e d to u n d e r s t a n d it and c o n -

to use o n e , a n d travel o n the i n f o r m a t i o n superhighway,

sider w h i c h aspects w e r e beneficial and to be e n c o u r -

was n o d i s a p p o i n t m e n t to h i m ; the d i s a p p o i n t m e n t was

aged, o r h a r m f u l a n d in n e e d of control. H e was o f t e n

that h e c o u l d n o l o n g e r take t h e great trips he had in t h e

s c o r n f u l of preservationists a n d environmentalists

past, e x p l o r i n g the A m e r i c a n landscape that h e loved so

be-

cause they s e e m e d d e t e r m i n e d to try to halt, even r e -

m u c h and k n e w so well.

verse, c h a n g e by r e t u r n i n g to a mythical past o r h o l d i n g o n t o an o u t m o d e d n o t i o n of " n a t u r e . " In o u r k i t c h e n

Rob Silberman is Associate Professor of Art History and Director of Film

conversations h e m a d e it clear that he was n o t happy

Studies at the University of Minnesota.

CONFERENCE

ART AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT - JUNCTION '96 R e v i e w e d by C a t h e r i n e H a m m o n d •

•

September 28-October I , 1996, Lisbon Portugal's Transportation Minister, Joao Cravinho, set the t o n e for the J u n c t i o n '96 international conference with his o p e n ing statement that "everything in our lives should have an aesthetic dimension." For four days, nearly 200 arts, design, and transit professionals from six continents enjoyed Lisbon's hospitality at the C e n t r a Cultural de Belem and sites t h r o u g h o u t the city. A n t o n i o Portela, of conference sponsor Metropolitano de Lisboa, Lisbon's subway agency, kicked off the conference by outlining his agency's 40-year c o m m i t m e n t to public art as a

Alun Leach-Jones, Terra Australis,

competitive business strategy. T h e almost exclusive use of

tapestry in Sydney International

azulejos—painted, glazed tiles o n station walls—was intended

Airport, Australia, 1995. Photo by Jean Battersby

to revitalize a highly developed Portuguese decorative f o r m . Portuguese artists—one for each of Lisbon's 35 stations—were invited to create works of their o w n choosing, thus m a k i n g

In most of these presentations, the traditional role o f the

the city's subway o n e of the most attractive in the world.

artist in beautification prevailed. Attendees, however, r e p r e -

T h e other conference speakers presented a range of s o m e times irreconcilable expectations about public art. According to Luciano Niccolai, president of the R o m e metro, ceramic murals were recently introduced in 20 stations as part of a cust o m e r - o r i e n t e d business strategy to add "quality" and enhance the artistic heritage of the city. In Australia, art consultant Jean

sented a w i d e r s p e c t r u m , and lively discussions o c c u r r e d b e tween sessions a b o u t h o w public artists o u g h t to be i n volved—as free agents providing i n d e p e n d e n t expression, as conveyors of national identity or state values, as p r o b l e m solving m e m b e r s of design teams, or as agents for social discourse and change.

Battersby has helped install art in airports to i n f o r m tourists

T h e English-speaking public art world at the c o n f e r e n c e was

about that country's u n i q u e culture and environment. Daniel

a particular c h a m p i o n of this latter stance. Australian artist

Fernandez, president of the M e t r o of Santiago, Chile, e x -

R i c h a r d G o o d w i n argued that artists should participate in

plained h o w art in the subway " b r o u g h t the art of m u s e u m s

designing public spaces w i t h the cautionary n o t e that " ' c o l -

and galleries out to public spaces." In Taiwan, public art has

laborator' [is a word] i m b u e d with the sinister implications of

been included in large mass-transit projects w h i c h are, accord-

merely p r o p p i n g u p the status q u o and reinforcing the exist-

ing to Tsai-lang H u a n g , public art specialist and m u s e u m di-

ing political structure." Alienating the public, however, serves

rector, part of his country's "pursuit of m o d e r n i z a t i o n " in b o t h

little purpose, as G r a h a m R o b e r t s , executive director o f P u b -

a local and global context.

lic Arts in West Yorkshire, England, r e m i n d e d participants. H e n o t e d that " w e must a c k n o w l e d g e that a gulf, rooted only in recent history, exists b e t w e e n the artist and the general p u b l i c . . . T h e first act, in public art, must be to regain the c o n f i d e n c e of a skeptical public." Artist Abdoulaye K o n a t e

f r o m Mali

noted

that " i n

the

heart of Africa, w h e n o n e speaks of art, generally o n e is t h i n k i n g of the sacred and the p r o f a n e alive in everyday life...Daily life consists, above all, of the application of art to life." In the e n d , all of the s o m e t i m e s c o n t r a d i c t o r y roles of artists and public art in transit had resonance. T h e y sought to link the experiences of travelers in subways a n d Rogerio Ribeiro, Decorative

airports to the sites a r o u n d t h e m , to respectfully e n h a n c e

patterned tiles used in Avenida

urban experiences, and give a p r o m i n e n t

Station, Metropolitano de Lisbao,

work of artists in c o n t e m p o r a r y life.

1972.

place f o r the

Photo: courtesy Metropolitano

Catherine Hammond is president of Art + Infrastructure, an international

de Lisbao

public art consulting group.

EXHIBITION

TRILOGY: ART-NATURE-SCIENCE R e v i e w e d by D e b o r a h Karasov •

•

Kunsthallen Brandts Klaedefabrik, Odense, Denmark Botanisk Have, Kebenhaven/Botanical Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark TICKON, Langeland, Denmark Accompanying Kebke Sutton,

catalogue edited by Andreas Jurgensen and Gertrud 1996.

Suzanne Lacy o n c e characterized the role of the public artist as a c o n t i n u u m f r o m experiencer to r e p o r t e r to analyst to activist. She suggested that an artist may operate f r o m any point o n this c o n t i n u u m , and in analyzing the artist's work, we should first consider this spectrum. In environmental art, too, we have this spectrum. S o m e artists seek an experience with nature, an experience that can be e x t e n d e d t h r o u g h the artist to o t h e r people. O t h e r s are obsessed with the temporality of nature (and of humans), reporting the forces of g r o w t h and change. Still others are activists for the future, exposing waste, abuse, and negligence and appealing for m o r e p r u d e n t m a n a g e m e n t of o u r resources. But while these intentions are useful as a b e g i n n i n g way to explain environmental art, d o they go m u c h f u r t h e r in helping people u n -

(top) Jussi Heikkla,

derstand the aesthetics of any single piece?

Migration Avium, 1996.

This b e c a m e an underlying issue for the international project

(right) Panos Charalabous,

Trilogy: Art-Nature-Science,

Naupaktos, 1996.

sponsored by

Copenhagen-Euro-

pean Cultural Capital 1996. Its thesis was that land art, or o t h e r terms related to it, has changed since the concept was f o r m e d in the early 1960s. For many artists, the m o n u m e n t a l earthworks of that decade, c o n c e r n e d primarily with scuptural issues, n o w seem inappropriate. Instead, some kind of dialogue with nature is m o r e i m p o r t a n t . T h e phrase used t h r o u g h o u t the Trilogi project was "art in and of n a t u r e . " T h e project c o n n e c t e d three sites, each providPubiic

j n g different settings. TICKON (the Tranekaer

International

C e n t e r for C u l t u r e and Nature) on the Danish island of Langeland, is a naturally growing landscape park; the Botanical Review

G a r d e n in C o p e n h a g e n

is a scientifically cultivated

planned garden in a metropolis; and Kunsthallen

and

Brandts

Klaedefabrik in Odense, D e n m a r k , is a m u s e u m of white walls. 26

Fourteen artists in all produced artworks in nature on the first t w o sites, and the m u s e u m presented a historical panorama of land art and art in nature f r o m the 1960s to today.

SPRS|UH 97

T h e grounds of TICKON, w h i c h I visited, are those of the m e dieval Tranekasr Castle. T h e landscape of 70 acres has an u n usual m i x t u r e of native and exotic trees. T h e grass is allowed to grow, thick w o o d b i n e s wrap around the aging oaks, and a small population of sheep and deer freely graze the grounds. Along the w i n d i n g lake edge, reeds and alder thickets are a lush habitat for birds. Most of the artists w o r k i n g here were

( b o t t o m ) Alfio Bonanno, Floating Islands, 1996. Photos by Alfio Bonanno

EXHIBITION

Mikael Hansen, Organic Highway, 1996. Photo by Alfio Bonnanno

aware that nature would in time erase their traces; in fact, some worked only with ephemeral compositions of leaves, berries, or reeds. Indeed, the most striking thing about the projects was their relationship with time. From a tree standing on its roots, D a n ish artist J 0 r n R o n n a u cut a peculiar, obtrusive unicorn h o r n , w h i c h may b e c o m e less so as time passes and the h o r n is weathered. T h e same is true of British David Nash's Sheep Space, w h i c h the sheep use as intended, that is, they lie against it and polish the w o o d with their wool. O f the sheep spaces, Nash has written, Sheep find shelter from wind, rain, and sun w h e r ever they can, lying by a rock, wall, bush, or h o l low. Lanolin from the w o o d oils the s u r r o u n d i n g surfaces.They do not dig or scrape the g r o u n d but by their continual presence gradually erode an

pie objects; b u t I see n o reason n o t to use m a t e r i -

oval patchâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a peaceful space, i n n o c e n t and holy.

als w h i c h have g o n e t h r o u g h man's process, for in reality these t o o are a part of nature and have

O t h e r artists focused on the ephemeral h u m a n

presence.

their place.

Andy Goldsworthy worked with poppy petals, grass, and branches, and Danish artist N i l s - U d o , with rowan berries.

T h e most s t u n n i n g installation, The Grave of the

T h e y arranged nature so that it enchants, but their c o m p o -

Computer by Jan Fabre ( D e n m a r k ) , was an i m m e n s e sloping

Unknown

sitions survive only as photographs. Bones, stones, even

field of blue crosses laid o u t in a grid, each cross b e a r i n g

words on paper became cautious insertions. T h e artists o b -

the n a m e of an insect, w r i t t e n in ordinary ballpoint ink.

served, listened, experienced, and passed their perceptions

Insects f u n c t i o n as p r i m a r y symbols in Fabre's works. T h e

on to us.

cataloguing of the e n t o m o l o g i s t (his g r e a t - g r a n d f a t h e r was a p i o n e e r in this field) requires collection and killing, as if

In the b o o k a c c o m p a n y i n g the Trilogi project, Andrea Jiir-

The Grave of the Unknown

gensen, curator at Kunsthallen Brandts Kk-edefabrik, sug-

their scientific study. A n d just as the researcher's behavior in

gested that however long the individual artist i n t e n d e d the

nature is controversial, Fabre's field was a provocation

w o r k to last, it is ultimately nature that definitively concludes

o u r o w n behavior.

