Public Art Review issue 20 - 1999 (spring/summer) by forecastpublicart

LISTINGS

CONFERENCES PUBLIC ART 101, the second annual three-day conference hosted by the Seattle Arts Commission, covers "how to go from idea to reality in designing and funding a public art program." They should know. Their public art programâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one of the most progressive in the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;-just turned twenty-five. City agencies, planners, and citizens are encouraged to attend May 5-7, 1999 to hear prominent national speakers, attend tours and receptions, and receive the curricular package. Registration ends April 1, but there may still be room ($400 fee). Contact the Seattle Arts Commission at 206-684-4186 or e-mail public. artl01@ci.Seattle, wa. us. The Fairmount Park Association in Philadelphia will host a symposium on public art, community, and the meaning of place. NEW'LAND'MARKS will be held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on May 7-8, 1999. Artists, architects, writers, and poets will present their proposals for new works of public art to representatives from Philadelphia's communities. Presenters

include Rick Lowe, Ed Levine, Pepin Osorio, Vicki Scuri, and a dozen others. For information call 215-546-1087 or e-mail postmaster@fpaa.org. B U I L D I N G N E I G H B O R H O O D S BLOCK BY

BLOCK, the Neighborhoods U.S.A. (NUSA) annual conference, will be held in Madison, Wis., May 26-29, 1999. Workshop topics include neighborhood organizing, examples of effective collaborations, safe neighborhoods, youth programs, and beautification. The conference site will be Monona Terrace, the Frank Lloyd Wrightdesigned facility on Lake Monona, and the registration fee is $135. For information contact Cheryl Wittke, Conference Coordinator, P.O. Box 1581, Madison, wi 53703; phone: 608-261-9989; e-mail: cwittke@aol.com. C O M M U N I C A T I N G T H R O U G H TIME A N D

SPACE is the theme of the annual conference and Expo of Society of Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) M a y 1 9 - 2 2 in

Cincinnati, Ohio. More than 500 designers, architects, landscape architects, and other design professionals will hear

author and social anthropologist Edward Hall illustrate the relationship between design and behavior. One session will examine the relationship between public art and environmental design. Phone: 202-638-5555; e-mail: SEGDOffice@aol.com. The City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department (CAD) hosted a one-day symposium on SUPERGRAPHICS (also known as "Tall Walls"). Los Angeles has experienced a sudden growth in the oversized vinyl blankets which can cover an entire wall of a large office or commercial structure. Currently, these advertisements can qualify as murals if they display 3 percent or less in text. This distinction of advertising vs. art has become less relevant when product association can be conveyed with images and little or no text. CAD hopes to present a new ordinance to the City Council later this year. Zoning restrictions coupled with a redefinition of "murals" and minimum design criteria may be key components of the new regulations, [below Photo by Lesley A, Elwood]

Think different.

AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS will hold its 1999 Annual Convention and National Youth Arts Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 5-8. Preconferences on public art in the twenty-first century (with guest speakers Mary Jane Jacob and Vito Acconci), Cultural Tourism as Community Development, and the 1999 United Arts Funds Leadership Forum will take place on the two days before the convention. Local hosts are the Bureau of Cultural Affairs and the Fulton County Arts Council. For more information contact Americans for the Arts, 1000 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20005; phone: 202-371-2830; Web site: www.artsusa.org. The International Sculpture Center (ISC) has announced an i n v i t a t i o n a l SCULPTURE PARKS A N D

GARDENS, a three-day event October 13-16, 1999, featuring presentations by internationally recognized experts addressing a wide range of topics, tours, and networking opportunities. For more information, contact Carol Sterling at ISC, 14 Fairgrounds Road, Suite B, Hamilton, NJ 08619-3477; phone: 609-689-1051.

A PROGRAM OF FORECAST PUBLIC ARTWORKS

PublicArtReview OUR

NEIGHBORS

VOLUME

NUMBER 2 ISSUE 2 0

SPR.SUM 99

FOREWORD

Jack Becker, Publisher

SSEMBLING T H I S ISSUE O N O U R N E I G H B O R S IN CANADA A N D M E X I C O , I B E C A M E HUMBLY AWARE

L J k of o u r (the U.S.A.'s) status as n e w kid 011 the block. I was also reminded of the A

fact that I don't speak Spanish and my French is limited to items on a m e n u .

Trying to obtain a p h o t o g r a p h from a Mexican source became a frustrating and e x p e n sive exercise due primarily to m i s c o m m u n i c a t i o n and false assumptions and stereotyping o n my part. In public art, as in life, patience is a virtue. T h e effort to put this issue together, however, was hugely rewarding. T h e cultures to o u r n o r t h and south have many lessons to impart. W i t h strong links to history, culture, and the land, Mexican and Canadian public art influences a great deal of w h a t w e t h i n k of as n e w directions in public art h e r e in t h e U n i t e d

States.

E n v i r o n m e n t a l and e c o n o m i c hardships have c o n t r i b u t e d to socially e n g a g i n g art, interdisciplinary collaborations, and public art as c o m m u n i t y activism. U n d e r s t a n d i n g o u r neighbors is necessary for gaining a comprehensive perspective o n o u r o w n culture. We clearly need m o r e cross-fertilization b e t w e e n the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and n o t just along o u r borders. These boundaries are, after all, s o m e w h a t artificial, and b e c o m i n g increasingly blurred. • • •

As we go to press, news of Lucienne Bloch's death at the age of ninety appeared in the New York Times. Lucienne B l o c h — b o r n in Geneva and raised in the U.S.—learned the art of mural m a k i n g f r o m the Mexican master Diego Rivera and w e n t o n to p r o d u c e m a n y a c c o m p l i s h e d murals, such as The Evolution

of Music at

George Washington H i g h School in upper Manhattan. In 1931, according to the o b i t u ary, her ability to speak French p r o m p t e d her fateful introduction to Rivera in N e w York City (he spoke little English, but k n e w French). She later assisted h i m o n c o n t r o versial murals at the Detroit Institute of Art and the Rockefeller C e n t e r (of w h i c h her photographs are the only surviving d o c u m e n t a t i o n ; see PAR # 1 1 ) . T h i s issue is therefore dedicated to Lucienne, and to others inspired by artists beyond o u r borders.

A P R O G R A M O F FORECAST P U B L I C A R T W O R K S

PublicArtReview OUR

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features CANADA'S NATURAL LANDSCAPE AN A L L - C O N S U M I N G PUBLIC ART J o h n K. Grande

D A U G H T E R S OF " T H E N E W

ELEVATED W E T L A N D S

XOCHIMILCO

TORONTO'S S H A M B L I N G BEASTS

W H E R E MYTH A N D MEMORY MEET

DEMOCRACY"

D e b o r a h Karasov

THE LEGACY OF AN IMAGE

Ted R e l p h

M o i r a F. H a r r i s

SPACE FOR T H E P O B L A D O R E S B O R D E R ART W O R K S H O P / TALLER D E ARTE FRONTERIZO 14

El C a m p o R U S E

project reviews and excerpt LYNNE HULL

L A N D S C A P E OF C O N J E C T U R E

PRONATURA

V I E W FROM THE CENTER FOR LAND USE

EXCERPT

S i m o n e Ellis 2 8

INTERPRETATION

Gerald McMaster

Melinda Stone

RESERVATION X 33

conference and media reviews C R I T I C A L SITES

GRAFFITI VERITE 2

ART, A C T I V I S M , A N D

ISSUES IN CRITICAL ART PRACTICE A N D

F R E E D O M OF E X P R E S S I O N ?

OPPOSITIONALITY

PEDAGOGY

Jeff Ferrell

David Harding

Craig Wilkins

listings 39

34 FRESCO

T H E C I T I Z E N ARTIST

A STORY OF ART, COMMUNITY, A N D

20 YEARS OF ART IN THE PUBLIC A R E N A

EXCELLENCE

Patricia C . Phillips

R o b Silberman

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CANADA'S NATURAL LANDSCAPE A N A L L - C O N S U M I N G PUBLIC ART

J o h n K. Grande

A N A D A IS W E L L P O S I T I O N E D T O R E F L E C T T H E C O N T E M P O R A R Y

I N T E R E S T IN A R T ' S

t o nature. In The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian

Imagination,

RELATION

eminent

C a n a d i a n w r i t e r and p h i l o s o p h e r N o r t h r o p Frye says that " t h e imaginative Canadian stance...has o n o n e side o n e of the most powerful nations in the world; o n the other there is this vast hinterland of the n o r t h , w i t h its sense of mystery and fear of the u n k n o w n , and the curious guilt feelings that its u n i n h a b i t e d loneliness seems to inspire in this exploiting age." 1 J o h n R a l s t o n Saul f u r t h e r defines the virtues of this quintessential C a n a d i a n d o u b t over humanity's ability to control nature, contrasting this v i e w w i t h the p o p u l a r pragmatism of t e c h n o c r a t i c t h o u g h t . In his 1993 b o o k Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, h e writes, " A civilisation of answers cannot help but be a civilisation of swirling fads and emotions. W h a t is to b e done? W h a t is to be d o n e ? . . . W h a t a disease this desire to answer has b e c o m e , rushing t h r o u g h our veins like rats scurrying for t r u t h in the endless corridors of expertise." 2 Because nature and the seasons hold such a pervasive place in their lives, w h e t h e r they live in city or country, in Q u e b e c or English Canada, many Canadians have a built-in skepticism about technology's facile solutions to the h u m a n c o n d i t i o n and the c o n d i tion of planet earth. Historically Canada's native peoples and early colonials maintained a close relation with nature. Native " C a n a d i a n " art was public before the w o r d " p u b l i c " was even conceived of. W h i l e the West always held the possibility of being a place of b o u n t e o u s reserve, Canadians perceived the wilderness as something that s u r r o u n d e d the small settlements of the original colonies, their civilization. First Nations peoples, o n the other hand, had n o word for wilderness or even art, for that matter, in precontact days. T h e i r culture was inimically b o u n d up in the cycles of nature and the ecosystem. 1 Public art in Canada is fraught w i t h inconsistencies and historical malapropisms. Official c o n t e m p o r a r y public art in Canada is a child of g o v e r n m e n t and reason, and the results are often too submissive, structurally faultless, and uninteresting to the p r e sumed public audience. Official public art instead serves the interests of those w h o c o m mission the projects.The religious public sculpture that a b o u n d e d in Catholic Q u e b e c in the past similarly served the interests of a religious and political hierarchy, but a n o t h e r kind of public sculpture persisted in agricultural and popular festivals, such as Louis Jobin's ice

sculptures at the Q u e b e c W i n t e r Carnivals in the late nineteenth century. T h e first m a j o r Canadian postwar artist to w o r k o n public sculpture outside m u s e u m s and galleries, and associated w i t h n e i t h e r architecture n o r m o n u (left) Witness, Squamish Native Band,Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 18, 1997-Jan. 18, 1998.

ments, was the Q u e b e c e r A r m a n d Vaillancourt, w h o s e massively scaled fountain titled Quebec Libre (1969-1971) at Embarcadero Plaza in San Francisco (recently saved f r o m d e m o l i t i o n by public outcry) is o n e of the largest and m o s t evocative examples o f

(inset left and right) Witness, Vancouver, British Columbia, 1998. P h o t o s b y N a n c y Bleck ÂŠ

1998

postwar abstract public sculpture in N o r t h America. M a d e of concrete, the f o u n t a i n sustains the s p o n t a n e o u s look of action p a i n t i n g in t h r e e d i m e n s i o n s . R e n o w n e d for his public art gestures and performances, Vaillancourt is o n e of a very f e w artists in C a n a d a w h o c o n t i n u e s in the v e r n a c u l a r art traditions that historically p r o v i d e d P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

to regional e c o n o m y and culture, is e n d e m i c to his vision of artistic practice. Native Canadian art has, in a sense, b e e n less diluted than U.S. native art, if only o n account of neglect and of the great distance b e t w e e n many native communities and mainstream art activity. But n o w many First Nations artists live in big cities and are fully aware of the language of c o n t e m p o r a r y art. R e c e n t s h o w s such as Reservation

X h e l d at Canada's M u s e u m

Civilization in Hull and the University of Montreal's c u r r e n t show of Montagnais, A l g o n q u i n , O j i b w a , and M o h a w k artists—continue to showcase a resurgent c o n t e m p o r a r y Canadian native art. Art at its best is n o t agenda-driven, but instead searches to express s o m e t h i n g of the experience of life to a public. Tension often arises b e t w e e n the institutions that f u n d public art and the sincere efforts of (above) Louis Jobin, La Liberte, Winter Carnival, Quebec, 1896. Photo courtesy Archives Nationale du Quebec a Quebec

(below) Armand Vaillancourt, working on Song of the Nations, 1996. Photo courtesy Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

artists to f u r t h e r public interest in the land, the environm e n t , justice, and c o m m u n i t y concerns. These concerns are precisely w h a t emerged in the Witness exhibition at the newly refurbished R o u n d h o u s e in Vancouver. In this old, colonial railway b u i l d i n g , used by the Squamish

an alternative stream of public art expression. At the

nation as a cultural center since the spring of 1997, over

C o n f e d e r a t i o n C e n t r e for the Arts in C h a r l o t t e t o w n ,

o n e h u n d r e d artists collaborated in an intercultural dia-

P r i n c e Edward Island, Vaillancourt created a sculptural

logue a b o u t history, i n d i g e n o u s peoples' rights to the

e n v i r o n m e n t , titled Song of the Nations

land, environment, and community. Organized in a city

(1996), out of

trees recuperated from a forest fire near M o n t a g u e . T h e

w h e r e d e e r and elk herds r o a m e d b e f o r e

act of r e c u p e r a t i o n — n o t so different f r o m the process-

encroachment, the project invited visitors to travel three

o r i e n t e d works of the Arte Povera group f r o m Italy—was

hours upstream by car to Sims Bar in the Sims C r e e k

conceived o n a scale appropriate to a c o u n t r y with such

watershed, one of few remaining valleys still in pristine

vast reserves. N o w installed in the C o n f e d e r a t i o n C e n t r e

c o n d i t i o n in the Lower M a i n l a n d . H e r e they w o u l d

Art Gallery, Vaillancourt's forest of u p t u r n e d trees, each

e x p e r i e n c e the land as it was in precontact days. T h e

p a i n t e d a d i f f e r e n t color, resembles a giant c h o r d of

e x h i b i t i o n proper, held at the R o u n d h o u s e , likewise between

colonial

music, an elegiac dream forest.The tactile, physical e x p e -

expressed this relation

r i e n c e of this p i e c e — b o t h imaginative and real—is

included b o t h native and non-native artists. Assisted by

land and art

and

inescapable. Vaillancourt c o m m u n i c a t e s t h e

cultural

artist-in-residence N a n c y Bleck and wilderness educa-

value of a p o t e n t i a l resource, in this case trees and

tor J o h n Clarke, Witness was so culturally advanced that

forests, because cultural and e c o n o m i c self-sufficiency, a

nature awareness took precedence over the exhibition's

cultural vision rooted in a "small is beautiful" approach

many manifestations of the art object. In D e m m i t t , a sawmill ghost t o w n in

Jill

• rjM j * h , i

n o r t h e r n Alberta, Peter von Tiesenhausen creates ships, iv^MlJffiaJ

ilBfii

tree pods, huts, and ephemeral art pieces in the w o o d s and fields s u r r o u n d i n g his land. In these works, he explores his relation with the land. Ship (in field of timo-

t -t g. i \

isH

l l

thy) (1993), a boat structure made of willow (33.5 x 6.1 x 4.9 meters), references the j o u r n e y his ancestors made to arrive in the N e w World, as it gradually returns to nature. Most recently von T i e s e n h a u s e n was c o m m i s -

" / I

sioned to do a piece for a n e w building located on the site of an old-growth forest at the Banff C e n t r e for the Arts. As he states, " T h r e e h u n d r e d and eighty years of g r o w t h replaced by a building which is built to last for

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

Witness, visitors at Sims Bar, Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 18, 1997-Jan. 18, 1998. Photo by Nancy Bleck