Computer were a p r e c o n d i t i o n of to

it, and this conclusion was part of the artistic c o n c e p t i o n of the w o r k . Participating N o r w e g i a n artist Helge R o e d noted,

T h e r e was a double strand in this art of and in nature. T h e

" W i t h o u t a w e l l - f o u n d e d attitude to the duration of the

artists grappled with o v e r w h e l m i n g forces in nature, especially

w o r k of art, an area will [merely] be filled u p with 'structures

time. At the same time, regardless of their intentions, o n e e x -

in decay.'"

periences these works as small c o m p a r e d to those forces: few of t h e m are clear and strong in their effects. But perhaps this is

At the Botanical Garden, h u m a n s ' tentative grasp of nature was

w h e r e w e are as a culture.

a d o m i n a n t t h e m e . Artists C h r i s D r u r y (Britain), M a r i o Spiliopoulos (Greece), and H e r m a n P r i g a n n (Germany) cre-

T h e Trilogi project of art in and of nature reflected an i m p o r -

ated fragile tents and structures f r o m clay, w o o d , and vegeta-

tant transition in environmental w o r k , from the first land art

tion, recalling dwellings of the past, but also o u r l o n g i n g to teel

to a f o r m yet to be realized.That earlier w o r k , with its critical

at h o m e . We see nature mostly as s o m e t h i n g " o u t there," says

energy and formal strength, was expressed w i t h o u t an ecolog-

D r u r y , " t o do with plants, animals, and climate." H e continues:

ical c o m m i t m e n t . N o w we have an art that expresses a h y p e r awareness of ecological thinking. As the curators o f Trilogi

I have f o u n d it necessary to l o o k at b o t h o u t e r

noted, time will show w h e t h e r this will be at the expense of

and i n n e r worlds. 1 have used the silence of land-

the integrity of the work of art.

scapes w h e r e there are few roads, telephones, and the o t h e r trappings of industrial societies to m a k e

Deborah Karasov is a geographer and landscape architect, and editor of

simple shelters and cairns. I have taken the most

Public Art Review.

basic of materials f r o m these places to m a k e sim-

PROJECT

PITTSBURGH RIVERFRONT PROJECT R e v i e w e d by D o n a l d Miller •

•

A h u g e question plagues m a n y cities seeking rebirth: H o w

Installation artist Ann H a m i l t o n , of C o l u m b u s , O h i o , also was

can you b r i n g nature back to areas totally d o m i n a t e d by

asked to b r i n g her humanistic skills to the project. She had

concrete and asphalt? A difficult but doable plan is on the

impressed Pittsburghers with her e n v i r o n m e n t offerings, in the

boards in Pittsburgh, a city k n o w n for its post-World War

1995 C a r n e g i e International exhibition.

II renaissance and an international m o d e l for revitalizing r u n - d o w n urban cores, as well as controlling smoke and river pollution.

Van Valkenburgh and H a m i l t o n , along with artist Michael Mercil, first held a series of t o w n meetings to acquaint t h e m selves with the area and its p r o b l e m s — s p r i n g flooding s o m e -

But Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania D e p a r t m e n t of Trans-

times o c c u r s — a n d to discuss aesthetic matters with

p o r t a t i o n overdid it a b o u t 40 years ago w h e n they covered

c e r n e d residents.

the south shore of the Allegheny R i v e r flanking o n e side of Pittsburgh's G o l d e n Triangle w i t h a two-level highway paralleling the river. A limited-access bypass runs along the edge of the water while several traffic lanes d o the same 20 feet above.

con-

T h e plan for the 1 0 0 - f o o t - b y - 4 , 0 0 0 - f o o t strip has the full c o o p e r a t i o n of the City of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania D e p a r t m e n t of Transportation. T h e project was b u d g e t e d in April 1995 at $7.2 million; $5.2 million is state f u n d i n g , with the rest c o m i n g f r o m the trust. T h e project is definitely set

An o p p o r t u n i t y for change c a m e w h e n the C o m m o n w e a l t h

but has been delayed a year by a disagreement over c o n s t r u c -

of Pennsylvania decided to redesign Fort D u q u e s n e B o u l e -

tion bidding. (Unofficially, the trust and its politically savvy

vard, including those urban lanes above the lower roadway.

president, Carol R . B r o w n , are holding out for a superior contractor w h o last time a r o u n d was not the low bidder. A

T h e Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, w h i c h has added three r e n o -

n e w b i d d i n g attempt is expected soon.)

vated theaters, a R i c h a r d Haas mural, a large Japanese o u t d o o r sculpture, and a n e w street refmishing to a 10-block sec-

Van Valkenburgh and H a m i l t o n have developed a t w o - t i e r

tion o f Pittsburgh's d o w n t o w n , got involved, seeking to

park design that will not disturb traffic on the lower bypass

beautify this section of the d o w n t o w n w i t h many m o r e trees

level and will only remove o n e traffic lane f r o m the upper

and a walkway along the river.

tier. Yet both areas will b e c o m e heavily landscaped spaces d o m i n a t e d by trees—red maples, sycamores, river birch, and

T h e trust called o n Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates,

o t h e r s — f o r m i n g canopies of green.

Inc., of C a m b r i d g e , Mass., to lead a team of 25 technical e x perts to create w h a t the trust has titled the Allegheny R i v e r -

Both tiers will be linked by ramps and walkways, including

f r o n t Park. Van Valkenburgh

t w o 3 5 0 - f o o t - l o n g wheelchair ramps and a u n i q u e u n d u l a t -

chairs Harvard

University's

landscape architecture d e p a r t m e n t and has several challeng-

ing bronze railing. O n the lower level,

flood-adaptable

trees

ing projects to his credit.

w o u l d be planted near the river's edge, and there w o u l d be a

Public

Art

Review

28 SPRISUM 97

(left) Model of Allegheny Riverfront Park, 1996. (upper right) Drawing of proposed walkway and plantings along the river. (lower right) Drawing of plantings along river. Photos: courtesy Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

PROJECT

pedestrian walkway set with boulders and o t h e r

natural-

l o o k i n g surfaces.

single family houses in close-in n e i g h b o r h o o d s or suburb.) T h e Cultural Trust w o u l d love to have m o r e p e o p l e living d o w n t o w n , w h e r e they could take better advantage o f the

Still to be d e t e r m i n e d is w h e t h e r the designers will get official permission to have the lower walkway e x t e n d 16 feet over the river's present concrete floodwall, a step that w o u l d f u r t h e r naturalize the scene but w h i c h s o m e officials see as a potential shipping hazard. Riverside public parking has been b a n n e d since last year to prepare citizens for the f u t u r e park. H o w g o o d is the park's design? It w o n a citation in Architecture magazine's 1996 national c o m p e t i t i o n . In the overall sub-

Pittsburgh S y m p h o n y and theaters there that the trust and o t h e r f o u n d a t i o n s have created o u t of older buildings. Allegheny R i v e r f r o n t Park, o n c e c o m p l e t e d , w o u l d surely speed their dream. Pittsburgh has a history of c o m p l e t i n g civic p r o jects regardless of h o w l o n g it takes, and Allegheny R i v e r f r o n t Park's f u t u r e seems assured. Donald Miller is art and architecture critic at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

missions, the jurors had looked for "serious risk-taking.. .the projects reflect serious t h i n k i n g a b o u t f o r m - m a k i n g that matches the best of this M o d e r n i s t century." S u m m i n g up c o m m e n t s on the Allegheny project specifically, o n e j u r o r said, " T h e variable d a t u m of the water, and the sense of a m a n m a d e edge hovering above the plain of the water, are very beautiful. It doesn't feel like a 'landscape' scheme." In o t h e r words, this project is n o t h i n g like the routine park approaches c o m m o n to many American urban spaces. A n o t h e r added, " T h e r e is a softness and ambiguity about it. It isn't overly elaborated or filled with street f u r n i t u r e that distracts f r o m its quiet minimalism." Van Valkenburgh and H a m i l t o n have taken o n an extremely difficult project. W i t h o u t r e m o v i n g the ever-evident concrete wall, they have a t t e m p t e d to soften its impact with t w o a m phitheater-like viewing areas as well as a screening wall of chain-link fencing that will serve as a support for a long w i n d i n g hedge. Both planners expect to t u r n this heavily trafficked area into a u n i q u e green space w i t h o u t altering its roadway usage. T h e Allegheny R i v e r f r o n t Park, because of its t w o very separate levels, is unlike anything Van Valkenburgh has a t t e m p t e d b e -

Miller

fore. Still, he has w o r k e d with parks that, like this one, are susceptible to i n t e r m i t t e n t flooding. Hamilton's c o n t r i b u t i o n is the sinuous bronze railing that will be a w o r k of art in itself. Its eventual touchability is directly in line with her c o n c e r n s for the h u m a n b o d y and p e o ple in general. T h e artist's insistence o n altering horizontal concrete surfaces and the river's edge to make t h e m m o r e woods-like and thus attractive for visitors also f o r m a significant part of her artistic focus. T h e i r l o n g - r a n g e h o p e is that dense planting of trees on the u p p e r tier's level spaces will stimulate construction of f u t u r e high-rise apartments that w o u l d face the park, w h e r e there are n o w only two. D o w n t o w n Pittsburgh, with a relatively small inner core of a square mile or so, is notable for having only a few thousand residents. (Most Pittsburghers dwell in

SPRISUM 97

INTERNATIONAL

TOKYO WATERFRONT NEW CITY R e v i e w e d by L e n i S c h w e n d i n g e r a n d M a r k K r a m e r • • •

T h e Japanese approach to public art has traditionally meant old

of Yokohama—and the Fuji Television corporate headquarters

bronze statues and artisan-embellished structures in public

and studios. T h e latter is the creation of Kenzo Tange, and its

spaces. As Western-style public art programs are introduced to

brash fantasism is a good example of h o w the N e w City's

J a p a n s cityscapes, administrators and artists have risen to the

buildings tend to overshadow its site-specific public artworks

challenge with monumentally mixed results.

in scale and style.

"Public art in Japan is usually not in t u n e with the total design

At present, Rinkai Fukutoshin is the site of three discrete, hugely

o f the e n v i r o n m e n t , " observes c u r a t o r and w r i t e r Yoko

ambitious—and not entirely successful—public art programs,

Hayashi, a helpful c o m m e n t a t o r at the Musashino Art Univer-

as well as a scattering of individual "public" artworks organized

sity, Tokyo, whose public art interests date back to her own

by private entities in various N e w City commercial buildings.

very Western arts administration studies at Columbia Univer-

Two of these programs are described in this article. T h e intri-

sity. "Western public art programs tend to start earlier in the

cate processes and byzantine interplay of civic and g o v e r n m e n -

design process," observes Hayashi. " I n Japan, the artist is almost

tal agencies and private and public art entities behind these

always brought in too late to truly integrate artworks into site

projects often appear more imposing than the artworks t h e m -

designs. It's nearly impossible to create site-specific works in

selves, a predicament that expresses the unique difficulties fac-

Japan, since the architecture is often designed w i t h o u t any

ing Japan's a r t - m i n d e d public and public-minded artists.

consideration of public art." For the first program, budgeted at nine million yen (about $1 Particularly illustrative of the cultural growing pains Hayashi

million), a private art-consulting firm made a proposal to

describes are three massive public art programs scattered across

Tokyo's U r b a n Planning and Housing C o r p o r a t i o n for loca-

the windswept expanses of Rinkai Fukutoshin, or Tokyo Water-

tions and artists to create them; based on this information, sev-

front N e w City. This land-reclamation development, which

eral commercial galleries submitted their own proposals of

o p e n e d in 1995, is a holdover from Japan's b o o m - a n d - b u s t

artists and concepts. This public/private dialogue has yielded

1980s economy. Built on a Tokyo Bay landfill, the mixed-use

three site-specific N e w City artworks to date.

area—part commercial, part residential, part institutional— clearly aspires to be a city u n t o itself. O n e of Rinkai Yurikamone—an

Widely acknowledged to be a m o n g the most successfully c o n ceived and sited projects for this program is 25 Porticos—The

defining features is the futuristic

Color and Its Reflection by the prolific French artist Daniel

a u t o m a t e d seven-station m o n o r a i l system

Buren. This red-, white-, and green-striped pathway through

Fukutoshin's

snaking t h r o u g h o u t the development. Looking out f r o m Yurika-

13-foot-tall square archways connects m o n o c h r o m a t i c apart-

mone's windows, riders to the N e w City can see a panoramic

m e n t buildings near an artificial beach. Buren's symmetrical yet

view o f T o k y o and the illuminated R a i n b o w Bridge.

whimsical stripes enliven the area with color and multiplying

A m o n g Rinkai Fukutoshin's m o r e popularly regarded architectural offerings are the 350,000-square-foot "Big Sight" Tokyo Exhibition C e n t e r - s i t e of the annual Tokyo Art Fair, formerly

shadows, capturing N e w City's synthetic, polyglot flavor. Hayashi believes there is an apparent incongruity between Buren's subject and context: " M y association as a Japanese is of a series of red gates at a Shinto shrine—there are many shrines in Japan with red arches of similar scale to Buren's. Worshipers walk through the w o o d e n red arches describing a path to the main shrine. T h e n there is the incongruous association with France: You still see these stripes on beach house awnings in the south of France." T h e second N e w City project bears certain similarities to p e r c e n t - f o r - a r t programs in the U n i t e d States. Sponsored by Tokyo's Municipal Bureau of Labor and E c o n o m i c Affairs, this project allocated a budget for public art f r o m the total c o n struction cost of the exhibition center (.24 percent or 450 million yen). Kenzo Tange, architect, Fuji-TV building, 1995. Photo by Yoko Haysahi

INTERNATIONAL (left) Daniel Buren, 25 PorticosThe Color and Its Reflection, 1995. ( b o t t o m ) Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, See, Sawing, 1995. Photos byYoko Hayashi

and courtesans depicted in Japanese prints. T h e work's subject matter—A flotilla of the everyday including a chair, TV, u m brella, ladder, n o t e b o o k , light-bulb, table—is a meditation on the invasion of absurdist Western m o n o c u l t u r e into the o n c e ritualized precincts of Japanese life and culture. S o m e w h a t lost in N e w City's imposing multimedia j u m b l e is respected Japanese artist E m i k o Kasahara's Types #3.

Untitled-Three

Observes Hayashi of Kasahara's three rectilinear

stone volumes, " T h e r e is n o relationship b e t w e e n this w o r k and its site, w h i c h is b e h i n d the b u i l d i n g . . . T h e works are way t o o small for the scale of the s u r r o u n d i n g e n v i r o n m e n t , and are rather difficult to find. Really, n o o n e goes nearby except the delivery m e n . " Rinkai Fukutoshin's altogether uneven array o f artworks recalls the Western public art p h e n o m e n o n in the 1980s k n o w n as O n e of the most successful projects at the Exhibition C e n t e r was designed by Hidetoshi Nagasawa, a Japanese sculptor living in Italy. T h e waterwork Seven Springs, fabricated from Spanish, Italian, French, and Portuguese marble, is surrounded by a N a gasawa-designed landscape. As the title suggests, seven springs spurt water at different intervals, their rhythms creating a playfully musical atmosphere. Unfortunately, a nearby artificial p o n d exuding artificial fog every 15 minutes competes with Seven Springs. Public art specialist Hayashi explains, "Nagasawasan is said to have d e m a n d e d a change in the design of the landscape of the area w h e n he was commissioned. But the architect's p o n d remained; in fact, the design of the p o n d does

"plop a r t " — t h e relatively indiscriminate practice of imposing oversized " f i n e " art o n public spaces. Japan has yet to adopt the master-planning techniques developed over the last decade by the U n i t e d States and Europe, jointly crafted by designers and artists, with c o m m u n i t y involvement. In contrast, siting decisions in Japanese public art programs are almost exclusively selected by a c o m m i t t e e of city officials and credentialed experts or an architect. Declares Hayashi,"Although there are n o o p e n competitions, and the voices of y o u n g artists are not often reflected, the first and third N e w City plans owe their [limited] successes [only to the] degree of artist participation in selection and planning."

not correspond with his garden very much." T h e values playing o u t across the N e w City's broad concrete A n o t h e r focal point of this N e w City public art zone is the Claes O l d e n b u r g / C o o s j e van Bruggen piece See, Sawing. At 51 feet tall, this

flame-orange

and metallic-colored hand tool is

canvas are laudable, yet arts administrators and artists alike must confront, through inclusive selection processes, w h a t Hayashi calls " t h e history or culture of the sites."

the largest artwork in the complex. Its Pop-inflected design contrasts pleasingly with the hard, no-nonsense surfaces sur-

Leni Schwendinger makes environmental sculptures and lightworks. Mark

rounding it, thus bringing N e w City into O l d e n b u r g and van

Kramer's large-scale textual sculptures are scattered across the Internet.

Bruggen s worldwide oeuvre of humorous, alarmingly sized public art objects. O n the other hand, Seiji Uchida's Round Structure—a grouping of curved steel beams installed in a park between buildings near Telecom C e n t e r — i s more typical of the abstract steel sculptures adorning train-station plazas, corporate headquarters, and city halls t h r o u g h o u t Japan. Round Structure is richly derivative of Calder's plaza stabiles, and seems to be conceived with an eye to relieving its rigidly m o n o c h r o m a t i c site with an undulant splash of red. Elsewhere, British artist Michael Craig-Martin has contributed a curved, acrylic-on-canvas mural sited in the exhibition c e n ter's lecture hall lobby. Titled Floating World, Craig-Martin directly invokes the now-vanished "floating world" of the geisha

SPR SUN 97

CONFERENCE

DESIGNED LANDSCAPE FORUM R e v i e w e d by Anita B e r r i z b e i t i a •

•

San Francisco, November 9-11, 1996 T h e 1996 Designed Landscape F o r u m was a long overdue event. Unlike any o t h e r m e e t i n g of landscape-related disciplines, its m a i n impetus was an interest in the role of criticism in designing and interpreting landscapes. T h e invitation was m a d e by the newly organized Designed Landscape F o r u m , based in Berkeley, California, w h o s e m e m b e r s are all trying, in the words of C o n f e r e n c e Chair G e o r g e Hargreaves,"to move away f r o m the decorative diagram." T h e event consisted of f o u r parts: the submission of entries in slide f o r m , a day-long conference at the San Francisco M u -

Some of the best examples from

seum of M o d e r n Art, an exhibit of the works submitted, and a

the submissions:

p o s t - c o n f e r e n c e discussion about next steps. A b o u t 250 e n -

(top) Douglas Reed (design

tries were submitted f r o m around the world, nearly four times

development and construction)

the response for the A m e r i c a n Society of Landscape Architects

and Child Associates (schematic

annual awards program. However, the majority of submissions

design and grading), Therapeutic

were f r o m landscape architects; submissions f r o m related disci-

Garden for Children,Wellesley, Mass.,

plines were under-represented, a disappointment for the organizers and participants alike (although perhaps not surprising given the $75 fee, excessive for many artists, required simply to

1995-96. Photo by Douglas Reed ( r i g h t ) Jeanine Centuori and

submit slides). Entries represented a w i d e range of landscape

Karen Bermann, The African

types: f r o m private gardens to c o r p o r a t e headquarters to p u b -

Burial Ground, N.Y., 1993.

lic parks, although less conventional landscapes, such as edges and n e i g h b o r h o o d spaces, were nearly absent. T h e panelists included w e l l - k n o w n landscape architects f r o m the U n i t e d States, Mexico, and Europe: C h r i s t o p h e Girot,

Photo: courtesy the artists ( b o t t o m ) Alan Berger, Douglass SPARK Park. Photo by the artist

R i c a r d o Legorreta, Michael M a n w a r i n g , Laurie Olin, Adele Santos, and M a r t h a Schwartz; writers Elizabeth Meyer, J o h n Beardsley, Marc Treib, and James C o r n e r ; and artists M a r y Miss and D o u g H o l l i s . T h e intention was for the panelists to discuss their insights on the projects, which they had reviewed a day before. Public

O n e of the most productive functions for the critics in such an event is to decontextualize the work, that is, relate the work to

Art

Review

the interpretive frameworks of other disciplines.This potentially generates new metaphors, expands the project's influence, and widens m u c h - n e e d e d networks. Clearly, the success of the 1996 Designed Landscape Forum depends not only on the quality of the work submitted, but also on the work of the panelists. Unfortunately, the results were uneven: In its best m o m e n t s the work discussed became a pre-text to discuss broader c o n -

SPR SUM n

cerns; in its worst m o m e n t s the discussion remained centered a r o u n d formal issues. If the f o r u m wants to move away from the idea of landscape as a decorative diagram, it should explore the m e a n i n g of the w o r k in the praxis of life—the significance in reinforcing or reflecting social practices, its status within the broad spectrum of cultural production. At this m o m e n t in the

T h e 1996 Designed Landscape F o r u m was w i t h o u t d o u b t a watershed event w h o s e contribution will m o r e likely be c u mulative, as the f o r u m publishes its proceedings and elicits m o r e critical interpretations. It will certainly behoove us all to watch for the next call for entries in the spring.

d e v e l o p m e n t of the discipline, it seems that this, and not f o r -

Anita Berrizbeitia is Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the

mal analysis, is the most urgent task.