W o r k i n g in o n e of Canada's large, u r b a n environments, Judith Berry created Valley on Red Desert (1998) for Montreal's Mile E n d Public Library o n Park Avenue, in part as a response to t h e d e m a n d f o r less

perhaps a h u n d r e d years." A woven boat of willow sev-

generic, architecturally h i d e b o u n d public art. T h e large

e n t e e n feet l o n g was placed in t h e c e n t e r u n d e r the

mural piece, painted in earth tones, portrays an idealized,

remaining trees.The courtyard in w h i c h this piece stands

Utopian landscape and evokes a strong response f r o m the

is closed to h u m a n entry but can be viewed through a

public and passers-by, mainly because it so u n c o n d i t i o n -

series of windows. Beside each of these windows, photos

ally contrasts the stark urban reality. Berry's w o r k signi-

of von'Tiesenhausen's willow boat will be p l a c e d â&#x20AC;&#x201D; o n e a

fies a r e n e w e d interest in o u t d o o r m u r a l p a i n t i n g in

year for the next twenty-five y e a r s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; d o c u m e n t i n g the

Q u e b e c , but it also presents an alternative vision of the e a r t h as a place of beauty, s h o w i n g us t h e p o t e n t i a l

changing condition of the boat. O n e of von Tiesenhausen's most inter-

p o w e r of public art to b r i n g its audience back f r o m the

esting public art w o r k s , Forest Figures (1997), t r a n s -

abyss and to recognize a n d appreciate the i m m e d i a t e

f o r m e d h u g e tree stumps into larger-than-life h u m a n

e n v i r o n m e n t in w h i c h they live, interact, and w o r k .

forms that were then set o n fire, charred, and sculpted

In s o u t h e r n Q u e b e c near the V e r m o n t

anew. As v o n T i e s e n h a u s e n drove his t r u c k w i t h the

border, in the f a r m fields near A b e r c o r n , Montreal-based

standing figures in the back t h r o u g h logging towns, reli-

artist M o n i q u e Crepault created an on-site installation,

gious areas, and resorts, along r e m o t e highways and into

Abercorn Series, using local clays. O f this 1998 installa-

large u r b a n centers, the public reactions ranged f r o m

t i o n , she states: " B y g o i n g to t h e o t h e r e x t r e m e a n d

laughter to disgust. In coffee shops and gas stations, p e o -

w o r k i n g directly a n d o n l y w i t h n a t u r e , I a m able to

ple asked questions about the work, w h y it was made,

achieve a balance w i t h the o v e r w h e l m i n g presence of

w h a t was the artist's intention, and so on. In the process,

technology in our lives. T h e invention of thousands of

the sculptor learned as m u c h about the communities in

n e w machines will never change the fact that w e are as

w h i c h he traveled and e x h i b i t e d as the c o m m u n i t i e s

fragile as dust and water, as p e r m e a b l e to o u r e n v i r o n -

learned from the sculpture.

ments as dust and water. I do h o p e that w e d o n ' t forget,

In Lethbridge, s o u t h e r n Alberta, artist Carl G r a n z o w developed a s i t e - c o n d i t i o n e d sculpture

in o u r race forwards, that w e are part of an art that is beyond our c o m p r e h e n s i o n . "

acknowledging the strong presence of native medicine wheels in s o u t h e r n Alberta and Saskatchewan, w h e r e 125 of the 150 k n o w n to exist in N o r t h America can be found. Granzow

perceives parallels b e t w e e n

Great

Peter von Tiesenhausen, Forest Figures (in transit), Alberta, 1997. Photo courtesy the artist

Britain's S t o n e h e n g e and the native m e d i c i n e wheels, w h i c h are also k n o w n as boulder m o n u m e n t s and stone alignments. W h e t h e r native or E u r o p e a n , these l a n d marks reference tribal connectivity to the great universe beyond, and likewise may have served as astrophysical observatories or tools. T h e t w e n t y - e i g h t stainless steel sculptural "signs" G r a n z o w m a d e have the superficial look of conventional street signs but are shaped to represent t h e

twenty-eight

stages of t h e

solar

eclipse.

M o u n t e d at fourteen feet, standard height for city streetlights, they collectively f o r m a circle around Lethbridge's d o w n t o w n core.

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

seemed the right place to begin a piece on sustenance and abundance and scarcity." To date, 145 fish have b e e n made out of unbleached, w h i t e cotton flour sacks by Hall and fifteen female volunteers f r o m farms in S o u t h e r n Alberta and the City of L e t h b r i d g e . T h e completed fish are e x t e n d e d on "clotheslines" in fields planted with spring w h e a t and canola. As Hall's installation weathers, the cotton frays, and the flour company's markings on these handcrafted pieces fade. T h e final product of Pam Hall's project will be a large blanket or tarp-like object assembled from the r e m n a n t s of h e r installationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;aged and w e a t h e r e d by exposure to the elements. Expected to be completed in 2000, Hall's blanket will naturally b e associated w i t h domesticity, as an object used to provide w a r m t h and Monique Crepault, Abercorn 3, Quebec, 1998. Photo courtesy the artist

protection, c o m f o r t and shelter. A respect for nature's place in o u r lives, i n d e e d f o r the h u m a n side of artistic expression and

T h e clay pieces C r e p a u l t created are

c o n c e r n for our natural and urban environments, is fully

m y t h o p o e t i c , archaic-looking h u m a n f o r m s applied to

present in these recent Canadian projects. O n l y a small

trees or set into the earth. Effectively m o l d e d into the

selection of the m a n y in progress today, these projects

trees, these figures draw allusions not only to h u m a n life

represent the tip of the iceberg, and o n e senses some

and history b u t to the history of the e n v i r o n m e n t in

other, greater reality in these site-specific environments

w h i c h they exist, briefly, b e f o r e r e t u r n i n g to the ele-

and e p h e m e r a l expressions. We all d e p e n d o n nature's

ments. N a t u r e remains the constant, the backdrop to all

resources for o u r survival and well-being. All products

this, yet these figures, f o r m s , and stances are sinuous,

and materials derive f r o m nature. W h y n o t recognize

recalling a n c i e n t B u d d h i s t frescos f r o m India or Sri

that nature is ultimately the all-consuming public art of

Lanka. U n l i k e ancient spiritual legends, however, they

w h i c h we are all a part?

have n o specific spiritual c o n n o t a t i o n . As process and art, the Abercorn pieces are fragile, ephemeral works that

Writer and art critic John K. Grande is the winner of Espace Sculpture's

are n o w in the process of r e t u r n i n g to nature and the

Lison Dubreuil Prize for art criticism. He is also the author of Balance:Art

elements. T h e y enact a desire to unite w i t h the earth, to

and Nature;

find some physical link w i t h o u r primeval and p r e c o n -

Nils-Udo:Abeiten

Intertwining: mit der

Landscape,Technology,

Issues and t h e f o r t h c o m i n g

Natur.

scious origins in a world w h o s e resources and energy supplies are depleted and in need of renewal.

Notes:

N e w f o u n d l a n d artist, writer, and filmm a k e r P a m Hall's m o s t r e c e n t p r o j e c t , Reseeding Dream

the

1. N o r t h r o p Frye. The Bush Garden:

3. This is n o t to say natives were

Essays on the Canadian

consciously ecological, indeed the

Imagination.

Toronto: Anansi, 1971.

( 1 9 9 7 - 2 0 0 0 ) , is a landscape i n t e r v e n t i o n that

addresses t h e

tragic

disappearance

of the

Atlantic

N o r t h e r n C o d fishery d u e to industrial fishing nets, the seal o v e r p o p u l a t i o n , and overfishing. A c o m m u n i t y -

Iroquois had n o understanding of soil regeneration and consistently

2. J o h n Ralston Saul. Voltaire's BastardsiThe

Dictatorship of Reason in

the West. Toronto: Penguin, 1993.

exhausted their farmlands over several generations and thus were forced to move on.

based project that seeks to explore the rituals of renewal, 08

o u r relationship w i t h "harvestable" resources of nature,

Pam Hall, Reseeding

a n d h u m a n i n v o l v e m e n t in h u n t i n g and husbandry,

Alberta, June 1998. Photo courtesy the artist

Hall's o u t d o o r w o r k simultaneously alludes to farming, fishing, and the d o m e s t i c labor of w o m e n directly or indirectly involved in b o t h . Hall chose Lanier's f a r m southeast of L e t h b r i d g e in Alberta for h e r installation because, in her o w n words, the region "is the oldest sea bed o n the c o n t i n e n t . . . and f r o m the m e m o r y of this old sea, and the current use of the land to g r o w protein, it

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

the

Dream,

ELEVATED WETLANDS TORONTO'S SHAMBLING

BEASTS

Ted R e l p h

â&#x20AC;˘

^ H E R E W A S ALWAYS M O R E

IN T H E W O R L D T H A N

MEN

COULD

SEE, W A L K E D T H E Y

EVER

slowly," w r o t e J o h n R u s k i n in Modern Painters in 1856;"they will see it n o better M for going fast."'This is sound w i s d o m , but largely obsolete. O u r s is n o w a world of vision in m o t i o n , large parts of w h i c h are seen f r o m automobiles on expressways. C o m i n g around a long curve of the D o n Valley Parkway in T o r o n t o at sixty miles an hour, o n e only has e n o u g h time to glimpse some large w h i t e structures, two groups of three on opposite sides of the highway. Each structure is perhaps t w e n t y feet tall with f o u r legs. At this speed it is impossible to tell w h e t h e r these things are works of e n g i n e e r i n g or art. Perhaps R u s k i n was right. A r u s h - h o u r crawl allows m o r e careful observation.These structures have archetypal animal forms, w i t h r o u n d e d lines and s m o o t h surfaces. T h e y look like t w o groups of gigantic, shambling polar bears, except for the shrubs and small trees g r o w i n g o n their backs. T h e y w o u l d unquestionably be sculptures except that a stream of water cascades f r o m the m o u t h of the largest into the back of the mid-sized one, and so on. These enigmatic structures are located in a park that follows the valley of the D o n R i v e r , and, since my curiosity is aroused, I take R u s k i n ' s advice and approach t h e m slowly, on foot, and read a helpful sign o r i e n t e d to b e m u s e d pedestrians. T h e structures are called Elevated Wetlands, conceived by N o e l H a r d i n g and installed in 1997 and 1998. This is a " f u n c t i o n i n g s c u l p t u r e " that "aims to raise a silhouette of nature against the urban landscape." But it is also an innovative environmental science and e n g i n e e r i n g project. A cross-sectional diagram reveals that the great, w h i t e structures are actually elevated basins filled with an artificial soil of recycled plastics that supports trees and shrubs at the same time as it filters polluted water p u m p e d f r o m the nearby D o n River. T h e forms are plastic, the w o r k was commissioned by the C a n a d i a n Plastics Industry Association, and the technology is copyrighted. I. T h r o u g h o u t most of its history Toronto has b e e n a businesslike city, d e v o t i n g little time, space, or energy to public art and aesthetic matters. M a r g a r e t A t w o o d , w h o g r e w up in Toronto's inner suburbs, captures the spirit of the city in her 1988 novel Cat's Eye w h e n she describes it as "mile after mile of caution and utilitarianism." 2 Toronto was established in 1792 as a garrison to defend British Canada f r o m

revolutionary Americans. T h e f o u n d i n g heroes w e r e m i l i t a r y - m i n d e d surveyors and engineers w h o cut straight roads t h r o u g h o l d - g r o w t h forest and laid o u t a practical grid of streets and lots w i t h o u t grand avenues, parks, or significant public spaces. T h o s e w h o oversaw the city's commercial expansion in the n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y f o u n d little reason to change this sensible a r r a n g e m e n t . If war memorials or statues of local dignitaries were d e e m e d necessary, they were squeezed o n t o n a r r o w sites next to streets w h e r e they didn't take up too m u c h valuable real estate. A b r e a c h in this c a u t i o u s u t i l i t a r i a n i s m c a m e at last in t h e 1960s with the construction of a n e w city hall, designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell. P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

(above) Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto City Hall, designed by Viljo Revell. Photo courtesy Crty ofToronto

(right) Henry Moore, The Archer,

R o b e r t Fulford, a Toronto journalist, has suggested that

1966.

Photo courtesy City ofToronto

public art succeeds w h e n it installs itself p e r m a n e n t l y in the public imagination, 3 but dramatic failures can do this too. T h e Canadian Airmen's Memorial m e t with i m m e d i -

that consists of a pair of not very functional but distinc-

Heaven," and leapt into e n d u r i n g local n o t o r i e t y . A

became the first substantial public o p e n space in the city

comparable controversy gathered over Francesco Pirelli's

center. T h i s breach almost i n c l u d e d public art. T h e

Monument

architect had innocently chosen a H e n r y M o o r e sculp-

and sited w i t h o u t review in front of the beautiful facade

ture k n o w n as The Archer for the n e w plaza, b u t this

of U n i o n Station. T h e m u n i c i p a l officials c o n c e r n e d

provoked

was

with public art had had e n o u g h and changed the acqui-

abstract, w o u l d stand in a p r o m i n e n t location, did not

sition process. 4 N o w anyone w h o wants to commission

enormous

consternation

because

to Multiculturalism

(1985), also offered as a gift

c o m m e m o r a t e anything or anyone specific, and, most

or c o n t r i b u t e public artworks for a p r o m i n e n t site in

importantly, it was to be b o u g h t with public funds. T h e

Toronto has to hire a consultant to set up a competition,

m a t t e r was d e c i d e d only w h e n private m o n e y was

and the entries are j u d g e d by a c o m m i t t e e of art profes-

raised to acquire The Archer, and it is n o w regarded with

sionals and c o m m u n i t y representatives.

some affection as a symbol of the city's move to cos-

almost

any

standard,

this

new

mopolitanism. T h e confrontation did raise awareness of

approach for submission and selection has facilitated an

m o d e r n styles of public art, but it did not resolve the

i m p r o v e m e n t in the quality of public art in T o r o n t o .

issues of h o w to choose it or w h e r e to put it. O v e r the next t w o decades streetside sites had to be f o u n d for a mixture of mostly donated installations—artfully poised girders, p a i n t e d disks, m o n u m e n t s to f o r e i g n heroes such as Simon Bolivar and W i n s t o n C h u r c h i l l — n o n e of w h i c h received m u c h a t t e n t i o n or disclosed Io

ate p o p u l a r disdain, was n i c k n a m e d " G u m b y goes to

tive concave towers, with a plaza in front of t h e m that

much

about Toronto. Matters came to a head in 1984 w h e n the City o f T o r o n t o was offered a gift it felt compelled to a c c e p t — t h e Canadian Airmen's Memorial, designed by Oscar N e m o n . This t h i r t y - f o o t tall, elongated, b r o n z e figure, holding aloft a stylized bird that looks like an airplane, is situated p r o m i n e n t l y in the d o w n t o w n core. Oscar Nemon, Per ardua ad astra (or t h e Canadian

Airmen's

Memorial),

Photo courtesy City ofToronto P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

1984.

Unlike earlier works that were mostly institutional or personal expressions, the n e w installations display a respect f o r place, recall local history, and c o n t r i b u t e clearly to public m e m o r y and the quality of urban e x p e rience. For instance, the construction of a n e w streetcar line provided the o p p o r t u n i t y to install several artworks (chosen t h r o u g h competition) at the main stops: a giant thimble in the f o r m e r g a r m e n t district, a stainless steel silhouette of an old movie camera near the site w h e r e Mary Pickford was b o r n , a stylized sign in Chinese characters that w e l c o m e s visitors to the n e w C h i n a t o w n . And in the early 1990s, sponsored by the n e w public art program within the D e p a r t m e n t of U r b a n Planning and D e v e l o p m e n t , the n e w process was i n s t r u m e n t a l in c o m m i s s i o n i n g Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, w h o designed a spectacular, soaring arcade that shelters a m i d b l o c k p e d e s t r i a n walkway t h r o u g h a n e w office development. This is a magnificent addition to the p u b lic spaces of the city.