Harvard Graduate School of Design.

EPIPHANY Sandra Lopez and TerryTempest Williams • • • Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Terra Nova, Volume I, Number 2 (spring 1996), representing opening remarks by book artist Sandra Lopez and author Terry Tempest Williams. They appeared together at the "Artists and Environment" panel at the 1993 Land, Air, Water Conference, University of Oregon, and collaborated to create a one-of-a-kind book titled Epiphany. Together they described their art and creation.

Terry Tempest Williams: O u r commitment to revisionmg and rebuilding community is not a game. It is not us versus them; it is not power over, or for, or against; it is a loving embrace. We must be willing to listen in the same manner we are asking others to listen to us. As we approach the twenty-first century as an environmental community, I hope we hold close to that, realizing the environmental movement is a collaboration.

Sandra Lopez: I am a book artist who has lived in the same place for nearly 23 years. The art that I practice and the place that I live, which is the forests of the McKenzie River valley just east of Eugene, Oregon, are inextricably bound together. The art that I work in attempts to challenge and expand the ways of seeing the world, and the land is a constant source of ideas, of patterns, of beauty, and of nourishment.

As a writer I am interested in relations, deep relations, the patterns that emerge through a conscious life, through a committed life. I am interested in collaboration, the alchemical marriage that exists when seemingly disparate elements merge. Call it friction by fire. O n e plus one equals three. Something new is created much more than the isolation of the separated two. The whole is more than the sum of the parts. Sandy and I were interested in this creative third: Could we create together simply through the truth of our lives? An object, a sentence, each day an emotional response distilled through the object, through the sentence...

When I tell people I am a book artist, they often think of someone who illustrates books; that is not what a book artist does. A book artist is a person who considers and thinks about the physical form of the book. In the Western European culture books are what we have chosen to preserve and to pass on information. We give a great deal of power to words, and we give a great deal of validity to people who use and publish words. Books are so familiar to us that I think often we do not think the form can influence the content. W h e n you use Western books, you look at the information line by line, page by page; they are square objects. For the most part they include what our culture considers important and exclude what our culture doesn't consider important. Historically that has often been women because women haven't been educated and often haven't been published. Oral cultures don't fit into our books except by extreme translation, and the entire universe of nonhumans really has to be severely translated and changed to fit into the form we use that we call books. As a book artist concerned with these other voices, I have tried to approach the form of books not by trying to translate the other voices into the book form, but by trying to change the book form so it is possible that other voices can live there, or at least be more welcome... O n e of the most important things that has come to me in thinking about my craft is a confrontation with permanence. Western books and often people who are binders of Western books are very concerned that their books will last forever. Binders bind books that will still be here acid-free and whole in 300 years with words intact. I use objects from nature in my books; they change, they decay, they admit that we die. I think that is one of the most important things we need to acknowledge: we are biological entities inside a universe that changes and dies. We have visions of immortality, but in fact, we are part of this universe...

The adage that we have been raised within the women's movement—the personal is political, the political is personal—kept ringing in my mind. Struggling with that notion. As writers, what are our obligations to a public life and the spiritual necessity for a private one, and how do we weigh that? Am I an activist, or am I an artist? D o I stay home, or do I speak out? What is that essential gesture that Nadine Gordimer speaks about? When Edward Abbey calls for a writer to be a critic of his or her society, do we live on the page or do we live in the world? In these moments at home, in this deep winter, I realized, as I have always known when I am at center, that an artistic life is a passionate life, a life engaged. My life as a writer, my life as an activist, is the same life. I respond out of my heart—mutable, intuitive, and supple. Boundaries are fluid, not fixed. Imagination may be more necessary than facts. O u r task is to listen, to be able to enter that lightening region of the soul, of our c o m munities. O u r thought and action are transformed into art, the art of experience, shared lives in a shared landscape. In the simple and textured nieanderings of the day, one plus one equals three. Relations, deep relations, collaboration. Through Epiphany, Sandy and I committed to the dailiness of our lives, to the stories that compose our lives. We committed to our relationship, to each other, and our relationship to the land—to the art of experience, that third thing. So many times in the course of these 60 days we said, "Is there anything else?" The dailiness, the texture, the stories of our lives. Sandra Lopez is a book artist whose works are in collections at the University ofWashington, and The National Museum of W o m e n in the Arts. Terry Tempest Williams is the author of the best-selling Refuge. Her most recent book is Desert Quartet.

BOOK

WILD CITY R e v i e w e d by Paula Pentel •

•

Edited by David Rothenberg

O n e objective for those w h o seek to insinuate environmental-

Terra Nova: Nature and Culture,Vol. I, N o . 4, Fall 1996

ism into city development and redevelopment is to change the

Cambridge:The M I T Press

attitudes of decision-makers. T h e urban planner

155 pages, $9®

Harrison

Bright R u e contends that through the training of citizen

We are in the business of changing attitudes, and

planners, local c o m m u n i t i e s can develop a shared vision that

again, w e are in the business of essentially chang-

considers, incorporates, and protects natural systems. In c o n -

ing some values over the next generation, and at

trast, planner R o b e r t Yaro and writer Tony Hiss suggest that

the same time w e are interested in having s o m e

regional approaches, such as regional transportation systems,

tangible things h a p p e n . . . T h e way you change at-

can provide guidance for future development that enhances

titudes is in part demonstrating n e w ideas o n the

existing urban areas and protects natural hinterland. In both

ground.

approaches the authors use demonstration projects as a way to challenge values, educate stakeholders, and garner consensus — R o b e r t Yaro o n the role of planners

for approaches that will allow cities to " g r o w smart."

Terra Nova describes itself as "a n e w j o u r n a l that seeks to u n derstand the ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic aspects of the h u m a n relationship to nature." This, the f o u r t h issue of Terra Nova: Nature

and Culture, takes as its organizational

motit

" W i l d City." T h e audience for this intentionally interdiscipli-

T h e broad scope of the works and views showcased in this j o u r n a l reflect the myriad of ways o u r landscapes are interpreted and acted u p o n . Against this hyperplurality of intentions, the continuing challenge to those w h o seek to effect change is to sustain a shared vision of future.

nary quarterly is similar to its contributors, namely those w h o are rooted in the academic, literary, or art world and write,

Paula R. Pentel is a Ph.D. candidate in geography at the University of Minnesota.

think, or teach about nature. T h r o u g h erudite poetry, prose, and effective as well as a b u n -

ROBERT SMITHSON: THE COLLECTED WRITINGS

dant visuals, " W i l d C i t y " presents visions of nature in the

R e v i e w e d by Heather Wainwright

places w h e r e c o u n t r y and city, wild and urban, intersect. Editor David R o t h e n b e r g observes that "it is in these forgotten places that the real battle to reclaim nature will be fought. W h a t will happen to the dying hamlets of America being replaced by highways and strip malls? We need visions

Edited by Jack Flam Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996 389 pages, $24«

for these places..." Any examination of nature and culture provokes u n i q u e as well as cross-cutting themes of interpre-

In the illusory babels of language, an artist might

tation, meaning, and intent. T h e

result in this case is a

advance specifically to get lost, and to intoxicate

provocative, informative, and sometimes enlightening collec-

himself in dizzying syntaxes, seeking o d d intersec-

tion f r o m a broad array of critical thinkers. Issues addressed

tions of meaning, strange corridors of history, u n -

by the 18 contributors range from Taoist musings on the sa-

expected echoes, u n k n o w n humors, or voids of

credness of everyday objects to a typology of communities

k n o w l e d g e . . . b u t this quest is risky, full of b o t -

of the future.

tomless fictions and endless architectures...at the

T w o general organizing themes include reinsinuation of the

less reverberations.

end, if there is an end, are perhaps only m e a n i n g wild into t a m e d spaces and developing a planning paradigm that values and preserves natural systems.The ability of nature to reclaim h u m a n settlements is demonstrated in novelist Gustaf Sobin's laconic essay on the prehistoric h u m a n settlements washed over by m u d flats of the Etang de l ' O r in s o u t h e r n France, and in Sarah Greer Mecklem's d o c u m e n t a tion of nature's progressive o c c u p a t i o n of an a b a n d o n e d hotel in the Catskills. In a slightly different vein, architectural w r i t e r T h o m a s Campanella offers a fine description of the

— R o b e r t Smithson M o r e than 20 years after his accidental death, R o b e r t S m i t h son remains a seminal figure in the field of environmental art. R e g a r d e d as a pioneer in both theory and practice, Smithson and his work continue to be the subject of national and international exhibitions, as well as n u m e r o u s articles, catalogues, and books. A valuable addition to this literature is the recent edition of Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings.

sometimes indelible t h o u g h o p a q u e i m p r i n t that natural systems have m a d e in both the lore and built e n v i r o n m e n t of

Edited by Jack Flam, this volume is revised and expanded from

urban areas.

the 1979 edition edited by N a n c y Holt and contains m o r e

BOOK

than 25 previously unpublished texts. Flouting most all liter-

graphic Fiction t u r n o u r expectations a b o u t language, text, and

ary genres, Smithson's writings run the gamut, f r o m artist's

landscape inside out. N o t only did Smithson e x p e r i e n c e land-

proposals, statements, and c o m m e n t a r i e s to insightful analysis

scape as text, as place of discourse, and as that w h i c h could be

of other artists' works to theory and meta-criticism to texts

read, he built language like architecture, keenly aware of the

that are best " r e a d " as n o t h i n g short of works of art.