II. Elevated Wetlands is b o t h m o r e i n t r i g u ing and less accessible to the public imagination than either of these cases, probably because it does so many things at o n c e . It is s i m u l t a n e o u s l y a sculpture w i t h shapes sufficiently like animals to p r o m o t e affection, a work of environmental engineering, a recycling initiative, a p r o m o t i o n for the plastics industry, a result of scientific research, an e x p e r i m e n t a l r e m e d i a t i o n project, and a product of skillful fundraising. In the old Toronto tradition, this public art is situated by the side of a road, but here it was designed, in part, as drive-by art to be seen f r o m the expressway; the two clusters of structures f o r m a type of gateway o n t h e D o n Valley Parkway approach to d o w n t o w n T o r o n t o . Yet, ironically, it can only be fully u n d e r s t o o d by walking a r o u n d it, reading the interpretive sign, and visiting the W e b site [see f o o t notes], because only then do the materials and the environmental function b e c o m e clear. Plastic is n o t a material that

easily

inspires aesthetic enthusiasmâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it is synthetic, ordinary, not very nice to touch, and used for kitschy o r n a m e n t s like pink flamingos. N o e l H a r d i n g is a Canadian artist w h o has not b e e n dissuaded by these negative sensibilities and has had a long-standing interest in plastic as an artistic m e d i u m . In the early 1990s, the

Canadian

Plastics Industry Association developed a program called Plastics+Art to try to make the public aware of the usefulness and aesthetic appeal of recycled plastic, and Santiago Calatrava, BCE Place Galleria, 1992. Photo courtesy City ofToronto

Noel Harding, Elevated Wetlands, September, 1998. Photo by Noel Harding

National Research C o u n c i l of Canada concluded that a u t o m o b i l e s h r e d d e r residue ( f r o m old car seats and dashboards, also k n o w n as auto fluff) is a g o o d growing 5

commissioned Harding for a m a j o r work. After Harding

m e d i u m for plants, and it could be c o m b i n e d with layers

c r e a t e d the basic c o n c e p t , the actual p r o j e c t evolved

of recycled plastic bottles and resins to filter pollutants

t h r o u g h a series of interactions b e t w e e n the artist, possi-

from water.

ble sites, city planners and engineers, the plastics indus-

The

six massive

forms

Elevated

try, environmentalists, sponsors, and c o m m u n i t y groups.

Wetlands w e r e c o n s t r u c t e d in a w o r k s h o p f r o m p o l y -

A suitable location was f o u n d in a city park w h e r e the

styrene blocks, b o n d e d together, and then carved. W h e n

D o n Valley Parkway comes close to the D o n River, and

they had been installed o n site they were coated with an

the final design adapted to that site. T h e highway engi-

acrylic finish and a thin layer of portland cement. T h e y

neers approved it on the condition that it have n o signs

c o u l d have b e e n any color; H a r d i n g p r e f e r r e d w h i t e

that might distract drivers o n the Parkway.

because it w o u l d stand o u t against the b a c k g r o u n d of

T h e D o n , w h i c h here is a turbid little

trees at the site. Water f r o m the D o n River is raised by a

river a b o u t t w e n t y - f i v e feet across, drains an u r b a n

solar-powered p u m p into the tallest of the forms in each

watershed and is therefore polluted with garden c h e m i -

cluster, filters through plants and plastics, flows into the

cals, paint residues d u m p e d d o w n drains, and the other

n e x t tallest, and t h e n to t h e g r o u n d w h e r e it drains

chemical residues of a city. T h e idea of using Elevated

through a series of newly created ponds and marshlands,

Wetlands to clean polluted water came f r o m articles in

r e t u r n i n g clean to the river.

scientific j o u r n a l s that describe h o w m i c r o o r g a n i s m s associated w i t h certain plants can be used to filter out hydrocarbons, a process called p h y t o - r e m e d i a t i o n . This

III.

Elevated Wetlands is a c h a l l e n g i n g and

insight was c o m b i n e d with the k n o w l e d g e that recycled

provocative installation. As a synthesis of art and envi-

plastics can act as an artificial soil, as in hydroponic cul-

r o n m e n t a l e n g i n e e r i n g it revives the almost f o r g o t t e n

tivation. In the s u m m e r of 1996 this science and t e c h -

practice of integrating artists into a design process that

nology were tested at the University of Lethbridge in

makes public works that are b o t h functional and attrac-

Alberta, using different plants and various mixtures of

tive. It is f r a n k a n d u n a p o l o g e t i c b o t h because it

recycled plastics. E x p e r i m e n t s c o n d u c t e d there by the

addresses h o w the city is regularly experienced by many

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

of its citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;that is, f r o m cars rather than w a l k i n g

caution and utilitarianism, is contractually c o m m i t t e d

s l o w l y â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a n d because it uses plastics in unlikely and

only to a five-year installation. If t h e n Elevated Wetlands is

innovative ways. Purists may criticize it as a subtle adver-

still s t a n d i n g and p u m p i n g and filtering, if t h e n e w

tisement for the plastics industry, but it has sound scien-

marshlands are flourishing, and if it has caused n o drivers

tific credentials and has already been incorporated into

to careen off the highway as they try to puzzle o u t w h a t

science classes at local schools. It appears to be installing

on earth these strange structures are, it will be p e r m i t t e d

itself in the public imagination.

to remain.

But

before

the

success

Elevated

Wetlands can be a n n o u n c e d there are l o n g - t e r m practical

I wish to thank Terry Nicholson, who is cultural officer in the

questions to be resolved. Will the artificial soil clog up

City of Toronto, for his ideas and insights.

with pollutants? Can the forms be repaired and m a i n tained? H o w will these plastics endure? O r conversely,

Ted Relph, author of Place and Placelessness, is professor of geography at the

since this is partly about environmental issues, are they

University ofToronto at Scarborough.

eventually biodegradable? T h e City o f T o r o n t o , w h i c h for all the recent initiatives has n o t entirely cast aside its Notes

Noel Harding, Elevated Wetlands, December, 1998. Photo by the author

1 . J o h n R u s k i n . Modern Painters.

4. In Toronto, b o t h the d e p a r t m e n t

V o l u m e III, s.35, in The Collected

of e c o n o m i c d e v e l o p m e n t and

Works of John Ruskin, edited by E.T.

t o u r i s m and the d e p a r t m e n t o f

C o o k and A. W e d d e r b u r n . L o n d o n :

urban planning and d e v e l o p m e n t

G e o r g e Allen, 1903-1912; original

sponsor public art. T h i s article makes generalizations f r o m b o t h

publication, 1856.

programs. 2. Margaret A n v o o d . Cat's Eye. N e w 5. www.plastics-art.com is an

York: B a n t a m Books, 1989.

informative W e b site w i t h 3. R o b e r t Fulford. Accidental The Transformation

City:

ofToronto.

T o r o n t o : McFarlane, Walter and

illustrations and explanations of t h e d e v e l o p m e n t and c o n s t r u c tion of Elevated

Wetlands.

Ross, 1995.

Noel Harding, Elevated Wetlands, planting, September, 1998. Photo by the author

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

SPACE FOR THE POBLADORES BORDER ART W O R K S H O P / T A L L E R DE ARTE

El C a m p o

FRONTERIZO

RUSE

Michael Schnorr is a member of the Border Art Workshop/Taller de Arte Fronterizo an arts collective that works on the U.S.-Mexican

(BAW/TAF),

border and internationally. With members includ-

ing Manuel Rafael Mancillas, Berenice Badillo, and Lorenza Rivero, the

BAW/TAF

recently inau-

gurated a new cultural facility in the Colonia Maclovio Rojas in Tijuana, Mexico. Tlie following interview is reprintedfrom the Web by permission of El Campo RUSE

(see end biographical notes).

USE: H O W D I D T H E B O R D E R A R T W O R K S H O P / T A L L E R DE A R T E F R O N T E R I Z O ( B A W / T A F )

DECIDE

to build a cultural space in a p o o r colonia ( c o m m u n i t y ) like M a c l o v i o R o j a s in T i j u a n a ? M i c h a e l S c h n o r r : First of all, Maclovio R o j a s is a poblado, n o t yet a colo-

nia, so it's n o t officially recognized by the g o v e r n m e n t . It's n o w at the very early stages of being a large n e i g h b o r h o o d , and the leadership is in the hands of the w o m e n â&#x20AC;&#x201D; m o s t of the w o r k in the c o m m u n i t y is d o n e by w o m e n , and w o m e n ' s folk songs, the corridos, are o n e of the area's attractions. T h e s e are some of the reasons for g o i n g there. Also, we h o p e d to d e v e l o p a place that w o u l d b e an art c e n t e r as well as a r e s i d e n c y f o r researchers w h o s e w o r k m i g h t n o t be c o n n e c t e d w i t h art, but f r o m w h i c h the artists could learn. RUSE: Is a poblado a protest c o m m u n i t y ? M i c h a e l S c h n o r r : N o , a poblado is, by definition, a land squat, a l t h o u g h the people don't like the name. T h e word poblado indicates that the area has n o t b e e n s a n c t i o n e d by the g o v e r n m e n t to receive facilities like w a t e r or electricity. E v e n (background photo) Detail of garage door mural, Centra Cultural Aguas Calientes.Tijuana, Mexico, 1999.

t h o u g h the people there purchased their land w h e n it wasn't valuable, as soon as the land b e c a m e valuable, their original deeds were b r o u g h t into question by the state g o v e r n m e n t u n d e r pressure f r o m i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o r p o r a t i o n s and h o m e g r o w n real estate developers.

(top left) Garage door mural, Centra Cultural Aguas Calientes, Tijuana, Mexico, 1998.

RUSE: W h a t is the official n a m e of the n e w c o m m u n i t y culture center? M i c h a e l S c h n o r r : C e n t r o Cultural Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes comes f r o m the t o w n w h e r e P a n c h o Villa m e t w i t h Emiliano Zapata to j o i n together to

(middle right) Centra Cultural Aguas Calientes, new building, Tijuana, 1998.

defeat t h e forces of t h e federal a r m y against t h e M e x i c a n

(middle left) Detail of painted garage door wall surrounding the Centra Cultural Aguas Calientes, Tijuana, 1999.

municipal, state, or federal governments. T h e y actually called t h e m centers of resistance:

(bottom right) Student volunteers from the Sherman Heights Community Center, Centra Cultural Aguas Calientes, Tijuana, 1998. All photos by Michael Schnorr

Revolution. W h e n

S u b c o m m a n d e r Marcos began with the Zapatistas in 1994, h e called for cities all over M e x i c o to establish a u t o n o m o u s cultural centers that w o u l d n o t be c o n t r o l l e d by

resistance to money, to c o r r u p t i o n , and to federalized, centralized f o r m s of culture. O u r idea was for the c o m m u n i t y to dictate w h a t they n e e d e d the cultural center for. We asked t h e m what they w a n t e d us to do, and they said you can build us an Aguas Calientes. N o w that we have, people have b e e n giving us lists of w h a t they want inside: they w o u l d like classes in English, dance, drawing, singing, yoga for w o m e n , etc. T h e idea of culture here is m u c h broader than it is in many c o m m u n i t i e s . RUSE: W h a t are the Border Art Workshop's specific p r o g r a m goals for this Aguas Calientes?

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

rnvmrnm Detail of painted garage door surrounding Centro Cultural Aguas Calientes,Tijuana, 1999. Photo by Michael Schnorr

Michael Schnorr: I don't want the center to be a prototype for anything until we have a couple of years to look back o n it. We have b e e n as careful as possible in talking w i t h m e m b e r s and e x - m e m b e r s of

Michael Schnorr: Our role is to get the

the w o r k s h o p about the project. After thirteen years of

center w o r k i n g , help the m e m b e r s of the c o m m u n i t y

work, the Border Art Workshop may have b e e n leading

learn h o w to operate s o m e t h i n g like this, and t h e n get

up to creating this kind of space. After all the w o r k in

out. We want to initiate programs, see w h a t works, and

Australia, N e w York, San Diego, and other places, we've

see w h a t kind of dynamics f o r m within these projects

g o n e into this project with a great a m o u n t of awareness.

and w i t h i n the b i n a t i o n a l c o m m u n i t y . B o t h

North

But as a prototype, we'll k n o w only after a few years. It

Americans and Mexicans, w h o live in the N o r t h e r n Baja

certainly is the best that we can do in terms of our e x p e -

California towns of Ensenada and Rosarito, are going to

r i e n c e and o u r c o n n e c t i o n s , w h i c h have b e e n h o n e d

c o m e and teach on a volunteer basis. In a few years we

over the last decade or so. RUSE: So this w o r k represents an idea

h o p e they w o n ' t need us to r u n , program, or even w r i t e grants to maintain their p r o g r a m m i n g . RUSE: Are there antagonists toward the

that has b e e n e n t e r t a i n e d since the b e g i n n i n g of the Workshop? M i c h a e l S c h n o r r : Yes, some people have

c o m m u n i t y of Maclovio w h o may have an interest in seeing the cultural center fail?

wished

BAW/TAF

to b e c o m e a type of mobile residence

M i c h a e l S c h n o r r : T h a t w o u l d be hard

program, rather than b e c o m i n g institutionalized; they'd

to say. T h e w h o l e area w h e r e t h e cultural c e n t e r is

rather it were its o w n group than a part of the C e n t r o

located, the Ampliacion, is n o w u n d e r c o n t e n t i o n by the

Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park, San Diego, w h e r e

state in terms of w h o owns w h i c h pieces of property or

we began. Everything we've learned w o r k i n g with the

if anybody owns anything. T h e older part of the poblado

Centro, the Biennial in Italy, the Biennial in Australia, or

is c o n s i d e r e d fairly safe; those p r o p e r t y o w n e r s d o n ' t

the multitude of binational projects, has b e e n part of the

have m u c h to w o r r y a b o u t . B u t the poblado itself is

formative process of learning h o w to initiate a project of

located in o n e of the last large valleys before you get to

this scope and keep it going.

the m o u n t a i n s that go up to Tecate, in N o r t h e r n Baja

R U S E : D o you t h i n k that this w o u l d

California, and international conglomerates w o u l d like

have b e e n possible w i t h the k i n d of e d u c a t i o n artists

to see this developed into a h u g e industrial park.

have received in the past?

RUSE: D o you see this c o m m u n i t y c e n -

Michael Schnorr: No. There is nothing

ter as a p r o t o t y p e that o t h e r p o o r c o m m u n i t i e s may

yet in art school that trains you for this sort of thing.

wish to emulate?

Although a student may have the option, at least in my

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

school, for receiving credits for this kind of w o r k . I h o p e that art schools will begin to see that c o m m u n i t y activity is a way of training artists that supersedes n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y c o n c e p t s , w h i c h are still b e i n g t a u g h t in 90 percent of all the colleges in the U.S. R U S E : D o you m e a n the artist as an object-maker? M i c h a e l S c h n o r r : T h e r e is a great deficiency in the individualistic notion of Western a r t - m a k ing. In a p r o j e c t like BAW/TAF's, an a l m o s t a s h a m a n i s t i c

process happens because it requires you to d o so many things (not just be an art-maker) and often it leaves your

Artemio Asuna and Hortencia Hernandez Medosa look at a model of the Centra Cultural Aguas Calientes, Corridor of Power exhibition, Centra Cultural de la Raza, San Diego, 1998. Photo by Fred Lonidler

control. After you've w o r k e d w i t h so m a n y parts of a project, the a r t - m a k i n g you finally do o n your o w n will be e n r i c h e d . You b e c o m e an e n r i c h e d individual, and not just an individual w h o has taken coursework within a prescribed institutional setting; you b e c o m e part of s o m e t h i n g m u c h larger than yourself. T h e world is in

The Border Art Workshop/Taller deArte Fronterizo

bad e n o u g h c o n d i t i o n w i t h o u t the artist still b e i n g

founded as part of the visual arts programming of the Centra Cultural de la

t h o u g h t of as the n i n e t e e n t h - c e n t u r y isolated m a n or

Raza, San Diego in l984.The

w o m a n in the studio, creating angst-ridden or pleasure-

tional invitational exhibitions and has developed many community-based art

ridden objects. After all, we are at the end of o u r empire

projects. For an extensive exhibition bibliography and list of articles please

BAW/TAF

(BAW/TAF)

was

has represented the U.S. in interna-

(U.S.A.) and our need to be in the c o m m u n i t y is as great

contact: mschnorr@clubi.net.

as o u r need to be o n the globe.

A multinational, alternative performance and exhibition gallery. El Campo

Residents of Maclovio Rojas walking by a building mural (1997) which depicts their protest march for property rights, 1998. Photo by Michael Schnorr

to provide a home for disenfranchised community artists, El Campo RUSE

RUSE is also based in the Tijuana-San Diego border region. Founded in 1988

is currently searching for a space.For further information visit their Web site at www.geocities.com/Baja/Dunes/7449/.

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPftlNG.SUMMER.99

XOCHIMILCO W H E R E M Y T H A N D MEMORY MEET

Deborah

Karasov

N 1 9 9 0 M E X I C O CITY INVITED M A R I O S C H J E T N A N A N D JOSE P E R E Z , P A R T N E R S IN T H E

GRUPO

de D i s e n o U r b a n o ( g d u ) , to lay o u t a large park as p a r t o f a s c h e m e t o reclaim X o c h i m i l c o , a World H e r i t a g e Site south of M e x i c o City. At t h e time, X o c h i m i l c o

was a m e r e residue o f its f o r m e r lacustrian landscape as a g r e a t m e t r o p o l i s o f t h e Aztec empire. S c h j e t n a n explains t h a t in N a h u a t l , t h e still living l a n g u a g e o f t h e extinct Aztec empire, X o c h i m i l c o m e a n s "place in w h i c h flowers are s o w n . " W h e n t h e Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1519 t h e y e n c o u n t e r e d w h a t s o m e today c o m p a r e to a fabulous mirage: the Aztec capital of islands " f l o a t i n g " in a vast lake. T h e s e islands, called chinampas, have b e e n considered o n e of t h e m o s t significant t e c h n o l o g i c a l i n v e n tions of t h e original inhabitants of t h e A m e r i c a n c o n t i n e n t b e f o r e t h e arrival of t h e Spanish. T h e chinampas

w e r e actually artificial islands, b u i l t o u t o f a f r a m e w o r k o f

branches, m u d , and tree t r u n k s dragged f r o m t h e b o t t o m of t h e lake itself. T h e s e f r a m e w o r k s w e r e t h e n consolidated and held in place by t h e roots of t h e abuejote, a w i l l o w that was planted all a r o u n d t h e edges. In essence this created a system o f vegetable gardens o f great efficiency and productivity, a perfect ecological system that p e r m i t t e d t h e raising of three crops of maize a year. It also created o n e of t h e m o d e r n metropolis" favorite locations for strolls and was t h e inspiration f o r paintings by all o f M e x i c o ' s greatest artists. As Schjetnan describes: "Its n e t w o r k of canals, its tutelary willows that g e n e r a t e vertical and h o r i z o n t a l lines and are reflected in t h e canals and in the lagoons as black as obsidian, its islands of flowers and vegetables that s e e m t o float amidst i n t o x i c a t i n g scents, t h e delicate and imperceptible glide of t h e

flat-bottomed

canoes, t h e flight and s o n g of t h e

herons, ducks, and o t h e r birds, t h e w h o l e of this geographical and cultural landscape creates a magical a t m o s p h e r e that resembles the stuff of dreams." B u t M e x i c o City, w h i c h g r e w in t h e t w e n t i e t h c e n t u r y to b e c o m e t h e largest u r b a n a g g l o m e r a t i o n o n the planet w i t h seventeen million regional inhabitants, b e c a m e greedy for t h e sources of g o o d quality w a t e r in X o c h i m i l c o . B e t w e e n 1910 and the present day, M e x i c o C i t y has taken e n o r m o u s quantities o f w a t e r f r o m X o c h i m i l c o . T h e process accelerated in the second half of t h e century, and t h e authorities p r o m i s e d that w h a t was taken f r o m the lakes w o u l d b e replaced w i t h treated water. H o w e v e r , in

practice, they substituted it w i t h wastewater: unhealthy, u n d r i n k a b l e , and o f very p o o r quality. F u r t h e r m o r e , the excessive exploitation of t h e wells caused s u d d e n subsidence of t h e grounds, destabilizing t h e chinampas and leaving t h e m s u b m e r g e d . Canals g r e w stagnant, causing the proliferation of water hyacinth, w h i c h in t u r n o b s t r u c t e d t h e pas(top) Water Tower, Parque Ecologico, Xochimilco.

sageways and m a d e navigation impossible. O t h e r areas simply d r i e d o u t .

( b o t t o m ) Paseo de las

and the authorities began t h e process of its restoration. Activities in this intensive p r o -

flores,

Parque Ecologico, Xochimilco. Photos by Gabriel Figueroa

Finally UNESCO declared X o c h i m i l c o a W o r l d H e r i t a g e Site in 1988, g r a m e n c o m p a s s ecological rescue, hydraulic a n d sanitary r e g e n e r a t i o n , i n j e c t i o n o f clean and treated water to t h e lacustrine area, technical s u p p o r t in agricultural p r o d u c tion, and n e w h o u s i n g for residents displaced by t h e w o r k . T h e y cover an area o f t h r e e Public A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

â&#x20AC;˘

W I

"'^T V i

Franz Mayer, 1924-1925, Col. Museo Franz Mayer. Photo courtesy Arte de Mexico, Xochimilco, Edicion Especial Departamento del Distrito Federal

GDu's activities. Like all t h e firm's w o r k , the design has b e c o m e a s y m b o l of r e n e w a l , m a n a g e d g r o w t h , and e n v i r o n m e n t a l sensitivity. E n v i r o n m e n t a l art, as defined by S c h j e t n a n and GDU, p r o f o u n d l y benefits n o t only t h e h u m a n p o p u l a t i o n , b u t the f u t u r e of t h e earth's most sig-

t h o u s a n d hectares, perhaps m a k i n g it o n e of t h e largest

nificant resources.

e f f o r t s at r e s t o r i n g a physical a n d c u l t u r a l l a n d s c a p e u n d e r t a k e n by h u m a n k i n d .

II.

To c o m p l e m e n t t h e s e activities, 2 8 0 hectares w e r e designated for the X o c h i m i l c o Ecological

The following is an interview with Mario Schjetnan conducted through e-mail.

Park. T h e park proper, n e w nurseries, f a r m l a n d , sailing

Deborah Karasov: Is there a contem-

clubs, and basins for flood control constitute a protective

p o r a r y art m o v e m e n t t o w h i c h y o u feel a p a r t i c u l a r

b u f f e r that defends t h e area of chinampas.

affinity?

O n e r e c u r r e n t f e a t u r e in all t h e old

Mario Schjetnan: Yes, I feel an aesthetic

p h o t o g r a p h s and paintings that Schjetnan's t e a m e x a m -

affinity to Latin A m e r i c a n literature and magical realism,

ined was t h e scenery of a large lake b e h i n d w h i c h the

trees o f t h e chinampas w e r e visible and, f u r t h e r off, the

C o l o m b i a n G a b r i e l Garcia M a r q u e z , t h e A r g e n t i n e a n

writers

the

Mexican

great b a c k d r o p of t h e m o u n t a i n s . R e f e r r i n g to t h e s y m bols linked w i t h these m o u n t a i n s , the project came to i n c l u d e a r e c a p t u r e d v i e w of the great restored lake f r o m various points. A n o t h e r i m p o r t a n t step of t h e restoration process was t h e decision to channel all t h e r a i n w a ter i n t o basins and depressions w h o s e levels w o u l d rise a n d fall w i t h seasonal c h a n g e s in p r e c i p i t a t i o n . T h i s 20

series of lagoons and marshes, w i t h their differences in d e p t h and size of moist areas, provides m a n y different ecological niches, f o r m i n g suitable habitats f o r n u m e r ous species of birds. Unlike

the

physical

reclamation

landfills and strip mines, t h e reclamation of X o c h i m i l c o is also an a t t e m p t to rehabilitate a cultural landscape. X o c h i m i l c o is n o t a sentimental evocation of the past, b u t o n e that n u r t u r e s today's culture by c o n n e c t i n g it w i t h d e e p m e a n i n g . T h i s p h i l o s o p h y u n d e r p i n s m u c h of

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

Willows on the edge of chinampas. Photo courtesy the archive of GDU

Carlos

Fuentes,

the

Jorge Luis Borges, the Peruvian M a r i o Vargas Llosa, and the U r u g u a y a n M a r i o B e n e d e t t i . T h e s e w r i t e r s have, through their interpretative and creative elaboration of history, e x h u m e d the myth and m e m o r y of places, just as Gian

Battista Vico, t h e

eighteenth-century

Italian

philosopher, did. M e a n i n g of place derives from these variables, and k n o w i n g b o t h m e m o r i e s and myths allows us to c o n n e c t the creation of place w i t h a deeper being. I also have an affinity to M o d e r n i s m in architecture, especially to the concept of critical r e g i o n alism as elaborated by K e n n e t h F r a m p t o n and others. As for environmental artists, I respond to such artists as Matthias Goeritz, an initiator of urban sculpture, M i n i m a l i s m , and e m o t i o n a l architecture, as elaborated in t h e 1950s and 1960s; D o u g Hollis and Anna M u r c h , w h o in their research have explored w i n d , water, earth, a n d s o u n d ; C h r i s t o , w h o s e

Aerial view of boats, chinampas and open air theater. Photo by Michael Calderwood

ephemeral

installations at t h e scale of r e g i o n or t e r r i t o r y have u n e a r t h e d n e w readings and n e w perceptions to existing landscapes; and architects Toyo Itto and Tadao A n d o ,

ceive each project, each place, as u n i q u e and unitary, b u t

w h o s e p r o f o u n d integrations of nature and c o n t e m p o -

also as an interrelated "corpus."

Deborah Karasov: What do you mean

rary a r c h i t e c t u r e a p p r o x i m a t e the essences of Z e n Buddhism.

by " t h e prevailing q u e s t i o n of t h e h u m a n i n d i v i d u a l

Deborah Karasov: Do you have a phi-

and society"? M a r i o S c h j e t n a n : This means that in o u r

losophy that u n d e r p i n s the formal or social aspects of

societies we must address the p r o b l e m of inequality, the

your work?

Mario Schjetnan: A persistent vision, o n e that runs through all of our w o r k , is the idea that

problem of alienation and desolation, the lack of c o m m u n i c a t i o n , etc.

Deborah Karasov: The relationship to

architecture, the city, and nature are a unitary, indivisible trilogy. I am interested in designing the "voids" of the

historical garden art is of special significance to m a n y

city in ways that f o r m and c o n f o r m to the city itself. At

landscape architects. H o w i m p o r t a n t is this relationship

the center of this trilogy is the prevailing question of the

for you?

h u m a n individual and society. In o u r w o r k w e are

Mario Schjetnan: Historical garden art

implicitly looking to restore a broken trilogy; we c o n -

is significant to m e in that I can learn f r o m and appreciate the great manifestations of historical gardens. In this

Aerial view of chinampas. Photo by Michael CaldetAvood

way, places such as the Alhambra in Granada, Katsura in Kyoto, V a u x - l e - V i c o m t e in France, or the X o c h i m i l c o agricultural garden islands have had significant i m p a c t upon me. W h e n we design, w e look at the p h e n o m e n o l o g y of place and m o v e m e n t in the landscape. W e look also to instill in o u r w o r k a dimension of time, s e a r c h i n g incessantly f o r m e a n i n g t h r o u g h m y t h a n d memory. U n e a r t h i n g and re-elaborating myth

and

m e m o r y , w e c o n n e c t the n e w f o r m a t i o n of place w i t h a d e e p e r u n d e r s t a n d i n g , t h e r e f o r e creating culture. T h i s allows for the creative i n t e r p r e t a t i o n of history, rather than the obvious evocation of signs and symbols that easily convert into nostalgic pastiche.

D e b o r a h Karasov: There are artists w h o maintain that landscape architecture has n o t h i n g whatsoever to do w i t h art. D o y o u agree w i t h them?

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

Mario Schjetnan: No. I think the high-

parks to improve u r b a n social conditions. In contrast,

est m o m e n t s in the creation of art can be seen in works

some critics today talk about the p o w e r of parks to aes-

like R y o - A n j i , Katsura, the Alhambra of Granada, or the

theticize inequality. Will you speak about the relation-

pyramids and ceremonial

ship b e t w e e n parks and c o n t e m p o r a r y social c h a n g e

city of M o n t e A l b a n

O a x a c a . A n d o u r w o r k aspires to this level. T h e real

in Mexico?

question is, w h a t is public art? M y answer is that public

Mario Schjetnan: The loss of personality

art is n o t automatically p r o d u c e d by so-called artists.

and equality in cities is exacerbated by the excessive and

Public w o r k b e c o m e s art w h e n it t r a n s c e n d s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; w h e n it

gradual privatization and sectoring of the urban pattern,

conveys and transmits emotions, w h e n it inspires reflec-

by the f o r m a t i o n of segregated enclaves. These scars and

t i o n , w h e n it moves us or transmits beauty, w h e n it

stabs in a city, this violent attack on its integrity, produce

b e c o m e s m e m o r a b l e and m e a n i n g f u l , and w h e n

horrible and insufferable urban life.

b e c o m e s part of a collective unconscious.

I think that plazas, parks, gardens, and

D e b o r a h Karasov: Do you feel that

promenades can, in the short run, help salve the social,

interest in public art and design has increased tangibly

physical, and psychological w o u n d s of the city, subvert-

in Mexico?

ing, in a way, the eroding conditions. T h e creation of

Mario Schjetnan: Fortunately, Mexico

these h u m a n e islands can spark the i m a g i n a t i o n and

draws u p o n an e n o r m o u s t r a d i t i o n of public art and

mobilize the collective unconscious into real changes of

design, f r o m t h e great creations of the p r e - H i s p a n i c

improved

ancestors

baroque

v o i d s â&#x20AC;&#x201D; b e c o m e m e m o r a b l e , w h e n they transcend the

churches. In this century, M e x i c o has f o r m e d a tradition

quotidian to b e c o m e truly meaningful, they belong in

of public art in murals and in public architecture. M o r e

the realm of public art and provide people w i t h p r i m o r -

the

marvelous

colonial

and

quality

of life. W h e n

these

spacesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the

recently, the w o r k of Luis Barragan and Matthias Goeritz

dial connections to life and its processes. As true art can,

projected public art into a c o n t e m p o r a r y d i m e n s i o n . T h e

these spaces take us to distinct realities and fantasies, ful-

challenge n o w is to i n c o r p o r a t e nature into our cities

filling the same f u n c t i o n as dreams; that is, they help us

and design t h e m implicitly as works of art.

to find ourselves in f r e e d o m , aligning us with the lost

Deborah Karasov: In describing your

paradise in the battle against hell and death.

w o r k , o n e magazine referred to Central Park designer Frederick Law O l m s t e d , w h o p r e a c h e d the p o w e r of View towards the lagoon at dusk. Photo by Gabriel Figueroa

Deborah Karasov is editor of Public Art Review.

DAUGHTERS O F " T H E NEW DEMOCRACY" THE LEGACY OF A N

IMAGE

M o i r a F. H a r r i s

N 1 9 4 4 , DAVID ALFARO SIQUEIROS PAINTED AN EXPLOSIVE, F O R T Y - F O O T MURAL O N THE WALLS OF

M e x i c o City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, the same building that housed earlier works by D i e g o Rivera and Jose C l e m e n t e O r o z c o . As W o r l d War II was just ending,

Siqueiros t o o k as his t h e m e the t r i u m p h of d e m o c r a c y over t h e forces of fascism. Democracy, or The New Democracy, as he titled the work, was pictured as a powerful, bare-breasted w o m a n breaking the chains of the enemy's totalitarian forces. S o m e critics consider The New Democracy a trite treatment of the theme, 1 but f o r later muralists the image has b e e n a powerful inspiration, o f t e n used in h o m a g e to the original m u r a l ist, or w h e n altered, used to emphasize a claim of political kinship. T h e M e x i c a n m u r a l renaissance, led by t h e t h r e e g r e a t s — R i v e r a , Orozco, and Siqueiros—influenced many artistic developments in the U n i t e d States, f r o m the WPA mural p r o g r a m of the 1930s to c o m m u n i t y murals b e g i n n i n g thirty years later. N o r t h A m e r i c a n muralists w e n t to M e x i c o to see this m u r a l renaissance in progress, assisted the muralists b o t h there and in U.S. workshops, or were inspired by the w o r k they saw in exhibits and books. W h i l e those artists w h o visited M e x i c o in the 1920s had a chance to w o r k with D i e g o Rivera, artists w h o m a d e their mural research trips in the 1960s and 1970s witnessed the w o r k of David Alfaro Siqueiros. J o h n Weber, in writing about the Chicago Mural Group, described those visits as a learning process for muralists. 2 It is not accurate, h e claims, to say that these experiences led to the f o r mation of derivative schools of artists w h o w o u l d forever repeat the t h e m e s or styles of the masters; rather the experiences in M e x i c o w o u l d c o n t r i b u t e to the m a n y t e c h n i q u e s learned and understood, and, as in the case of The New Democracy, to an image adapted. In t h e hands of later muralists, the figure in S i q u e i r o s ' The

New

Democracy has appeared in murals f r o m California to M i n n e s o t a , and f r o m Chile to the Netherlands. Although the original Siqueiros painting still exists, her " d a u g h t e r s " have had a m o r e troubled existence, with p h o t o g r a p h s often b e i n g the only record of their dramatic statements. As her Phrygian cap suggests, D e m o c r a c y is a w o m a n w i t h a past—a R o m a n past. H e r most ancient ancestor was Liberty and that lady's blindfolded sister, Justice. Justice finds her regular place atop the d o m e s of courthouses and city halls across the country, while Liberty's most f a m o u s location is o n her large plinth o n Ellis Island. Pablo Picasso, too, used the image of Liberty for his Guernica; here she emerges f r o m a

w i n d o w in the center of the painting, casting the glow of her torch o n the suffering beasts and humans. Siqueiros lived and w o r k e d in France before 1920, so he was probably well aware of these earlier images, and he later wrote appreciatively of Picasso's Guernica. W h e n he came to paint his o w n D e m o c r a c y figure in 1944, however, his m o d e l was his o w n wife, Angelica Arenal, 3 and the image had been years in development. Before Siqueiros was ready to paint his New Democracy image, m a n y other causes and tasks p r e o c c u p i e d him: prison in and exile f r o m M e x i c o , as well as service in the Spanish Civil War. H e also w r o t e manifestos, c o n d u c t e d workshops for Public Art R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

David Alfaro Siqueiros, The New Democracy, Mexico City, 1944. Photo by Bob Schalkwijk

the Invader. By 1941-1942, w h e n Siqueiros painted these murals, he was using n e w materials, such as the industrial d u c o paint and spray guns to apply the pigments to tex-

artists in N e w York, and painted murals in Los Angeles,

tured surfaces. Unlike fresco, the paint dried so rapidly,

Havana, and Chilian, Chile.