weight and physicality of it. At times Smithson's w r i t i n g takes on a poetic aspect, w h e r e words are the landscape to be e x -

Flam retains the first volume's organizational structure, dividing the texts into three sections—published writings, interviews, and unpublished writings, with each section organized chronologically.This structure allows the reader to see the d e velopment and maturation of Smithson's concerns and ideas, an evolution that Smithson saw as c o n n e c t e d to his work: "[the writing] comes out of my sensibility—it comes out of my own observation. It sort of parallels my actual art involve-

plored rather than u n d e r s t o o d , to be e x p e r i e n c e d physically and viscerally, rather than intellectually or analytically: " L o o k at any word l o n g e n o u g h and you will see it o p e n up into a series of faults, into a terrain of particles each c o n t a i n i n g its o w n void." Smithson's account of landscape as text, of m i n d as terrain, of perspective as dynamic relationship, remain s o m e o f the most rich and exciting material within the discourse of environmental art.

m e n t . T h e two coincide; o n e informs the other." O f particular interest is Smithson's c o n c e r n with time: time o n a scale b e -

For all its w o r t h , The Collected Writings is often an esoteric and

yond m u n d a n e experience and analytic understanding, w h i c h

enigmatic read. This is n o t a criticism so m u c h as a warning.

enters his work and writings vis-a-vis his attention to entropy

Smithson has his o w n language; he resides and revels in a m b i -

and crystalline structure.

guities, and his w o r k tends to slip o u t f r o m u n d e r fixed and

For instance, m u c h of Smithson's work is " e n t r o p y

made

visible." C o r r o b o r a t i n g w i t h forces of decay and dissolution, history and time, his w o r k reveals the slow spiraling descent toward diffusion and equilibrium. As in Rundown

Asphalt

and Partially Buried Woodshed, Smithson saw e n -

tropic forces equally at w o r k in the urban sprawl of suburbs, as well as in language and t h o u g h t itself. " O n e ' s m i n d and the earth are in a constant state of

erosion...brain

waves u n d e r m i n e cliffs of t h o u g h t , ideas d e c o m p o s e

into

stones of u n k n o w i n g , and conceptual crystallizations break apart into deposits of gritty reason." Also visible t h r o u g h o u t Smithson's writings is his fierce and unapologetic critique of m o d e r n i s t art theory. Smithson's attitude toward the traditional categories of art—painting, sculpture, architecture—is n o t h i n g short of c o n t e m p t u o u s ; he sees t h e m not as heuristic devices of u n d e r s t a n d i n g and discernment, but as political tools of c o n f i n e m e n t and disenfranchisement. In his view, such categories operate

neat interpretations. O t h e r than a brief introduction, Flam o f fers n o analysis o r criticism, leaving the reader w o n d e r f u l l y or woefully o n her o w n . It's also w o r t h n o t i n g that The Collected Writings is not a b o o k best read cover to cover. D u e to the n a ture of the texts presented and the f o r m a t Flam uses, there is significant repetition b e t w e e n the texts and the interviews, and a m o n g the interviews themselves.Yet in my m i n d , n o n e of this should deter prospective readers, particularly anyone seriously interested in environmental art. W h i l e The

Collected

Writings create a linguistic landscape rich and strange, its reverberations are anything but meaningless. Heather Wainwright is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota.

THE THINGS YOU SEE WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE A GRENADE!: DANIEL j. MARTINEZ R e v i e w e d by B i o d u n Iginla • • •

c o m m o d i t y art, to alienate the artist f r o m his t i m e and work, thereby setting apart an i n d e p e n d e n t and

timeless

David Levi Strauss, et al.

" o b j e c t " of appreciation and value. Attacks on formalism

Santa Monica: Small A r t Press, 1996

are n o t h i n g new, yet Smithson's critique retains currency,

I 19 pages

particularly at a t i m e w h e n scholarly t h e o r y is r e t u r n i n g to questions of artistic process and value and the relationship b e t w e e n the two.

O v e r the last decade of the culture wars in the U n i t e d States, n u m e r o u s "politics of t r u t h " have operated to shield the spaces of art p r o d u c t i o n f r o m political and social j u d g m e n t s

W h e r e Smithson's earthworks and site/non-site pieces chal-

in order to " p r e s e r v e " transcendental values o f the priceless-

lenged the artificial limits of the art world, his writings do the

ness, timelessness, and finality of art. H o w e v e r , c o n t e m p o r a r y

same for our concepts of literature. Pieces like

Quasi-Infinities

artistic practices have challenged the n o t i o n of art as a u -

and The Waning of Space, A Heap of Language, Language to Be

t o n o m o u s f r o m history, society, and politics. T h e s e artistic-

Looked at and /or Things to Be Read, and Strata—A

practices are g r o u n d e d in the belief that discourses o f T r u t h

Geophoto-

BOOK

and Beauty (which fuel the politics of truth) are actually agents of power, that there is a complicity between so-called disinterested aesthetic visual regimes and political and institutional power. In turn, these practices have attracted highly charged political attacks from the cultural right, as well as from "family values" politicians opposed to government funding of the arts. The Things You See When You Don't Have a Grenade is a significant contribution to these contexts.The book presents the history of the work and ideas of Daniel J. Martinez, a multimedia artist who lives in California, and combines assorted examples (amply illustrated in color and black-and-white photographs) of his projects with critical essays on his work by other artists and critics. These contributors include David Levi Strauss, a New York writer and critic; Coco Fusco, a New York interdisciplinary artist and writer; Chicago curator Mary Jane Jacob; Susan Otto, a Los Angeles-based cross-media artist and writer; Victor Zamudio Taylor, an interdisciplinary cultural critic and doctoral candidate at Princeton University; and R o b e r t o Bedoya, a Los Angeles writer, curator, and arts administrator. "Between Dog & Wolf: To Have Been Dangerous for a T h o u sandth of a Second" by David Levi Strauss is the book's key essay. Levi Strauss begins with a reference to Walter Benjamin, who, he infers, made the clearest statement on the relationship of art and politics: Only art that is good aesthetically can be good politically. Bad art cannot be politically correct; bad art is bad politically. O n c e this is understood, Levi Strauss says, denunciations of politically committed art that maintain that a work is aesthetically worthwhile or is politically correct become irrelevant.

Some of Martinez's "interventions" that exemplify this precarious incendiary tightrope walk and are represented in this book include: — Quality of Life (Seattle, 1990-91), where Martinez put up Socratic banners on downtown streets posing simple questions about social inequalities, and split the city in half—attacking or defending the banners. — T h e 1991 design with collaborators R e n e Petropoulos and Roger F. White for a milliondollar public art project on the gentrifying street in front of the new Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, spelling out the words "This Isa Nice Neighborhood," again igniting outrageous responses and passionate defenses. — His response to the 1993 Whitney Biennial, when his original proposal—to plaster the front of the museum with the statement "In the rich man's house the only place to spit is in his face"—was rejected. Martinez then decided to confront the N e w York viewing public at the door with redesigned museum tags that when put together spelled out "I Can't Imagine Ever Wanting to Be White." The biennial eventually became the focus of an almost unanimous expression of censure and vitriol for its so-called politically correct art. Martinez had the honor of being the No. 1 target of defenders of high-aesthetic art, thus becoming the prime scapegoat of the multiculturalism backlash.

Levi Strauss then quotes author Jean Genet on the role of lit-

stroys bourgeois values. T h e n there is another kind of artistic work, essentially violent and inflammatory, in the sense that it refuses to submit to any value or to any authority...It is the duty of the revolution to encourage its adversaries...

T h e critical essays by the diverse contributors and the artistic examples in the book point out again and again that what is at stake in Martinez's artistic practice is nothing less than the production—and subsequent politicization—of public space. Mary Jane Jacob argues that Martinez deconstructs public space; instead of creating an art of formal analysis, he analyzes the social content of public places through an examination of their history, social and economic associations, underlying assumptions, and so forth, and uses these contextual definitions to spatially construct a political position.

L e v j Strauss situates the various artistic "interventions" of Martinez—who specializes in site-installation art—in Genet's liminal space between dog and wolf, that is, dusk, when the two can't be distinguished—the space of half-hope, half-fear that a dog might at any moment be transformed into a wolf. It is precisely in that unheimlich overdetermined site where an artwork could turn violent and inflammatory.

Levi Strauss observes that what Martinez does in all these polemical public art projects is to isolate inflammatory topics in such a way that existing repressed conflicts are forced out into the open (as in the case of the 1993 Whitney Biennial), thereby implying that public space is produced not by consensus, but through conflict, debate, and the clash of competing claims.

erature and art in liberation struggles: Public

Art

Review

SPR|SUM

In my view artistic work is of two kinds...On the one hand there is work which serves the revolution; this is constructive in the sense that it de-

BOOK

It is n o w widely assumed that there are political investments

T h e artists and the artworks profiled in this volume, however,

behind any cultural production in all its aspects of display, l o -

t h r o w that equation into disarray. A reinvigorated practice of

cation, representation, c o n s u m p t i o n , and capital. This b o o k

public art relinquishes permanency, questions monumentality,

shows that artists like Martinez w h o came into the scene in

explores the relationship b e t w e e n public and private in the

the late 1980s and w h o deployed ethnicity as the g r o u n d i n g

"public realm," and recasts the relationship of both the art and

for interventions of all kinds not only p r o d u c e d art as expres-

the artist to their cultural and physical environments.

sions of identity, but also reinvigorated art as a social and p o litical critique, designing a renewed role for public art as a platform for public issues. Also, by incorporating various c o m ponents from the n e w media and n e w technologies (what is usually k n o w n as digital culture) into his work, Martinez manages to preserve the status of a work of art as an aesthetic object in its own right. His multilayered and multilingual work therefore straddles the precarious line b e t w e e n art and politics, being and doing, essential and c o n t i n g e n t — b e t w e e n dog and wolf.