Lincoln Kirstein wrote, that finishing touches could be

Siqueiros' murals in the Escuela M e x i c o in Chilian, located several hours south of Santiago, are

applied as trains were arriving from Santiago with dignitaries b o u n d for the paintings' dedication. 4

clearly related to The New Democracy. T h e city of Chilian

In 1943, L i n c o l n Kirstein w r o t e that

had suffered a disastrous earthquake in 1939, and w h e n

y o u n g artists were already emulating Siqueiros' walls at

the Mexican g o v e r n m e n t built a n e w school in the town,

Chilian, 5 but it w o u l d be later groups of Chileans, the

they suggested that Siqueiros paint murals in its library.

famous brigadas, w h o w o u l d be inspired by Siqueiros in

T h e r e would be two murals, o n e dealing with M e x i c o

the 1970s.''As David Kunzle wrote, the brigades of stu-

and the other with Chile, both under the title Death to

dents and workers began in 1969, painting slogans in

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

support of the candidacy of Salvador Allende for presi-

Volker

Barthelmeh

illustrates

two

d e n t of C h i l e . Each m e m b e r was assigned a task in

C h i l e a n murals in his b o o k Street Murals. O n e , in the

painting the walls: o n e w o u l d trace letters or images, till

Netherlands, was the w o r k of the Brigada E l m o Catalan

in the shapes, or paint the b a c k g r o u n d .

Even in the

and the other, in Germany, was painted by the Brigada

early days it was necessary to w o r k fast, as other political

El Frente. s B o t h include versions of D e m o c r a c y and h e r

parties or the police always t h r e a t e n e d to cover over

torch. Victor Canifru and Alejandra Acuna, Chilean

their w o r k . T h u s t h e i r style b e c a m e a b r o a d

artists w h o

one,

moved

N i c a r a g u a , also i n c l u d e d

i n d e b t e d n o t only to poster art, b u t , as images w e r e

D e m o c r a c y figure h o l d i n g a t o r c h in t h e i r M a n a g u a

added, to the art of Fernand Leger and Siqueiros. After

mural. The Supreme Dream of Bolivar (painted in 1983,

Allende was overthrown by Augusto P i n o c h e t in 1973,

destroyed in 1990-1991). 9

some of the brigades fled Chile to paint their messages

A m e r i c a n artists w h o e i t h e r w o r k e d

abroad. A n d in those messages, f r o m t i m e to time,

w i t h Siqueiros or studied his murals i n c o r p o r a t e d their

appeared Siqueiros' Democracy, n o w by way of Chilian.

experience in various ways. F o r e s h o r t e n e d figures, paint P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

(left) Homage to Siqueiros, UMCT, Santiago, Chile, 1993.

(right) Arch Williams et al., Tools of Peace, San Francisco, Calif., 1985. Photos by the author

ing Mexican revolutionary symbols as well as the u b i q uitous references to the U n i t e d F a r m W o r k e r s union. In a San Francisco mural, well titled Tools of Peace (painted by Arch Williams, Jose A n t o n i o O c h o a , A n n e Fitzpatrick, A n t h o n y Senna, and Jo Tucker

delivered by spray gun, and designs that utilize the phys-

in 1985, b u t later destroyed), D e m o c r a c y ' s anguished

ical facts of architecture (by c o n t i n u i n g around corners,

face and long arms remain, but she is n o w clothed and

for example) are some means. A n o t h e r is, of course, the

clutches a long banner of flags that trail b e h i n d her. She

use of Siqueiros' images. In a m u r a l called The

Sun

represents " t h e p o w e r of matriarchy" and flies not over

Bathers, located in Los Angeles' Estrada Courts, the arts

dead bodies, but over musicians and children w h o are

collective G o e z included the Siqueiros self-portrait El

packing supplies to be sent as a relief effort to Central

Coronelazo with its massive pointing a r m and clenched

America. 1 4 In this mural, the dark colors of Siqueiros'

fist. 10 T h e m u s c u l a r a r m s and dramatic shown

murals

the

Santa

perspective

Fe-based

Artes

Guadalupanos de Aztlan also suggest Siqueiros' work. 11

W h e n D e m o c r a c y is used in a mural,

R a u l Valdez, a Texas muralist, titled his first m a j o r w o r k

she usually assumes a p r o m i n e n t location: as a s u p e r -

Los Elementos

( T h e Elements) in t r i b u t e to Siqueiros'

w o m a n her place is, typically, front and center. However,

painting of the same title and theme, 12 and in Chicago,

as one c o u n t e r i n g example, she is presented as a h o r i -

R a y Patlan e c h o e d the marching electrical workers f r o m

zontal figure in Carlos Almaraz's No Compre Vino Gallo

Siqueiros' For the Complete Safety of All Mexicans at Work

(Don't Buy Gallo Wine) of 1974. Two left arms end in

in his 1971 Mural de la Raza. But The New Democracy has

clenched fists, holding nothing, but t u r n e d upwards in

most frequently provided the imagery for muralists w h o

the familiar "people's p o w e r " gesture of the time. N e x t

wish to include a Siqueiros reference in their work. 26

original are rejected for the m u c h b r i g h t e r palette of peace and hope.

comes another arm, painted blue, with its palm open as

In w o r k s such as the Berkeley mural,

if to stop the v i o l e n c e against f a r m workers, t w o of

Viva la Raza (1977), D e m o c r a c y emerges above agricul-

w h o m are next s h o w n dead. As in Berkeley's Viva La

tural fields. B e l o w o n e of her arms is a f a r m workers'

Raza, D e m o c r a c y makes a n o t h e r s t a t e m e n t here, this

march led by Cesar Chavez, while below the ball and

time about California f a r m practices. 15

chains h a n g i n g f r o m h e r left c l e n c h e d fist is D i e g o

In a m o r e recent w o r k , Malichansouk

R i v e r a p a i n t i n g his figure of Z a p a t a w i t h his p r o u d

K o u a n c h a o and Carlos M e n c h a c a have r e t u r n e d this

w h i t e horse. T h e t w o - p a n e l mural, Viva la Raza, appears

powerful figure, in essence, to her roots. In their painting

o n a semitruck and trailer w h i c h , in t u r n , were painted

Youth Against Violence (1995-1996), D e m o c r a c y is a c o m -

o n the wall of a G o o d w i l l store by D a n i e l Galvez,

plete figure like Delacroix's Liberty, striding against a

O'Brien

Stephanie

b a c k g r o u n d of Southeast Asia yet still carrying her torch

Barrett." T h e design thus proclaims La R a z a by invok-

and flower. T h e i r vision of D e m o c r a c y wears a fuchsia

Thiele,

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

Osha

Neumann,

and

(left) Daniel Galvez et al., Viva La Raza, Berkeley, Calif., 1977. Photo by Tim Drescher

(right) Malichansouk Kouanchao

Notes:

the Service of Politics. C a m b r i d g e : MIT

and Carlos Menchaca, Youth Against

1. A n t o n i o R o d r i g u e z d e s c r i b e d it

Press, 1978: 3 6 2 - 3 6 6 .

Violence, Minneapolis, Minn., 1995-1996. Photo by the author

as " e x t r e m e l y s i m p l i f i e d " and i n t e n d e d f o r "illiterate spectators." A

8.Volker B a r t h e l m e h , Street

History of Mexican

N e w York: A l f r e d A. K n o p f , Inc.,

Mural

Painting,

N e w York: G. P. P u t n a m ' s Sons,

Murals.

1982: 8 0 , 1 0 9 .

1969: 3 8 3 , 3 8 4 . Siqueiros w o u l d

dress to suggest the w e d d i n g g o w n s w o r n by Lao

later p a i n t t w o flanking panels f o r

9. D a v i d K u n z l e , The Art of

w o m e n . Students w h o w o r k e d o n the mural suggested

The New Democracy, called Victims of

Revolutionary

Fascism and War.

Berkeley: University of California

elements of two scenes: a lynching tree o n the left with 2. J o h n W e b e r , " T h e C h i c a g o M u r a l

right, b o t h derived f r o m a p a n e l in Rivera's

G r o u p , " i n Toward a People's

Industry mural. Siqueiros' figure of D e m o c r a c y appears

Contemporary

Art:The

Mural Movement.

New

In t h e s a m e v o l u m e , see pp. 2 5 3 - 2 5 5

296.

o t h e r c o m m e n t s o n Siqueiros a n d

11. See G e r o n i m o G u a r d u n o , " A r t e s G u a d a l u p a n o s d e Aztlan," in Toward

works, the artists change Democracy's costume (in c o n Democracy,

when

a People's Art: The 3. D e s m o n d R o c h f o r t , Muralists: Orozco, Rivera,

Mexican

Mural Movement.

Siqueiros.

changed, is clothed) or her gender, usually retaining her

N e w York: U n i v e r s e P u b l i s h i n g ,

t h r e e o u t s t r e t c h e d arms, b u t m a k i n g h e r expression

1994, Ills. 2 0 8 , 2 0 9 o n p. 193.

peaceful and almost passive.Yet despite these changes the

Contemporary N e w Y o r k : E . P.

Dutton & Co., 1977:202-212.

12. R i c a r d o R o m o , " B o r d e r l a n d M u r a l s : C h i c a n o Artifacts in

4. L i n c o l n K i r s t e i n , " S i q u e i r o s in

record remains extraordinary: this single image c o n t i n -

T r a n s i t i o n , " Aztlan

C h i l i a n , " Magazine

129.

ues to represent f r e e d o m and a struggle against oppres-

1943:286.

sion whatever the c o u n t r y and the cause. In the art of c o m m u n i t y muralists, The New

Democracy

of Art, D e c e m b e r ,

21:1,2 (1992-6):

13. T h e m u r a l still exists a l t h o u g h 5. Kirstein, ibid., 2 8 3 .

t h e c o l o r s are n o t as b r i g h t as illus-

has truly

b e c o m e a W o m a n for All Reasons.

Murals.

in t h e c h a p t e r o n " A e s t h e t i c s " f o r A m e r i c a n c o m m u n i t y murals.

murals,

Gallery:

Los Angeles: RJD E n t e r p r i s e s , 1 9 9 3 :

listed here are just a f e w of m a n y examples. In o t h e r American

10. R o b i n D u n i t z , Street Guide to 1000 Los Angeles

York: E . P. D u t t o n & C o . , 1977: 159.

in c o m m u n i t y murals t h r o u g h o u t the world, and those

temporary

1979-1992.

Press, 1 9 9 3 : 9 1 - 9 3 .

a fetus in its roots and a second r o o t b o u n d fetus o n the Detroit

Nicaragua,

trated i n Y o k o Clark and C h i z u 6. H o w e v e r , Eva C o c k c r o f t w h o

H a m a , California

w o r k e d w i t h t h e brigadas in C h i l e ,

Lancaster-Miller Publishers, 1979:

Murals. B e r k e l e y :

reported their c o m m e n t that

19. F o r an illustration o f t h e e n t i r e

The idea for this article was suggested to the author by Tim

Siqueiros f o r t h e m was an artist o f

m u r a l see E v a C o c k c r o t t - S p e r l i n g

Drescher, mural historian and professor at San Francisco State

the Mexican establishment and no

a n d H o l l y B a r n e t t - S a n c h e z , eds..

l o n g e r s e e m e d relevant t o t h e i r

Signs from the Heart:

work. Eva C o c k c r o f t , " T h e D e a t h o f

Chicano Murals. Venice, Calif.: SPARC,

a M u r a l M o v e m e n t , " Art in America,

1990:33.

University. The final work benefits from his insights as well as his photography.

California

January-February, 1974: 3 5 - 3 7 . 14. See illustration a n d d e s c r i p t i o n .

Moira F. Harris is the author of Museum of the Streets: Minnesota's

7. D a v i d K u n z l e , " A r t o f t h e N e w

Community

Contemporary

C h i l e : M u r a l , Poster, a n d C o m i c

1985: 2 0 .

Outdoor Murals and articles on Minnesota murals.

Murals Magazine,

Winter

B o o k in a R e v o l u t i o n a r y Process," in H e n r y A. M i l l o n a n d Linda N o c h l i n , eds.. Art and Architecture

15. Illustrated in Signs from the in

Heart,

ibid., 4.

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

PROJECT

LYNNE HULL: PRONATURA Reviewed by Simone Ellis • • •

Owls ofHuitapec,

Huitapec Reserve,

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, 1998. Photo by Lynne Hull

"I might as well be making art for antelope," Lynne Hull once said, considering that there were more antelope than people in Wyoming where she lived. And since then she has been making art for animals. She calls her innovative, environmentally oriented work Trans-Species Art, and it is one of the most fascinating turns the eco-art movement has taken. Her first piece, Scatter, part of a Hydroglyph series of water basins for desert wildlife, was constructed in 1984, near Moab, Utah. It is, as she puts it, "the inverse of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty. I saw that it was water in stone, instead of stones in water. And that instead of being a big, macho, artist's gesture on the landscape, it was this small-scale, nurturing, feminine gesture on the landscape." Hull's works are never in-your-face big, though from the perspective of some of the creatures who utilize them, they must no doubt seem monumental. Her goal in making art is not to alter the environment, but to create an aesthetic that stands out against the foreground of its location, while also fitting in with the surrounding ecology. Other common threads that run through her work are a deft, scientifically sound comprehension of nature and an awareness of those who need help the most. In 1998 Hull began using her art to benefit humans as well as animals. She wrote grants to work with the residents of conflict-ridden areas of Mexico, specifically San Cristobal de las Casas, state of Chiapas, and Punta Laguna, a Yucatan village in the state of Quintana Roo. The projects were funded by the U.S.-Mexico Fund for Culture, in partnership with Bancomer corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Working with the Mexican grass-roots, environmentalist group, ProNatura, Hull spent from January to March in the Puente Monos, treetop monkey bridge, Punta Laguna, 1998. Photo by Lynne Hull

tropical forest with the Mayan peoples. Together, they created four art projects: a playground of sculptures that functions as a safe place for kids to play while learning about the animals around them; an owl "housing project" to help where illegal woodcutting has created problems for endangered, cavitynesting owls; a bridge to help the resident spider monkeys in a community nature reserve cross the road without being frightened by dogs, people, and cars; and a canoe trail for eco-tourism, along a tropical lagoon that is home to an abundant number of waterfowl, turtles, and many other species. These remote areas of Mexico, especially in Yucatan, appealed to Hull for projects that would include collaboration with a community; also those communities could use the work. She hired all locals for the construction, and unlike many collaborative projects, she paid them. "They needed the work," she told me."I really wanted to be able to put some funding in the community. So, we were paying local wages. I was also pretty wary of distorting their economy by coming in and dumping a lot of outside money. That always creates as many problems as it solves. But we did negotiate with the local people what the fair wage would be, and when there was a dangerous job, like the elder chiclero (a worker of chicle, the sap collected from trees for rubber and gum) who had to climb a tree to put up the monkey bridge, we paid double or triple of what the people got on the ground." The Punta Laguna monkey bridge was not only for the monkeys; it was also built to encourage eco-tourism in the area. "Because if they don't get a little more tourism, there is going to be a lot of pressure to cut the trees," says Hull, "and that would, of course, damage the monkeys as well as all the other species."