Artist Gilbert Boyer, for instance, observes in an i n t e r v i e w that t e m p o r a r y installations and exhibits allow m o r e flexibility and e x p e r i m e n t a t i o n as well as novel explorations of space and time: " T h e work does not have to deal w i t h the timelessness of the m o n u m e n t . . .it can e x p e r i e n c e and t o u c h the u r gency of the situation." M a t t h e w Dalziel and Louise Scullion explicitly draw o n a range of life experiences in their art, r e t u r n i n g to the t h e m e of the relationship b e t w e e n

humans

and nature. Such a relationship is d y n a m i c and personal, n o t the stuff of m o n u m e n t s per se. For t h e m , public art "is a b o u t

Small Art Press has p r o d u c e d a highly crucial b o o k paving the

h u m a n beings and that complexity of the duality of b e i n g

path for the future of public art as a highly controversial prac-

physical and b e i n g cerebral and the responsibility that goes

tice that blends local talent with global issues, mediates aes-

w i t h that."

thetics and politics, and mates art objects with design, architecture,

and

public

spaces. D a n i e l J. Martinez's

work

demonstrates art as a p o s t - c o n t e m p o r a r y transformative and critical aesthetics c o m b i n i n g technology, ecology, the body, and an assortment of social, cultural, and political practices. Biodun Iginla is a freelance writer and media consultant who divides his time among Minneapolis, New York, and Paris.

Many of these works play with the psychology of the public and private realms of social life. Boyer's Soupirs (Northern

ity, projecting voices into a dark cellar while leaving the listener at the gate, while his I Looked for Sarah

Everywhere

places fragmentary evidence of a private search for a lost acquaintance on granite slabs in a public park. Perhaps the most lovely of the works profiled. Christian Marclay's

PUBLIC ART, ART AND DESIGN PROFILE NO. 46^ R e v i e w e d by Hilda Kurtz •

•

Nord

Sighs) c o n f r o n t s t h e m e s of privacy and accessibil-

Ampli-

fication installation in the C h u r c h of San Stae at the 1995 Venice Biennale, was observed by c o n t r i b u t o r Russel F e r g u son to "[hover] s o m e w h e r e b e t w e e n private m e m o r y a n d public space." Amplification

filled the nave of the church w i t h

six translucent c o t t o n scrims, each b e a r i n g an enlarged p h o tograph of ordinary p e o p l e playing musical instruments. T h e Guest edited by Amanda C r a b t r e e

ambivalently public space o f the church, used for musical

London: Academy Group, Ltd., 1996

p e r f o r m a n c e and private c e r e m o n y alike, was a suggestive

96 pages, $29'-s

s u r r o u n d i n g for the p h o t o g r a p h s of private m u s i c - m a k i n g in living r o o m s and landscapes.

Public Art, Art and Design Profile No. 46 is a lavishly illustrated f o r u m on the c o n t e m p o r a r y status of public art. T h r o u g h i n -

Like the public art discussed here by curator M a r y Jane Jacob,

terviews, illustrations, and short articles representing the work

this issue of^4rf and Design contributes to a " r e - a n i m a t e d dis-

of predominantly European artists, the volume otTers t h o u g h t -

course . . . about the relationship of art to its socio-cultural and

provoking c o m m e n t a r y on public art f r o m those most directly

historical setting and the interface b e t w e e n artist, c o m m u n i t y

involved and opens the practice of public art to consideration

and audience." W h i l e getting t h r o u g h s o m e of the i n t r o d u c -

from several angles.

tory w r i t i n g in the issue may prove a bit o f a chore, it is well

Historically practiced at some remove f r o m the critical c o n text of the art establishment, public art has often been rele-

w o r t h doing; the multiple voices and perspectives o n public art are t h o u g h t - p r o v o k i n g indeed.

gated to dressing up urban spaces, w i t h a r e c u r r i n g emphasis

Hilda Kurtz has a background in fine art, and is a Ph.D. student in geogra-

on a m o n u m e n t a l i t y u n d e r w r i t t e n by a concern for p e r m a -

phy at the University of Minnesota.

nency, durability, and ease of maintenance.

LETTERS

To the editors:

Ginzel, Yukinori Yanagi's Atlantic, Betye Saar's three pieces,

I was surprised to see the inaccurate r e p o r t i n g about the A r t h u r Ashe M o n u m e n t

in C y n t h i a Abramson's

article,

" H e r o A m o n g C o n f e d e r a t e s " (PAR F a l l / W i n t e r 1996). I have 13 publicly available d o c u m e n t s w h i c h refute, point by point, her claims that the public review process was not followed.

and Vito Acconci's High Rise of Trees. T h e s e works were i n t e n d e d to contrast the m o n u m e n t a l i t y of o t h e r commissions in my program, especially the Siah A r m a j a n i and Tony Cragg works, and had the reviewer been m o r e clear o n w h o p r o d u c e d what, the [reader] might have realized that.

Had she either talked with m e or b e e n less narrow in her re-

I also want to address the issue of what happens to the

search, she w o u l d have certainly seen b e y o n d the single-sided

works, contrary to Kristin Jones' surprising statement that

stories w h i c h the provincial opposition gladly fed her.

w e folded up the tent and disappeared! (We did have a p r o -

Abramson stands b e h i n d her claim that a better site than a traffic rotary could have been chosen if m o r e public process were involved. Ironically, it was the R e s i d e n t N e i g h b o r h o o d C o m m i t t e e w h i c h argued for and insisted o n the traffic island site for reasons of aesthetics, safety, and

consistency

w i t h the o t h e r m o n u m e n t s o n M o n u m e n t Avenue. S p e n d ing her time with and n o t seeing b e y o n d simplified political hubris, A b r a m s o n allows for n o discussion on p e r t i n e n t issues such as the artist-proactive origin of this project, or the social, historical and aesthetic rediscovery of the place that M o n u m e n t Avenue is for this entire c o m m u n i t y .

j e c t manager for her piece, as well as the o t h e r t e m p o r a r y works, o n payroll a week or two beyond the conclusion of her project.) T h e Michael C. Carlos M u s e u m at E m o r y University was in charge of o u r o t h e r five t e m p o r a r y p r o jects. T h e p e r m a n e n t ownership of the p e r m a n e n t

works

was m o r e c o m p l e x to arrange for and in s o m e cases legal matters are still b e i n g finalized |as of January 1997], but essentially the C r a g g will likely go to the High M u s e u m ; the Pladevall is o w n e d by the state of Georgia, w h i c h manages Centennial

Olympic

Park; the t h r e e APOL projects

are

o w n e d by the City of Atlanta's Bureau of Cultural Affairs, w h i c h will also likely o w n the Navarro mural; and the Armajani cauldron has b e c o m e an object of public debate d e -

Paul Di Pasquale

spite the fact that the Atlanta Fulton C o u n t y

Sculptor of the A r t h u r Ashe m o n u m e n t

Authority

R i c h m o n d , Va.

owns

it.

All

expectations

are

Recreation that

the

Atlanta Braves will maintain the work for AFCRA; it's true Cynthia Abramson responds:

that 1 could not get anyone to resolve these issues p r i o r to and d u r i n g the O l y m p i c Games, but b o t h the artist and I

T h e artist has m a d e materials available to m e w h i c h c o n t r a -

felt that we should go ahead anyway.

dict those newspaper accounts and o t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t the Ashe m o n u m e n t ' s c o m m i s s i o n i n g and review process on

Annette

DiMeo

Carlozzi

w h i c h 1 based the unavoidably brief synopsis of these p r o c e -

C u r a t o r of A m e r i c a n and C o n t e m p o r a r y Art

dures for my article. M y apologies for w h a t the artist has d e -

T h e University of Texas at Austin

scribed as a lack of thoroughness on my part. However, 1 c o n t e n d that the p o i n t of my article holds true: T h e o p p o r t u n i t y to create a m e a n i n g f u l " p l a c e " for dialogue about R i c h m o n d ' s past and future, as well as a placemaker Review

for

the n e i g h b o r h o o d and city, w h i c h the Ashe m o n u m e n t

represented, has been lost in the attendant political w r a n gling and social t u r m o i l in w h i c h the artist, the c o m m u n i t y 38

and even this w r i t e r has b e c o m e unwittingly entangled. • •

SPRS | UM 97

Clarification Siah Armajani's w o r k on Staten Island in Public Art

# 1 5 was a project commissioned by N.Y. P e r c e n t - f o r - A r t . •

•

To the editors:

Review

•

Public Art Review (PAR) requests that letters be addressed "To

I w o u l d like to clarify s o m e inaccuracies in the recent cov-

the E d i t o r " and sent to 2324 University Avenue West, Suite

1996

102, Saint Paul, MN, 55114, or e-mailed to forecast@mtn.org.

O l y m p i c Games. T h e r e was c o h e r e n c e to the projects, e.g.,

Letters must include the writer's address and telephone n u m -

the series of t e m p o r a r y projects I curated for the Cultural

ber and should not exceed 250 words. PAR reserves the right

O l y m p i a d , including the work by Kristin Jones and A n d r e w

to edit letters to its style and length requirements.

erage of the Cultural O l y m p i a d in Atlanta for the

RECENT

PROJECTS

installed at t h e f o o t o f t h e

C o n s t r u c t i o n of a m o n u m e n t

seven drivers saying, " I f I stay

An a n t i - v i o l e n c e mural painted

o n the PLAZA DEL HERRERO

here a n o t h e r year, I d o u b t I'll

by C u b a n - A m e r i c a n artist

Washington M o n u m e n t a n d t h e

( " T H E PLAZA OF THE BLACK-

be alive."

Xavier C o r t a d a and P u e r t o

C a p i t o l for three days. P h o t o s o f

SMITHS") in C u e n c a , E c u a d o r ,

R i c a n youths f r o m a blighted

t h e FORECAST-sponsored event

has been scheduled for c o m p l e -

R o y F. Staab participated in the

N o r t h Philadelphia

w e r e p r i n t e d in t h e

tion in M a r c h . T h e m o n u m e n t

Arts Festival of K a m o g a w a ,

n e i g h b o r h o o d was featured in a

Post, the New York Times, and

and plaza design, f r o n t i n g the

C h i b a , Japan, this past s u m m e r

g r o u p s h o w at L o n g w o o d Arts

n e w s p a p e r s a r o u n d t h e globe.

newly restored National C e -

as part of the NEA J a p a n / u . S .

Gallery, B r o n x , N.Y. T i t l e d THE

Sisson h o p e s t h e a t t e n t i o n will

ramic M u s e u m , is by ceramic

Creative Artist E x c h a n g e

CONDITION OF PANDEMICS:

help o t h e r s start similar p r o -

artist Christy H e n g s t , i r o n -

Fellowship for 1 9 9 6 . T h e g r o u p

TOWARDS THE MILLENNIUM

grams. To that e n d , the project

w o r k e r H e l m u t Hillenkamp,

exhibition had the t h e m e of

Cortada's exhibit depicts

has d e v e l o p e d d o - i t - y o u r s e l f

and architect Fausto Cardoso.

installations and water.

violence as a public health issue,

chair kits, w i t h tools, i n s t r u c -

At o n e e n d of the plaza is a

W o r k i n g w i t h artist Masao

affecting people's lives the way

tions, and e n o u g h p r e - c u t l u m -

small volcano-shaped m o u n d

U e n o , w h o uses b a m b o o in his

virulent microorganisms do. T h e

b e r for 2 0 chairs. For m o r e i n -

covered with tiles by Hengst.

w o r k , Staab created a m o b i u s -

mural was sponsored by N o r r i s

f o r m a t i o n , call (612) 6 4 1 - 1 1 2 8 .

O u t of the crater t h e figure of a

like structure of b a m b o o strips,

Square n e i g h b o r h o o d ' s U n i t e d

[ P h o t o : b e l o w right]

blacksmith erupts, forged in iron

titled WATER TIE, r e f e r r i n g to

N e i g h b o r s Against D r u g s

by Hillenkamp. To t h e side of

paper ties for gifts. T h e

(UNAD) and Boston University's

SEVEN ROSES by N e a l

the m o u n d is a field of m o n o -

selected site was an u n u s e d

J o i n Together, a national

Taylor and Elaine Fuess was

lithic stones of g r a d u a t i n g

rice paddy j u s t off t h e highway.

resource c e n t e r to fight s u b -

unveiled in D e c e m b e r o n t h e

heights. [Photo: below left|

[Photo: b e l o w middle]

stance abuse. For m o r e i n f o r m a -

r o l l - d o w n d o o r s at V i c t o r

tion o n C o r t a d a , call h i m at

C l o t h i n g C o . in d o w n t o w n Los

For EL CAB presented in N e w

T h i s past O c t o b e r , t h e AVENUE

(305) 8 5 8 - 1 3 2 3 o r see his w e b

A n g e l e s . T h e public art project

York, P e p o n O s o r i o , a P u e r t o

OF THE ARTS BELLS were i n -

site: h t t p : / / w w w . a c c e s s p r o . n e t /

honors Victor Clothing Co. and

Washington

K i c a n - b o r n artist, t r a n s f o r m e d

stalled in Philadelphia as part of

cortada. For i n f o r m a t i o n o n t h e

is o n " t h e m o s t highly traveled

seven o w n e r - o p e r a t e d Mega

the city's $ 15 million Avenue

exhibit, c o n t a c t curator Betti

street in t h e w e s t e r n U n i t e d

R a d i o Dispatcher taxis into

of the Arts streetscape. Affixed

Sue H e r t z at (718) 8 4 2 - 5 6 5 9 .

traveling installations and a

to the street lamps are 39 w o r k -

States," a c c o r d i n g to project s p o n s o r Los Angeles C o m m u -

m e m o r i a l to a m u r d e r e d

ing bells, t u n e d in a c h r o m a t i c

T h e GREEN CHAIR PROJECT

driver. As in his earlier pieces,

scale, and electronically tied

reached an international a u d i -

nity R e d e v e l o p m e n t Agency.

O s o r i o assembled an array of

into a c o m p u t e r i z e d control

e n c e last O c t o b e r , w h e n the

T h e AIDS MEMORIAL QUILT

cheap decorations, such as

panel and keyboard at t h e

Minneapolis-based program

was u n f o l d e d o n t h e N a t i o n a l

gold doilies and cloth flowers,

A c a d e m y of M u s i c . T h e y will

b r o u g h t a crew of teenagers to

Mall in W a s h i n g t o n , D.C., o n

i n t o an exaggerated e x u b e r a n t

r i n g at specific times of day and

W a s h i n g t o n , D.C., to t e a m u p

O c t o b e r 11, 12, and 13, 1996.

Latino interior, integrated with

for special o c c a s i o n s . T h e bell

with youths from the D u k e

M o r e than o n e million p e o p l e

v i d e o and text. In the day-shift

project was designed by

Ellington S c h o o l of t h e Arts.

t u r n e d o u t to see t h e quilt

cars, for example, O s o r i o

California c o m p o s e r and

Two giant A d i r o n d a c k chairs

h a n d . It was t h e largest s h o w i n g

installed v i d e o m o n i t o r s that

s o u n d artist R o b e r t C o b u r n .

first-

(each w e i g h i n g o n e ton),

in its n i n e - y e a r history, w i t h

faced t h e passengers and

s u r r o u n d e d by 55 h u m a n - s c a l e d

s o m e 4 0 , 0 0 0 individual panels

s h o w e d taped scenes f r o m t h e

versions (each representing a

that stretched f r o m the

Bronx, as well as o n e of the

U.S. state o r t e r r i t o r y ) , w e r e

Washington M o n u m e n t to t h e

RECENT

PROJECTS

g r o u n d s of t h e U.S. C a p i t o l .

f r o m industrial girders and

SOL STAR by Los Angeles artist

cultures, including Egyptian,

A m o n g t h e visitors w e r e

h o t - f o r g e d rivets o n c e used in

Lita A l b u q u e r q u e stirred u p a

E t h i o p i a n , and Asante, as well as

President and Mrs. C l i n t o n and

shipbuilding. For m o r e

heated debate at its site near the

Asian and Native A m e r i c a n .

Vice President and Mrs. Gore.

i n f o r m a t i o n , c o n t a c t T h e St.

great Pyramids in Egypt d u r i n g

Peter's R i v e r s i d e Sculpture

installation in January. T h e

THE MANHOLE COVER PRO-

T h e international collective

P r o j e c t Newsletter, c / o Artists'

project consisted of 9 9 circles of

JECT: A GUN LEGACY was i n -

Gratis has c o m p l e t e d

Agency, 18 N o r f o l k St.,

ultramarine p i g m e n t scattered in

COPIACABANA. an " i t i n e r a n t "

stalled from O c t o b e r 1996

S u n d e r l a n d , S R I 1EA.

the sand over an area roughly

public art project that traveled

t h r o u g h M a r c h 1997 at t h e

t h e size of t w o football fields.

t h e borders b e t w e e n Portugal

Wadsworth Athenaeum,

SPECTRUM OF FREEDOM, an

She had i n t e n d e d to lay the cir-

and Spain t h r o u g h t h e Gaudiana

H a r t f o r d , C o n n . Each of 2 2 8

o u t d o o r mural, was installed last

cles in the desert in a s y m m e t r i -

River, and consisted of projects

m a n h o l e covers by artist

fall in F r e e d o m Park in Rosslyn,

cal h o n e y c o m b pattern, b u t

by artists, writers, musicians,

Bradley M c C a l l u m b o r e t h e i n -

V a . T h e mural was m a d e by t h e

reverted to a n o t h e r c o n c e p t after

translators, and navigators.

scription, " M a d e f r o m 172 lbs.

children of A r l i n g t o n and deals

an observer mistook t h e h o n e y -

Visitors w e r e invited to add

of y o u r confiscated guns,"

with "seven f r e e d o m s " : f r e e d o m

c o m b pattern for Stars of David.

materials to the project w i t h

r e f e r r i n g to t h e fact that guns

of speech, expression, religion;

A l b u q u e r q u e was subsequently

p h o t o c o p i e r s and audio video

confiscated by state police are

f r e e d o m to learn, to grow, to

asked by the C u l t u r e Ministry to

e q u i p m e n t , as well as to take

m e l t e d d o w n and used for

live in a clean e n v i r o n m e n t ;

suspend work. Egyptian friends,

h o m e their o w n personalized

m a n h o l e covers. Stories by

and f r e e d o m f r o m fear. T h e

cultural officials, and the U.S.

copy of the show. In N o v e m b e r ,

victims of g u n violence w e r e

2 9 4 tiles that m a k e u p t h e mural

Embassy rallied to her defense,

the collective l a u n c h e d into the

broadcast f r o m speakers

were m a d e d u r i n g s u m m e r

and finally the minister of

Gaudiana R i v e r a floating bul-

m o u n t e d o n pylons at ear

1996 by students f r o m camps,

culture gave the artist permission

letin board of cork (a natural

level, i n c l u d i n g H a r t f o r d kids

c o m m u n i t y centers, and

to finish her piece. She was o n e

p r o d u c t of the region) carved in

w h o described seeing their

s u m m e r schools, then glazed

of t h e five w i n n e r s of the

the shape of an acorn.

friends g u n n e d d o w n . | P h o t o :

and fired. Philadelphia tile artist

p r e m i e r prize given to foreign

b e l o w left]

Karen Singer and h e r assistant

artists at the sixth International

DANZA DEL CERCHIO (DANCE

Evelyn Stanley w o r k e d with

Cairo Bienniale Festival.

OF THE CIRCLE), a large-scale

THE ST. PETER'S RIVERSIDE

the children.

SCULPTURE PROJECT

Public

mosaic mural created by Seattle T h e CELEBRATION OF LIFE

artist A n n Gardner, was d e d i -

S u n d e r l a n d , E n g l a n d , reports:

Artist and f i l m m a k e r Suzan Pitt

mural was unveiled in M i n -

cated in J u n e 1996 at the Port

Artist-blacksmith C r a i g

has recently c o m p l e t e d

neapolis in O c t o b e r . T h e image

of Seattle's n e w Bell Street Pier.

K n o w l e s has m a d e a c o r m o r a n t

ENDANGERED SPECIES OF

was created by Dr. J o h n Biggers,

Gardner's design was painstak-

w i t h an 8 - f o o t wingspan. A l o n g

WISCONSIN mural for t h e lobby

of H o u s t o n , T e x . , T w i n Cities

ingly translated into a traditional

t h e Finger Jetty at N o r t h D o c k

of t h e U.S. post office in F o u n -

artists T a - c o u m b a Aiken, Seitu

Byzantine-style glass mosaic,

is a series o f posts, each taking

tain City, Wis. T h e 3 6 - f o o t - b y -

Jones, and 15 e m e r g i n g artists

each small piece of glass laid in

on m o r e of the shape of a bird

5 - f o o t a c r y l i c - o n - w o o d mural

e x e c u t e d t h e r e p r o d u c t i o n of the

place by h a n d . G a r d n e r t e a m e d

until t h e final one, with a fully

was c o m p l e t e d w i t h help f r o m a

original i m a g e . T h e 2 0 0 - f o o t -

u p with t w o legends of the m o -

f o r m e d c o r m o r a n t o n top,

public w o r k s grant f r o m t h e

b y - 2 0 - f o o t mural is painted on a

saic-making world, O r s o n i Glass

w h i c h will take flight over the

NEA. [Photo: b e l o w right]

street/ highway soundwall, and

ofVenice, Italy, and Franz M e y e r

m o u t h of t h e Wear River.

depicts traditional symbols

Studio in M u n i c h , Germany.