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

PROJECT

Parque Infantil

de la

Naturaleza—

Para Los Ninos, Moxviquil Reserve,

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, 1998. Photo by Lynne Hull wasn't as easy as originally t h o u g h t . N o o n e w a n t e d t o climb that h i g h . Finally s o m e o n e s u m m o n e d a village e l d e r w h o had b e e n a chiclero, w h o had tapped t h e trees f o r r u b b e r a n d g u m . Hull b o u g h t h i m s o m e n e w e q u i p m e n t and h e c l i m b e d t h e tree. "I had an A m e r i c a n e n g i n e e r c o m e by a n d h e was l o o k i n g at t h e b r i d g e w h i l e w e w e r e assembling it," r e m e m b e r s H u l l , " a n d m a r v e l i n g h o w w o n d e r f u l it was. So I asked h i m if I should s o m e h o w screw bolts in it. A n d h e s a i d , ' N o , no, no, this is m u c h b e t t e r . B e c a u s e if y o u p u t in a screw o r a b o l t , it w o u l d create o n e pressure p o i n t , and t h e w i n d a n d t h e forces could crack it at that point.' T h e way t h e y tied it actually dist r i b u t e d t h e w e i g h t a n d pressure p o i n t s over a w i d e r area, w h i c h m e a n t it w o u l d last longer." If Hull w e r e to give o t h e r artists advice o n h o w to w o r k i n t e r nationally, it w o u l d b e t o m a k e t h e m s e l v e s k n o w l e d g e a b l e a b o u t t h e t e c h n o l o g y o f t h e place. " Y o u n e e d t o b e crossW h i l e building t h e p l a y g r o u n d in Chiapas, Hull e n c o u n t e r e d s o m e difficulty in applying h e r c u s t o m a r y t e c h n o l o g y — e l e c trical tools, U.S. c o n s t r u c t i o n and h a r d w a r e — t o t h e material available there. So w h e n she w e n t to P u n t a L a g u n a — a village so small there were only t w o p e r m a n e n t buildings a m o n g t h e palapas (native huts) and the electricity consisted o f a g e n e r a -

culturally aware o f h o w things are d o n e in t h e place y o u ' r e in, b u t y o u m i g h t as well b e t e c h n o l o g i c a l l y aware t o o . T h e y probably k n o w way m o r e than you d o a b o u t their place. T h e y k n o w h o w to m a k e things w o r k in their e n v i r o n m e n t . " L y n n e Hull's projects teach us that w h a t t w e n t y - f i r s t - c e n t u r y t e c h n o l o g y is to us may n o t b e t h e state of t h e art elsewhere.

tor at t h e s c h o o l t h a t wasn't s t r o n g e n o u g h to r e c h a r g e

Simone Ellis is the former art critic for the Santa Fe New Mexican and the

h e r p o w e r tools—she decided to try a n o t h e r tactic. She c o m -

author of Santa Fe Art, a book about paintings of the Southwest. She now

b i n e d h e r t e c h n o l o g y w i t h theirs. " L o o k i n g a r o u n d t h e vil-

resides in Montana.

lage, I could see t h e beautiful way that they built their palapas, their dwellings, o f t a k i n g t h e materials available t h e r e , a n d p u t t i n g their e n g i n e e r i n g a l o n g w i t h their t e c h n o l o g y i n t o the construction, and c o m i n g out with a w o n d e r f u l and appropriate structure." Hull decided to utilize this ability in t h e n e x t project. She told t h e m , "We're g o i n g to build the m o n k e y b r i d g e as if it were a palapa, and h a n g it as if it were a h a m m o c k . " She w e n t to t h e forest w i t h t h e m w h e r e g o v e r n m e n t c u t t i n g was taking place,

(right) Juan and Don Ramos constructing the Monkey Bridge, 1998. ( b o t t o m ) Para Aves

Aquaticos,

canoe nature trail. Lagoon of Punta Laguna, 1998. Photos by Lynne Hull

and she had t h e m p o i n t o u t to h e r t h e trees that w o u l d b e t h e lightest and strongest for building t h e bridge. She chose t h e b r a n c h e s that h a d t h e shapes she w a n t e d , and t h e y cut t h e m d o w n w i t h m a c h e t e s . " W e f o u n d that t h e m a c h e t e s w e n t m u c h faster t h a n I t h o u g h t , " she says l a u g h i n g . " W e h a n d - c a r r i e d t h e branches back to the village, and t h e n they k n e w h o w to use vines to tie the j o i n t s t o g e t h e r w h e r e t h e branches w o u l d meet." It was t h e same t e c h n o l o g y that t h e village p e o p l e used to build t h e roofs of their h u t s . T h e only difference was that Hull used nylon cord in place of vines to m a k e it m o r e p e r m a n e n t . She laid o u t the branches t h e way she w a n t e d t h e m to be, and t h e villagers tied the cord. H o w e v e r , getting it u p in the trees

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

PROJECT

LANDSCAPE OF CONJECTURE VIEW FROM THE CENTER FOR LAND USE INTERPRETATION

(below) John Reed, artist-inresidence, Fugative, wind driven sculpture, Bonneville salt flats, Wendover, Utah, 1998. Photo by Lisa Boulanger

Reviewed by Melinda Stone • • •

A nonprofit organization dedicated to the "increase and diffusion of information about how the landscapes of the nation are apportioned, utilized, and perceived," the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) operates a network of exhibition venues, including an exhibition space adjacent to their main office and research facility in Los Angeles, California. In addition, the CLUI works with galleries and museums across the country to present regional land use photo-text installations and tours.

is also preparing for an exhibition and book, due in fall 1999, that will highlight the largest—and perhaps the most secretive—restricted area in the United States: the Nellis Range. Landscape of Conjecture documents this area, located in Nevada, which has been sealed off by the United States government since World War II for use as a bombing and testing range. The elusive nature of the site fuels many speculative accounts making it the nations premiere "landscape of conjecture."

Since 1996, the Center has operated a residency program in association with its Wendover, Utah, exhibition location. Located at an abandoned and collapsing military base, thus far the program has supported art and research by numerous artists and writers, such as John Reed, inspired by this seemingly barren, yet highly transformed and industrialized landscape. In the summer of 1997, C L U I copresented, with Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Hinterland: A Voyage into Exurban Southern California. This show featured a gallery display of one hundred Hinterland site photographs with accompanying text, while also offering guided bus tours to shuttle the curious into the physical sites presented in the gallery. Currently the Center is working with MIT'S List Center, Seattle's Center on Contemporary Art, and the Headlands Center for Arts in San Francisco to produce similarly conceived projects.

The five-thousand-square-mile site, approximately the size of Connecticut, may be considered a sort of landscape museum, full of relics from the past that represent the shifting cultural transformation of the West. Mining cabins sit undisturbed with jars still on the shelves, abandoned settlements of the Paiute and Shoshone tribes exist totally intact, while bighorn sheep and wild horses run free. Amidst the seemingly tranquil time capsule of the romantic old West, which the public is never allowed to visit, is a futuristic landscape of high-tech war games and military experiments.

Public Art R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

CLUI

The land is a multiuse space for the Air Force and other armed services, which train continuously, using fixed and mobile threat-simulation facilities, fabricated enemy airfields, mock industrial facilities, radar stations, telemetry facilities, and vast target ranges featuring decommissioned tanks and

PROJECT

Electronic target structure on calibration grid, Nellis Range, Nev, Photo courtesy Nellis Range Management Squadron

aircraft. Distinct large-scale test complexes also populate the mysterious landscape, including Groom Lake (a.k.a. Dreamland and Area 51), a secret development, testing, and evaluation site for advanced weapons systems. In the following e-mail conversation, Matthew Coolidge, the director of C L U I , discusses the unusual and curiously transformed landscape that is contained within the highly guarded border of the Nellis Range Complex. Melinda Stone: What is remarkable about this "Internal Border" landscape? M a t t h e w C o o l i d g e : T h e p e r i m e t e r is r e m a r k a b l e b o t h f o r

what it keeps out and what it contains. Surrounding the Nellis Range is the open world of Nevada, which is mostly owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and is therefore one of the most "open" states in the country, in terms of your being free to travel almost anywhere you want. In Nevada, if you see a dirt road heading off into the distance from the highway, chances are you can travel its lengthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;-just close the cattle gate behind you. The perimeter of the Nellis Range marks the abrupt transition from this freedom into one of the most secretive and unknown places in America. As you drive around it you have the sense of a void, a hole in the contiguous fabric of the state. MS: You mentioned before that many of the structures you have documented inside the range resemble some of the more well-known works of land art. Could you explain how and why? MC: On the landscape of the Range you can find bunkers and earthen berms galore, as well as weird linear and circular geometric forms on a massive scale, and other target shapes that

Giant Rock, UFO site on Hinterland tour, 1997. Photo courtesy CLUI

suggest enemy threats to a pilot. Most people are not familiar with the practical aspects of these forms, as many of them have never been seen, even in photographs, by anyone outside the Range. They look like strange abstract shapes, especially when considered within the context of this secret landscape. The people of Lockheed Martin, who build most of the targets on the Range, are like the ancient Egyptians building temples, tombs, and sculptures out of the earth. N o doubt the spiritually minded Egyptians viewed their creations in a practical way, even though now we view them as art. The Nellis constructions, on the other hand, represent the life-and-death struggle of a militaristic and technologically advanced society, even more so as they destroy and recreate over and over on the "blank slate" of this mysterious landscape. Contemporary land artists like Walter De Maria and Michael Heizer have been making lines and mounds on the desert that very closely resemble some of the forms found inside the Nellis Range. Heizer, for example, is currently at work on his massive Complex City project at his ranch in Nevada, which in fact is not too far from the Nellis Range Complex. This work consists of a series of earthen berms with concrete linear members, arranged around a central rectangular court. The shapes are said to resemble Mayan architecture, but perhaps look even more like ammunition igloos and strafing bunkers. MS: In addition to the military-inspired creations contained within the Nellis Range, what other manmade structures are visible or not so visible along the perimeter of the range? M C : On the north side, off Highway 6, you can drive up to the gate of the Tonopah Test Range, where just over the fence you can see the residential part of the base called Man Camp. These structures were imported from elsewhere in the 1980s

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

PROJECT

(below) Full-scale mock airfield in Nellis Range, Nev. Photo courtesy Nellis Range Management Squadron

Sign near Groom Lake, Nellis Range, Nev., 1994. Photo c o u r t e s y CLUl

"suspectors," making for a kind of feedback loop that will make a believer out of anyone susceptible to conspiracy theories. If you stay long enough and hide behind bushes, they will even send out the black helicopters to find you. Seriously. It's happened.

WARNING

T H E R E IS A R E S T R I C T E D MILITARY INSTALLATION TO THE WEST IT IS UNLAWFUL TO M A K E ANY PHOTOGRAPH. FILM. MAR SKETCH. P I C T U R E . DRAWING. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF T H I S A R E A . OR EOUIPMENT AT OR FLYING OVER THIS INSTALLATION • IT IS U N L A W F U L TO R E P R O D U C E , P U B L I S H . S E L L . OR GIVE AWAY ANY PHOTOGRAPH. F I L M . MAR SKETCH. PICTURE. DRAWING. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF THIS AREA. OR EOUIPMENT AT OR FLYING OVER THIS I N S T A L L A T I O N • V I O L A T I O N OF EITHER OFFENSE IS PUNISHABLE WITH UP TO A $ 1 0 0 0 FINE A N D / O R IMPRISONMENT FOR UP TO ONE Y E A R . 18 U . S . CODE SEC. 7 9 5 / 7 9 7 AND E X E C U T I V E ORDER 10104 • FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: U S A F / D 0 E L I A S 0 N OFFICE „RS 8 0 ^ 9 8 5 1 8 ' L A S VEGAS, NV 8 9 1 9 3 - 8 5 1 8

to serve as the barracks for some of the thousands of people who worked up there during the secret days of the Stealth Fighter program. If you drive down another road on the east side of the range, you head towards the back door of the Groom Lake base, Area 51. Though the perimeter is clearly marked with signs next to the road, there is no gate at the perimeter. Instead, there are security systems that watch what you do. Among these systems are video cameras concealed behind yucca trees, roving security patrols in white Jeep Cherokees and armed with M-16s, and electronic sensors in the dirt roads that transmit your location to the security center, presumably somewhere inside the range. And this is all without having set foot inside the zone.You are still on public, BLM land. 32

MS: I've heard all the Area 51 stories. What actually happens as you approach the perimeter of this part of the range? M C : T h e buffer zone outside Area 51 is one of the most unusual regions in the country: you can find conclusive evidence that you are being carefully monitored, watched by some very sophisticated surveillance gear, while still having every right to be there. It's a sort o f l a n d s c a p e of suspicion," next to the "landscape of conjecture," where you, as a suspected potential intruder, grow increasingly suspicious of your

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

MS: How is the Center for Land Use Interpretation able to compile information on one of the most secret bases in the United States? M C : There are networks of independent researchers who have accumulated a massive amount of information and ideas about the place. These include writers for Aviation Week and Space Technology magazines, who are interested in what advanced or foreign aircraft are being tested there, as well as UFO and conspiracy proponents, who believe that Nellis, and especially Area 51, is connected with shadow government or alien activities. We've also had meetings and briefings with the operators of the Range, the Ninety-ninth Range Management Squadron of the Air Force's Air Warfare Center, and discussed with them the activities there. They are the shadowy custodians, the guardians and gatekeepers for this terra incognita, but they are also just people whom you can talk to, and a few of them know the range intimately and are willing to talk about it. They are hard to get to, though, located as they are in a high-security, windowless building in an already secure airbase. What we have at Nellis, then, are borders within borders. The area will continue to invite fascinating speculation, vast paranoia, or just plain curiosity, depending on the biases of the viewer, C L U I ' S project will help dispel some of the myths, but it's also likely to create some new ones. For more information about the Center for Land Use Interpretation and the Nellis Range Complex visit CLUL's Web site at wunv.clui.org. Melinda Stone is director of film projects at the Center for Land Use Interpretation and a Ph.D. candidate in the department of communication at University of California, San Diego.

EXCERPT

RESERVATION X THE POWER OF PLACE IN ABORIGINAL CONTEMPORARY ART

Gerald McMaster • • •

Editor's

note: "What,

is this place that

Canadians

call

choose. B e i n g Indian, however, is a far m o r e c o m p l e x

the reserve, Americans call the reservation, and some call 'the

f o r m a t i o n of i d e n t i t y a n d c o m m u n i t y . A n y o n e

rez'? For most, contemporary aboriginal peoples the reserve

b e c o m e an artist, but n o t anyone can b e c o m e an Indian.

is, was or will be home." So begins Gerald McMaster, curator

T h e identity of the artist is m o b i l e and unfixed, as is the

of the exhibition Reservation X at the Canadian

Museum

artist's cultural identity, yet t o g e t h e r the t w o identities

and editor of the catalogue of the same

c o n t r i b u t e to the m a k e u p of a c o m p l e x subject o f the

of Civilization

name, showcasing installations America's foremost

created by many of

native artists. The following

North

m o d e r n age.

excerpt is

reprinted with permission (Seattle: University of Washington, 1999;

can

W h a t are the ways in w h i c h this idea is b e i n g a r t i c u lated? C o n t e m p o r a r y artists place greater value o n self-

$34.95).

d e t e r m i n a t i o n , a willingness to b e an i n d i v i d u a l yet W h y is Reservation X i m p o r t a n t and for w h o m ? I suggest

unconsciously tied to place. " R e t u r n i n g h o m e " means

that b e t w e e n t w o or m o r e c o m m u n i t i e s — r e s e r v e a n d

c o n t r i b u t i n g and r e c o n n e c t i n g to local culture. Living

u r b a n — t h e r e exists a socially ambiguous zone, a site of

and w o r k i n g in a c h a n g i n g w o r l d while maintaining a

articulation for the aboriginal c o n t e m p o r a r y artist that is

sense of identity is to recognize the i m p o r t a n c e of p r e -

frequently crossed, experienced, interrogated, and n e g o -

serving f u n d a m e n t a l p h i l o s o p h i e s and principles. T h e

tiated. This idea argues for a space of radical openness

c o m m u n i t y projects o f 'Ksan [Gitksan

and "hybridity," or spaces of resistance being o p e n e d at

n o r t h e r n British C o l u m b i a ] and the IAIA [Institute of

the margins. I, however, see this space as in b e t w e e n two

A m e r i c a n Indian Arts] of the late 1960s provided m a n y

community,

centres, w h i c h is a politically charged, t h o u g h highly

artists w i t h a n e w sense of identity and c o m m u n i t y . In

permeable, site.

the following decade, however, c o n t e m p o r a r y artists of

Aboriginal c o n t e m p o r a r y artists, like other artists, often

internationally distinguished. T h e late Haida artist Bill

reflect the conditions of their times. T h e s e artists move

R e i d is o n e example.

aboriginal ancestry struggled to b e c o m e nationally and

freely between different communities and places, often within a n e w "third space" that encompasses the two.

M e a n w h i l e , the mainstream itself has u n d e r g o n e m a j o r

T h e y are able to see, b o r r o w from, and articulate w i t h i n

ideological shifts, fuelled in part by artists outside t h e

the two spaces.They understand the aboriginal c o m m u -

d o m i n a n t Western c a n o n and in part by t h e g r o w i n g

nity and the m a i n s t r e a m ; at times they q u e s t i o n t h e

recognition of pluralism and difference as leading i n d i -

two, sometimes they subvert t h e m . T h e y see boundaries

cators of change. These changes include n o t i o n s of cul-

as permeable and culture as a changing tradition. Aware

tural identity, an artist's relation to c o m m u n i t y , and the

of family and c o m m u n i t y d y n a m i c s as c o n s t i t u t i n g

questioning of individualism. This is the so-called post-

i d e n t i t y t h r o u g h language, sociality, a n d the u n c o n -

m o d e r n m o m e n t w h e n b o u n d a r i e s are b l u r r e d a n d

scious, a b o r i g i n a l c o n t e m p o r a r y artists have accessed

m o r e permeable, w h e n c o m m u n i c a t i o n and e c o n o m i e s

n e w and different reference points, of w h i c h the reserve

are b e c o m i n g globalized, leading to a k i n d of creative

is a m a j o r catalyst.

confusion. F u r t h e r m o r e , w e are witnessing artists physically and psychologically m o v i n g about. Greater n u m -

S o m e communities view artists as important for expressing visual identity. Always skilled articulators of culture and c o m m u n i t y identity, for many years aboriginal c o n t e m p o r a r y artists were led into the discursive boundaries o f t h e m a i n s t r e a m , since it gave t h e m an i d e n t i t y as artists and potentially i m p o r t a n t artists.Yet in striving to

bers of aboriginal artists are p u r s u i n g an e d u c a t i o n in fine arts or art history, b e i n g exposed to n e w ideas, and asking n e w questions.They question the mainstream and t h e i r role w i t h i n it. Indian artists also q u e s t i o n t h e i r identity as I n d i a n — c a n they c o n t i n u e to b e " I n d i a n " ? — and its value in a c h a n g i n g world.

legitimate this identity, they b r o u g h t with t h e m baggage that was often dismissed by the gatekeepers as not quite a r t — a logic akin to t h e c o w b o y / I n d i a n

dichotomy,

Gerald McMaster, curator of contemporary Indian art at the Canadian

w h e r e the equation is not quite balanced. O n the o n e

Museum of Civilization, Quebec, is a Plains Cree artist and writer from the

hand, "cowboy," like "artist," is an occupation anyone can

Red Pheasant Reserve near North Battleford, Saskatchewan.

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

CONFERENCE/VIDEO

CRITICAL SITES ISSUES IN CRITICAL ART PRACTICE AND PEDAGOGY

R e v i e w e d by D a v i d H a r d i n g • • •

Dublin, Ireland, September 9 - 1 2 , 1998

C h i c a g o . T h a t today's art s t u d e n t s have n o p r o b l e m h a v i n g

D u n Laoghaire Institute of A r t , Design, and Technology

m u l t i p l e identities aligns well w i t h m y o w n e x p e r i e n c e in this

Littoral art p r a c t i c e is o n e that is socially e n g a g e d a n d c o l l a b orative, i m b u e d by t h e sense o f b e i n g at t h e e d g e o f things, like t h e space b e t w e e n h i g h a n d l o w tide, u n i n h a b i t e d a n d c o n s t a n t l y c h a n g e d by t h e sea. " C r i t i c a l Sites" was t h e latest in a series o f c o n f e r e n c e s initiated by Ian H u n t e r a n d Celia L a r n e r o f P r o j e c t s E n v i r o n m e n t , w h o have c r e a t e d a n e t w o r k of international

associates

o f artists, t e a c h e r s ,

theorists,

a n d w r i t e r s e n g a g e d i n t h e t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f littoral art practice. M a n y h e r e p a r t i c i p a t e d in p r e v i o u s c o n f e r e n c e s , p r o v i d i n g c o n t i n u i t y t o t h e series.

period of postautonomy. T h e ethical d i m e n s i o n in littoral art is a r e c u r r i n g issue. As artists i n t e r v e n e m o r e d i r e c t l y w i t h s o c i e t y a n d its systems t h e y will f i n d t h e m s e l v e s in situations in w h i c h ethical d e c i sions will have to b e m a d e . H o w e v e r , n o o n e s e e m e d willing, n o r was t i m e available, t o d e v e l o p this crucial issue. B e c a u s e f o r m a l c o n c e r n s are c h a n g e a b l e , m a n y artists w h o have t u r n e d t o socially responsible art p r a c t i c e are still n o t r e c o g n i z e d by t h e art w o r l d . W o d i z c k o ' s H o m e l e s s Vehicle P r o j e c t , o n t h e o t h e r h a n d , c o u l d n o t solve t h e p r o b l e m s o f t h e h o m e l e s s b u t

T h u s , S u z a n n e Lacy, w h o at Salford, E n g l a n d , in 1 9 9 4 i n t i -

w a s u n i v e r s a l l y d i s t r i b u t e d t h r o u g h o u t t h e art m e d i a . T h i s

m a t e d t h a t she a n d o t h e r s w e r e p l a n n i n g a n e w art c o u r s e ,

issue was v o i c e d a n u m b e r o f t i m e s by delegates in o n e f o r m

p r e s e n t e d w o r k f r o m t h e n o w - e s t a b l i s h e d Visual a n d P u b l i c

or another.

A r t p r o g r a m at t h e C a l i f o r n i a State U n i v e r s i t y at M o n t e r e y , w h i c h n o w o f f e r s s t u d e n t s t h e m e s o f s e r v i c e a n d diversity. Also at Salford, G r a n t Kester's p a p e r called f o r a n e w b r e e d o f art critic a n d e x p a n d e d c r i t e r i a that w o u l d r e s p o n d t o littoral art practice. At the D u b l i n c o n f e r e n c e , he d e v e l o p e d

this

t h e m e , p r o p o s i n g that littoral art h a d a "discursive aesthetic." H e i d e n t i f i e d t h r e e areas o f d i f f e r e n c e t h a t n e e d e d t o b e c o n s i d e r e d : i n t e r d i s c i p l i n a r i t y , m u l t i p l e registers o f m e a n i n g (as o p p o s e d to f o r m a l i m m a n e n c e ) , and dialogical i n d e t e r m i -

Sarat M a h a r a j , o f G o l d s m i t h ' s in L o n d o n , w o v e a h y p n o t i c spell over t h e c o n f e r e n c e f o r t w o h o u r s , t o u c h i n g o n issues o f race, identity, a n d t h e t y r a n n y o f t h e " s i g n a n d letter." " W e a b o l i s h e d G o d , " she said, " a n d replaced h i m w i t h g r a m m a r . " W e n e e d t o c o n t i n u e to actually e x p e r i e n c e t h e a r t w o r k so t h a t it can h a v e a t h e r a p e u t i c e n g a g e m e n t w i t h Through

conferences

those

held

society. Projects

E n v i r o n m e n t , w e c o m e c l o s e r t o u n d e r s t a n d i n g h o w this might happen.

n a n c e (as o p p o s e d to f o r m a l i n d e t e r m i n a n c e ) . David Harding is the head of sculpture and environmental art at Glasgow T h e presence of mature practitioners, a m o n g the t w o hundred

School of Art in Scotland.

a n d m o r e delegates, r e i n f o r c e d this sense o f c o n t i n u i t y . T h e r e was n o n e e d to r e t u r n to "first" principles or to

repeat

a c c e p t e d g i v e n s . T h e m a j o r i t y o f t h e delegates already s e e m e d

GRAFFITI VERITE 2

t o e m b r a c e t h e n o t i o n s e n s h r i n e d in t h e t e r m "littoral."

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION?

O n e highlight of the c o n f e r e n c e was W o l f g a n g Ziniggi's d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e w o r k o f t h e W o c h e n k l a u s e r artists' c o l l e c -

R e v i e w e d by J e f F F e r r e l l • • •

tive in V i e n n a . H e e x p l a i n e d h o w these artists are i n t e r v e n i n g directly in society, u s i n g t h e i r skills a n d i m a g i n a t i o n ; t h e y set u p a safe h o u s e f o r prostitutes a n d p r o v i d e d a m o b i l e s u r g e r y a n d d o c t o r f o r t h e h o m e l e s s . B u t is this art? I n g e n u i t y , creative t h i n k i n g , a n d e l e m e n t s o f p e r f o r m a n c e are n e e d e d t o a c h i e v e t h e s e results. T h i s is t h e "social s c u l p t u r e " that B e u y s called for. Z i n i g g i advised artists t o set l i m i t e d achievable objectives r a t h e r t h a n a t t e m p t t o c h a n g e t h e w h o l e o f society.

(APG), w a s a r e v e l a t i o n

to many

In Graffiti

Verite 2: Freedom

of Expression?

(GV2), B o b B r y a n

mails o u t a b i g , e d g y p i c t u r e p o s t c a r d f r o m i n s i d e t h e Los Angeles h i p - h o p graffiti u n d e r g r o u n d . C o m p i l i n g h u n d r e d s o f

T h e w o r k , in t h e U . K . in t h e 1970s, o f t h e Artist P l a c e m e n t Group

Los Angeles: Bryan W o r l d Productions, 1998 57 minutes, $21 (includes shipping and handling) $ 2 9 for libraries and institutions (includes performance rights)

graffiti i m a g e s — f r o m smaller, stylized tags and t h r o w - u p s t o

delegates. J o h n

m o n u m e n t a l l y elaborate w h o l e - w a l l p i e c e s — t h e f i l m splashes

Latham's d e s i g n a t i o n o f t h e artist as " t h e I n c i d e n t a l P e r s o n , "

w i t h vivid c o l o r a n d visual density, and suggests t h e r e m a r k a b l e

s h i f t i n g t h e artist f r o m t h e role o f r e - p r e s e n t e r to that o f r e -

r a n g e o f artistic p r o d u c t i o n e m e r g i n g w i t h i n t h e s u b c u l t u r e .

presentative, is g e r m a n e t o d a y for littoral art practice. S u z a n n e

M i x i n g t h e s e i m a g e s w i t h a lyrically s h a r p h i p - h o p s o u n d -

Lacy d e t e c t e d " a n i n t e g r i t y in t h e APG p l a c e m e n t s w h i c h w e

track, a n d overlaying t h e m w i t h a c c o u n t s and analyses by t h e

d o n o t s e e m t o have today." C a r o l B e c k e r d e s c r i b e d t h e " A r t i s t

artists w h o created t h e m , t h e f i l m b e g i n s t o c o m m u n i c a t e t h e

as C i t i z e n " c o u r s e at t h e S c h o o l o f t h e A r t I n s t i t u t e

c o m p l e x i t y , a n d sensual i m m e d i a c y , o f p r o d u c i n g graffiti. If

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

VIDEO

o n l y it smelled o f K r y l o n , cv2

c o u l d all b u t take t h e v i e w e r

i n t o t h e b a c k streets a n d t u n n e l s w h e r e graffiti m o s t matters.

scene

after scene,

Bryan

overwhelms

the

viewer

with

t h e s t r e e t w i s e s w e e p a n d g r a n d e u r o f graffiti: w h o l e walls a n d c o l l e c t i o n s o f walls, w h o l e city buses, w h o l e railroad f r e i g h t

In t h o s e b a c k streets a n d t u n n e l s , o f c o u r s e , it's n o t

only

g r a f f i t i that's b e i n g p r o d u c e d , b u t c r i m e as well; aggressive a n t i g r a f f i t i laws a n d e n f o r c e m e n t c a m p a i g n s in Los A n g e l e s a n d e l s e w h e r e calling it c r i m e have m a d e sure o f that. As t h e f i l m s h o w s , graffiti artists are well a w a r e o f this issue; artist A s y l ' m n o t e s t h a t " t h e r e ' s so m a n y laws o u t t h e r e , especially g e a r e d t o t h e m i n o r i t i e s , a n d w e ' r e j u s t f e d u p . . . W e all have f r e e d o m o f e x p r e s s i o n , b u t w e have to pay t h e c o n s e q u e n c e s

cars, all r e d e c o r a t e d a n d r e c o n s t r u c t e d b y graffiti m u r a l s a n d t h e i r s p e c t a c u l a r i n t e r p l a y o f c o l o r , style, a n d scale. In f a c t , the importance

o f t h i s scale is s u c h t h a t its

diminution

b e c o m e s , f o r t h e artists, a n o t h e r p r o b l e m f o r graffiti c a u g h t i n s i d e t h e c o n f i n e s o f galleries; a n d scale p r e s e n t s a s i m i l a r p r o b l e m o f sorts f o r GK2.To b e a p p r e c i a t e d properly, t h e

film

shouldn't be watched on a video monitor, but projected onto t h e nearest b u i l d i n g .

b e c a u s e o f t h e laws that are w r i t t e n . " T h e artists u n d e r s t a n d some

deeper,

complex

consequences

well.

In t o t a l , Graffiti

Verite 2 lets t h e artists s p e a k ; in t h e i r o w n

T h r o u g h o u t t h e f i l m t h e y a r g u e that t h e i n t e n s i t y o f p r o d u c -

w o r d s a n d images, t h e artists s h o w t h e p o w e r a n d s o p h i s t i c a -

i n g graffiti, t h e v i b r a n c y o f graffiti style, a n d e v e n t h e l e g i t i -

t i o n o f c o n t e m p o r a r y h i p - h o p graffiti. In closing, t h e n , t w o

m a c y o f g r a f f i t i as a f o r m o f p u b l i c art e m e r g e o u t o f its

c o m m e n t s f r o m Vyal. H e u r g e s galleries a n d m u s e u m s , a n d b y

illegality, o u t o f t h e o u t l a w aesthetic a n d t h e e x p e r i e n c e artists

i m p l i c a t i o n t h e rest o f us, t o " t a k e s o m e t i m e t o l o o k at [ g r a f -

share o n t h e streets. T h e m a c h i n e r y o f law helps d e f i n e graffiti

fiti] .. . t o feel it, t o step i n t o o u r shoes." B u t mostly,Vyal n o t e s ,

as a c r i m e , a n d as an art f o r m .

"it's c o o l if y o u can say s o m e t h i n g w i t h style." I n d e e d it is.