T h e piece is b e i n g c o n s t r u c t e d

associated with ancient African

Review

RECENT

PROJECTS

BUTTERFLY GARDEN FOR P S .

BLUE LINE OASIS by Lynn

For f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n , call

T h e San Francisco Art Institute

34 BRONX NY, by Vicki Scuri

Aldrich has b e e n installed at

(847) 4 8 0 - 2 0 0 0 o r fax (847)

recently p r o d u c e d BODIESÂŠ

has g o n e u p in N e w York City,

t h e M e t r o B l u e Line Artesia

480-2005.

o n e block from t h e N e w York

Station in C o m p t o n , Calif.

INCORPORATED a public space on the World W i d e Web from

Botanical G a r d e n . T h e garden

T h e focus of t h e w o r k is a

RELICS FROM CAMP is an

includes f o u r cedar raised beds

stone wall w i t h mosaics of

artist's installation by Kristine

D i r e c t e d by "CEO" artist

with butterfly trellises as well as

swirling waves a n d steel a n d

Yuki A o n o and m e m b e r s o f

Victoria Vesna and h e r " B o a r d

a s h a d o w garden with m o i r e

c o p p e r replicas of coins that

the Japanese-American

of Directors," t h e site was a

patterns and fragrant plantings

appear to have b e e n tossed in

m u n i t y at t h e Japanese

tongue-in-cheek commentary

to attract butterflies, with over

to m a k e wishes. A b l u e s e r p e n -

American National M u s e u m

o n t h e social p s y c h o l o g y and

3 , 0 0 0 bulbs and p l a n t s . T h e

tine walk m a r k e d w i t h p o e t i c

in Los Angeles, t h r o u g h April

g r o u p dynamics of c o r p o r a t e

piece is designed to f u n c t i o n as

lines of text directs t h e traveler

14. A o n o m a d e pilgrimages

culture. Participants w e r e

an o u t d o o r classroom for the

to a steel kiosk o n t h e p l a t f o r m

to each War R e l o c a t i o n

invited to c o n s t r u c t a virtual

special e d u c a t i o n school, p r o -

displaying in mosaic t h e

A u t h o r i t y (WRA) camp, c o l -

b o d y o u t of p r e - d e f i n e d b o d y

viding recreation, m e d i t a t i o n ,

" w i s h e s " of y o u t h f r o m t h e

lected soil a n d artifacts f r o m

parts, textures, a n d s o u n d s a n d

and vocational experiences for

C o m p t o n community. |Photo:

t h e sites, a n d p h o t o g r a p h e d

to j o i n the larger b o d y - c o m m u -

severely challenged children and

b e l o w right]

t h e ruins. In t h e d a r k e n e d

nity. A CD-ROM a c c o m p a n i e d

adults. [Photo: below left]

com-

J a n u a r y to M a r c h 1997.

gallery, a p l a t f o r m c o m p o s e d

t h e e x h i b i t i o n . For m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n , call (415) 7 4 9 - 4 5 8 8 .

THE HIRSCH FARM PROJECT.

of 15 t h r e e - f o o t - b y - t h r e e - f o o t

LITTLE WORKERS:

an arts-based t h i n k tank, has

glass-covered grids holds t h e

COLLECTIBLES by Greg Sholette

a n n o u n c e d its m o s t a m b i t i o u s

soil a n d artifacts. As viewers

WATERMARK by Charles Q u i c k

and speculative u n d e r t a k i n g : t h e

walk over t h e p l a t f o r m , they

and Alan R o g e r s is a c o l l a b o r a -

1 9 9 7 / 1 9 9 8 W o r l d Tour,

trespass over t h e same dirt as

tive public art p r o j e c t at t h e

c o n c e i v e d as a t w o - p a r t

Japanese-American internees

B u t e D o c k s P u m p i n g Station,

1, 1996, to February 10, 1997.

p r o g r a m . Phase o n e will be a

did 50 years ago and b e a r w i t -

S o u t h Cardiff, E n g l a n d . U s e d as

C r e a t e d specifically for the m u -

series of casual discussions by

ness t o t h e relics f r o m camp,

a r o u t e to t h e I n n e r H a r b o u r

invited visual artists traveling

h a l f - b u r i e d in t h e dark soil.

area (and a p r o p o s e d O p e r a

b e t w e e n N e w York, A m s t e r d a m ,

O v e r h e a d , slide p r o j e c t i o n s of

H o u s e ) and seen by s u r r o u n d -

sculpted in the style of miniature

Singapore, D h a k a (Bangladesh),

WRA p h o t o g r a p h s are c o n -

i n g buildings o v e r l o o k i n g t h e

collectibles. Two of Sholette's

K a t h m a n d u , and Pokhara,

trasted w i t h images f r o m t h e

site, R o g e r s ' paving design d r e w

N e p a l . In fall 1998 t h e s e c o n d

c a m p sites as they exist today.

inspiration f r o m t h e i n t e r l o c k -

phase will b e a n e w e x h i b i t i o n

Aono conducted two work-

ing designs i n c o r p o r a t e d i n t o

at Chicago's M u s e u m of

shops inviting p e o p l e to b r i n g

Turkish f u r n i t u r e , as well as t h e

C o n t e m p o r a r y Art. T w o

their artifacts f r o m camp, share

tiling f r o m t h e Taj Mahal. Q u i c k

publications will be p r o d u c e d ,

their stories, and place their

created n i n e c u r v i n g steel

early twentieth century. T h e

o n e w i t h the proposals by t h e

relics i n t o t h e <*rid.

sculptures for t h e p e r i m e t e r ,

o t h e r figurines depict Haitian

participating artists; t h e o t h e r

each o n e a p e r f o r a t e d filter

and Indonesian children at w o r k

will i n c l u d e critical essays o n

w h i c h tapers to a slender edge.

o n items for e x p o r t to the

i m p o r t a n t trends in thevisual

U n i t e d States.

arts that t h e p r o j e c t has e x a m -

w e n t o n view in the w i n d o w s of t h e Lower East Side T e n e m e n t M u s e u m , N.Y., f r o m N o v e m b e r

seum w i n d o w s , the installation included f o u r colorful

figurines

four w i n d o w images derived from p h o t o g r a p h s of children taken by Jacob Riis and Lewis H i n e , b o t h k n o w n for their exposes of child labor in the

Listings

i n e d over the last several years.

SPR SUM 9?

RECENT

PROJECTS

T h e children's garden ROOTS

O n M a r c h 12-15, 1997, sonic

AND WINGS by Alison and

alchemists B r u c e O d l a n d and

Betye Saar will o p e n May 16

Sam A u i n g e r installed a s o u n d -

T h e newly created Franconia

to s u b m i t proposals for d e v e l o p -

at P.S. 152 in W o o d s i d e , Q u e e n s ,

scape laboratory at T h e Kitchen,

Sculpture G a r d e n is located in

ing a public art master plan for

N.Y., w h e r e it will serve as an

N.Y.C.,

t h e St. C r o i x R i v e r Valley

the City of Santa C r u z . S c o p e

o u t d o o r classroom for t h e

sounds i n t o a m b i e n t music.

northeast of Minneapolis, M i n n .

of services includes steering

school's 2 5 0 ethnically diverse

D u r i n g t h e day, visitors to t h e

It is a w o r k i n g park, w h e r e

committee coordination, c o m -

k i n d e r g a r t e n e r s . T h e Saars

CLOUD CHAMBER could

y o u n g e r artists can e x p e r i m e n t

m u n i t y presentations, and artist

designed a garden of world

e x p e r i e n c e t h e installation.The

and m o r e m a t u r e artists can

training p r o g r a m . T h e b u d g e t is

imagery, consisting of c o n c r e t e

C l o u d C h a m b e r Website

challenge previously held ideas.

n o t to exceed $50,000. T h r e e

planters shaped like t h e sun, the

(designed by M a n u e l Schlicher),

T h e Sculpture Park accepts a p -

finalists will be invited to Santa

m o o n , a heart, and a boat,

can be accessed for i n f o r m a t i o n ,

plications o n an o n g o i n g basis;

C r u z , at their o w n expense. For

c o n n e c t e d by a tree-like path

discussion, and samples o n t h e

t h e deadline for J u n e and July

a copy of the request for p r o -

and d o t t e d w i t h whirligigs and

topic of city structure and

openings is A p r i l 1 0 . T h e park

posal and submission r e q u i r e -

bird-feeders. T h e project was

images and city soundscapes at

is also seeking i n t e r n s and vol-

ments, contact Susan W a n d r u f f ,

f u n d e d by the Public Art F u n d .

http://www.aec.at/residence/

unteers; internship applications

Santa C r u z C i t y Arts C o m m i s -

c c / . T h e Website will shut d o w n

are d u e M a y 1. For f u r t h e r i n -

sion, 3 2 3 C h u r c h St., Santa

O h i o public artist A t h e n a Tacha

d u r i n g the Ars Electronica

f o r m a t i o n , w r i t e Franconia

C r u z , CA 95060, p h o n e (408)

recently installated ECO-

Festiva this S e p t e m b e r .

Sculpture Park, 2 0 6 6 5 Lake

4 2 9 - 3 7 7 8 , fax (408) 4 5 8 - 2 6 4 2 .

Blvd., Shafer, MN 5 5 0 7 4 . tel.:

D e a d l i n e is A p r i l 18, 1997.

t r a n s f o r m i n g outside city

RHYTHMS at t h e University of

ARTIST

OPPORTUNITIES

sion invites qualified applicants

(612) 4 6 5 - 3 7 0 1 .

Minnesota's n e w b u i l d i n g for

At the b e g i n n i n g of J u n e , t h e

t h e d e p a r t m e n t of ecology,

KEITH HARING F o u n d a t i o n , t h e