F o r m a n y graffiti artists, graffiti that c o m e s o f f t h e streets i n t o

Jeff Ferrell is professor of criminal justice at Northern Arizona University

t h e safe legality o f t h e gallery art w o r l d t h u s loses n o t o n l y

and a u t h o r of Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti

and the Politics of

Criminality.

legitimacy, b u t also an i m p o r t a n t artistic edge. Artists in GV2 o f f e r a c u t t i n g analysis o f these c o n t r a d i c t i o n s a n d d i l e m m a s . R e p e a t e d l y , t h e y n o t e t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f graffiti's m o v e m e n t i n t o t h e gallery a n d m u s e u m system, b u t at t h e s a m e t i m e t h e y c r i t i q u e t h e o f t e n "elitist" a n d " c o r r u p t " n a t u r e o f t h e m a i n s t r e a m art w o r l d . T h e t e n d e n c y o f artists a n d galleries alike t o m a r k e t graffiti art that is " s o f t e n e d up, o r l i g h t e n e d up, b e c a u s e

FRESCO A STORY OF ART, COMMUNITY, AND EXCELLENCE

R e v i e w e d by R o b Silberman • • •

y o u w a n t t o sell this s h i t . . . r a t h e r t h a n [ p r o d u c i n g it f o r ] a n o t h e r graffiti artist." T h i s sense that graffiti artists f u n d a m e n t a l l y p r o d u c e graffiti f o r each o t h e r highlights a n o t h e r key d y n a m i c : w h i l e graffiti artists m a y r e m a i n m a r g i n a l t o t h e m a i n s t r e a m art w o r l d , they o c c u p y a p o w e r f u l social a n d aesthetic c o m m u n i t y o f their o w n m a k ing. Vyal, o n e o f t h e film's f e a t u r e d artists, n o t e s that graffiti " t a l k s o f m u t u a l r e s p e c t . . . o f artists w i t h o n e l o v e — b l a c k , w h i t e , b r o w n , w h a t e v e r — w i t h o n e love, a n d that's f o r t h e art." T h i s claim is c o n f i r m e d by t h e variety o f identities e v i d e n t in t h e film, a n d in t h e m i x o f ethnicities and ages a p p a r e n t in t h e graffiti crews a n d graffiti c o m p e t i t i o n s p r e s e n t e d . (As t h e artists

Produced and directed by D e b o r a h Boldt Riverside, C o n n e c t i c u t : A r t e m i s Productions, 1999 PBS video I - 8 0 0 - 3 4 4 - 3 3 3 7 , $ 1 9 . 9 5 A t t h e t o p o f t h e g r a n d staircase i n t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f St. T h o m a s ' d o w n t o w n M i n n e a p o l i s , M i n n e s o t a , b u i l d i n g , a sign p r o c l a i m s , " F o o d f o r T h o u g h t . " It m a r k s t h e e n t r a n c e t o t h e f o o d s e r v i c e area, i.e., t h e s c h o o l c a f e t e r i a . It's a clever tag, b u t sets u p an u n i n t e n d e d i r o n y if a p p l i e d t o t h e w o r k o f art o n t h e l o b b y c e i l i n g i m m e d i a t e l y o v e r h e a d — M a r k Balma's f r e s c o devoted to the "seven virtues."

themselves n o t e , w i t h i n t h e " m a l e - o r i e n t e d " w o r l d o f graffiti,

T h e fresco, c o m p l e t e d in 1994, has b e e n w i d e l y c o v e r e d by

g e n d e r is a n o t h e r matter.) C h a z B o j o r q u e z , l o n g - t i m e graffiti

t h e T w i n C i t i e s m e d i a , f o l l o w i n g a basic set o f " a n g l e s " : local

artist a n d w i n n e r

Graffiti Art

artist r e t u r n s after an a p p r e n t i c e s h i p in Italy, a v i r t u a l l y lost art

C o m p e t i t i o n , s u m m a r i z e s : "Issues o f i d e n t i t y , i n t e n t , p u r -

is r e b o r n , a n e w g e n e r a t i o n o f a p p r e n t i c e artists is t r a i n e d in

of the

First

International

p o s e . . . a l l t h o s e kinds o f issues are art issues."

this arcane a n d d e m a n d i n g p u r s u i t . N o w t h e f r e s c o is t h e s u b j e c t o f a v i d e o , Fresco: A Story of Art, Community,

B o j o r q u e z goes o n t o e m p h a s i z e t h e " h u g e scale" o f graffiti—as

Sacred

says, " I

bigger

walls...bigger

and

Excellence,

w h i c h was b r o a d c a s t o n PBS (April 1, 1999).

lettering

styles.. . e v e r y t h i n g j u s t b i g g e r " — a n d it is this politics a n d aes-

Balma's f r e s c o is a p p r o p r i a t e f o r a c o n s e r v a t i v e r e l i g i o u s e d u -

thetics o f scale that assures graffiti's p r e s e n c e as p u b l i c art. In

c a t i o n a l i n s t i t u t i o n . T h e i m a g e s d e p i c t t h e v i r t u e s as set f o r t h

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

VIDEO/BOOK

by St.Thomas Aquinas, and the style is a deliberate throwback to an era before the onset of Modernism. Balma displays considerable skill, but as Lloyd Bentson might say, he is no Michelangelo.The fresco's ersatz Renaissance style borders on kitsch, and can be less than successful even if judged by traditional criteria, such as w h e t h e r the figures defy human anatomy. T h e fresco does have its appealing aspects: the Mississippi as a blue ribbon binding the separate images, a nifty dragon, the water birds painted by the apprentices, a thoughtful use of a dramatic location. Fresco technique is fascinating, and the video does an especially good job of documenting the process and people involved at St.Thomas. Michelangelo had to please a demanding Pope; Balma had to work with an advisory committee. It is not clear which artist's experience was more agonizing. To its credit, the film acknowledges some of the problems, notably finding common artistic and political ground. Clearly Balma had trouble with multiculturalism and gender issues. Pride of place in the fresco scheme is reserved for a white family (in togas!) in "Faith," the first virtue presented, and for a white woman in "Charity," the last.The two African-Americans in "Fortitude," according to the labored rhetoric of a guide, appear "draped in colorful, native dress," with a mule that is a "symbol of oppression" but is being freed because the man and woman have "surmounted adversity." T h e video attempts to demonstrate the relevance of Balma's work for a discussion of values by showing the responses of community members who, it turns out, represent a familiar assortment of minorities and roles. We see an AfricanAmerican youth counselor and a pair of young Hispanic boys w h o draw a comparison between a scene in the fresco and their experience playing football. A Hindu Indian aerospace engineer does multiple duty as a minority woman professional and the mother of a disabled child. (Apparently, the minority woman professional-mother has been awarded most favored icon status in equal opportunity public relations.) The video's attempt to do the right thing is questionable at best and condescending or racist at worst. Why don't the filmmakers present white suburbanites among the featured respondents? Don't they need to contemplate virtue, too? And what about St. Thomas graduate business school students? N o ethical issues to confront? At the very end, as the voiceover tells us the fresco is "now part of the community," we see people of all ages, including some students, gazing adoringly upward. All are white. Where have all the people of color gone? It doesn't take a Tom Wolfe to point out that well-meaning political activism and elaborate artistic rationales can be ludi-

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUftMEIl.99

crous. Balma's fresco is elitist art not easily wrapped in populist clothing—and I'm not talking togas. An image of Madonna, whose head is set on a harpy's body to suggest the siren call of rock and roll, is neatly omitted from the video. So, too, and not surprisingly, is a grasshopper—Aesop's—watching television; elsewhere in the film Balma calls television "a potential instrument of a wasted mind." Still, I'm not sure the promotion of "values" and multiculturalism in the fresco and video is at bottom all that different from the perhaps less awkward, more liberal versions offered by area museums. Neither is the explanation of the fresco's symbolism all that different from a lot of grant proposal baloney used by public artists with more fashionable modern or postmodern styles. The notion of using Balma's work and this video as a catalyst for serious public discussion strikes me as more than a little bit odd. Yet the fresco project has enlisted the Heart of the Beast Theatre, a community arts organization, to undertake programs with Minneapolis schoolchildren that will lead to fresco-related events. In that group I do trust. But I have my doubts about the fresco and video. Food for thought, maybe; I can only wonder about the nutritional value. Rob Silberman is associate professor of art history and director of film studies at the University of Minnesota.

ART, ACTIVISM, AND OPPOSITIONALITY Reviewed by Craig Wilkins • • •

Edited by G r a n t H . Kester D u r h a m , N . C . : D u k e University Press, 1998; $ 18.95

"What is the relation between art and political protest if you believe that all genuine knowledge originates in direct experience?" Quoting MaoTse-tung, Grant Kester invites us to explore this question in Art, Activism, and Oppositionality. Kester's anthology is a collection of essays that initially appeared in Afterimage, a journal whose purpose is to interrogate the convention that artists are too isolated by their own subjectivity to become politically engaged. At stake for Afterimage is the very notion that artists, the journal's primary contributors, can be inquisitors, not only producers, of art. The first of the book's two loosely divided sections explores the complex relationships and endemic problems with art patronage, while the second section provides analyses of the practice of art across disciplines. Authors of the first section principally discuss capitalism's ability to undermine any type of critique, collapsing the space of dissent into smaller

BOOK

a n d smaller d i m e n s i o n s . Several essayists a t t e m p t t o illustrate

of the w h i t e male perspective f r o m m e n of color, particularly

capitalism's g r o w i n g p o w e r a n d i n f l u e n c e , t h e c o n s e q u e n c e s o f

black a n d L a t i n o m a l e artists, in this t o m e — a distressing o m i s -

the privatization and subsequent commercialization of f u n d -

sion w h i c h limits t h e political l e g i t i m a c y o f its thesis.

i n g f o r art, a n d t h e c o m p l i c i t y o f artists in this relationship. O t h e r s challenge the mainstream definition of multiculturali s m — o n e that ensures that subjects have f r e e d o m / r o w c o l o r in lieu o f f r e e d o m of color. Still o t h e r s q u e s t i o n t h e p o s i t i o n o f t h e a v a n t - g a r d e w i t h i n this m u l t i c u l t u r a l d y n a m i c a n d s p e c i f i cally c h a r g e t h e m w i t h b e t r a y i n g t h e i r role as cultural critics. T h e s e c o n d s e c t i o n , t h e intellectual h e a r t o f t h e b o o k , e n g a g e s

In closing, this b o o k m a k e s f o r i n t e r m i t t e n t l y a b s o r b i n g r e a d ing, p r i m a r i l y o n t h e s t r e n g t h a n d d e p t h o f essays b y C o c o Fusco, Adrian Piper, R i c h a r d B o l t o n n , and a few others. O v e r a l l , t h e q u e s t i o n s raised in t h e a n t h o l o g y are critical a n d cross-disciplinary; clearly this is a b o o k f o r t h o s e i n t e r e s t e d i n t h e possible c o n n e c t i o n s b e t w e e n art a n d activism, a n d in t h e possibility o f a strategic symbiosis across disciplines. F o r t h o s e

Paul Gilroy's a r g u m e n t that t h e relationship b e t w e e n politics

w h o are m e r e l y c u r i o u s h o w e v e r , I w o u l d suggest s e a r c h i n g

a n d art is d e f i n e d by t h e m o d e r n aesthetic h e l d h o s t a g e by t h e

f o r s o m e t h i n g a little m o r e accessible.

elite; it is a n a e s t h e t i c at o n c e d e p o l i t i c i z e d a n d r e n d e r e d i m m u n e to political e n g a g e m e n t . A r g u i n g f o r t h e l i b e r a t i n g

Craig Wilkins is an architect, activist, and Shevlin Fellow. He teaches architecture and cultural studies at the University of Minnesota.

p o w e r o f p o p u l a r c u l t u r e in art projects, several a u t h o r s assert t h a t t h e a v a n t - g a r d e n e e d s t o b e m o r e critical in its artistic p r o d u c t i o n a n d p e d a g o g y if it is to rescue art f r o m its cultural

THE C I T I Z E N ARTIST: 20 Y E A R S OF ART

malaise. O t h e r s a n s w e r that call w i t h art that, by a p p r o p r i a t i n g

IN THE P U B L I C A R E N A

social signs, serves to q u e s t i o n t h e i r n a t u r a l i z a t i o n w i t h i n s o c i -

AN ANTHOLOGY FROM HIGH PERFORMANCE MAGAZINE, 1978-1998

ety. A d r i a n Piper, f o r e x a m p l e , takes t h e faces o f black p e o p l e a n d b r i n g s us face t o face w i t h t h e signs o f c r i m i n a l d a n g e r w e

R e v i e w e d by P a t r i c i a C . Phillips • • •

a s s u m e t h e m t o b e . As a result, several essayists p r e s e n t an a v e n u e f o r t h e a v a n t - g a r d e t o reassert its h i s t o r i c a l r o l e as mediator b e t w e e n — a n d interrogator o f — d o m i n a n t and mar-

Edited by Linda Frye Burnham and Steven D u r l a n d Gardiner, N.Y.:The Critical Press, 1998; $ 1 8

ginalized cultures. It is difficult to r e v i e w a b o o k that e n g a g e s so m a n y m o d e s

F o r t w e n t y years, High Performance m a g a z i n e w i t n e s s e d , a d v o -

a n d objectives: several o f t h e pieces are p o l e m i c a l , s o m e s u g -

c a t e d , a n d d o c u m e n t e d c h a n g e s i n p u b l i c art. T h i s small b u t

gest p o t e n t i a l f u t u r e strategies, a n d o t h e r s p r e s e n t s u b m e r g e d

s i g n i f i c a n t p u b l i c a t i o n discussed issues o f p e r f o r m a n c e , a u d i -

historical perspectives that c h a l l e n g e d o m i n a n t d i s c o u r s e s . T h e

e n c e , a n d c o m m u n i t y i n v o l v e m e n t , w h i l e also e x a m i n i n g t h e

s e c o n d half o f t h e b o o k p a t t e r n s this m o s a i c m u c h m o r e c o n -

t r a n s f o r m a t i v e s t r a t e g i e s o f artists. The Citizen

f i d e n t l y t h a n t h e first. M y strongest criticism o f Art,

of Art in the Public Arena

and Oppositional)'

Activism,

Artist:

20 Years

d o c u m e n t s this n o w - d e f u n c t m a g a -

is n o t t h e r e s u l t i n g u n e v e n n e s s created by

zine's r o l e in t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f p u b l i c a r t b y p r e s e n t i n g a

t h e editorial c h o i c e s , b u t t h e lack o f a c o n t e x t in w h i c h t h e

s e l e c t i o n o f essays a n d i n t e r v i e w s c u l l e d f r o m its p a g e s .

pieces are p r e s e n t e d . Kester assumes that t h e r e a d e r is suffi-

H i s t o r i c a l l y a n d p h i l o s o p h i c a l l y e x p a n s i v e , this a n t h o l o g y is

ciently i n f o r m e d a b o u t t h e artists a n d a r g u m e n t s that are r e f -

the second publication of the G u n k

e r e n c e d i n — a n d c e n t r a l t o — s e v e r a l essays, a s s u m p t i o n s that

Press series T h i n k i n g P u b l i c l y : T h e N e w E r a o f P u b l i c A r t .

Foundation/Critical

create unnecessary obstacles. F u r t h e r m o r e , w h e n the b o o k m o v e s f r o m a n a l y z i n g i n s t i t u t i o n s t o a n a l y z i n g p r a c t i c e s , it

C o n s i s t e n t l y s e a r c h i n g a n d s p e c u l a t i v e , The Citizen

s p e n d s a d i s p r o p o r t i o n a t e a m o u n t o f t i m e o n v i d e o as t h e

not

q u i n t e s s e n t i a l m e d i u m f o r activist a r t , t o t h e e x c l u s i o n o f

F o r t u n a t e l y , t w o i n t r o d u c t o r y essays h e l p r e a d e r s n a v i g a t e

o t h e r visual arts s u c h as p a i n t i n g , sculpture, p e r f o r m a n c e , o r

this r i c h , s o m e t i m e s u n r u l y m a t e r i a l . S t e v e n D u r l a n d i l l u m i -

p h o t o g r a p h y . T h e r e a d e r is l e f t t o guess w h e t h e r this is,

nates t h e d y n a m i c h i s t o r y a n d e x p a n d i n g e d i t o r i a l f o c u s o f

a collection

Performance,

of f i n e l y - h o n e d

establishing

the

theory

unique

Artist

and

criticism.

again, a p r o b l e m w i t h the editorial selection, a m o v e m e n t

High

w i t h i n t h e art field, a p h i l o s o p h i c a l b r e a k w i t h t h e n o t i o n o f

C a l i f o r n i a - b a s e d p u b l i c a t i o n in p r o m o t i n g t h e ideas that

role

" a r t as (static) o b j e c t , " a c o m b i n a t i o n o f all t h r e e , o r n o n e o f

h e l p e d t o r m t h e n e w c o m m u n i t y - b a s e d g e n r e n o w k n o w n as

t h e above.

p u b l i c art. (In f a c t , t h e t e r m itself w a s i n t r o d u c e d by S u z a n n e Lacy, w h o was f e a t u r e d in t h e first issue o f High

this

Performance

Finally, w h i l e t h e voices o f w o m e n in g e n e r a l a n d w o m e n o f

in 1978.) I n t h e s e c o n d i n t r o d u c t o r y essay, t h e a t e r c r i t i c a n d

c o l o r in p a r t i c u l a r are r e p r e s e n t e d , t h e r e is little e x a m i n a t i o n

activist R i c h a r d O w e n G e e r e x p l o r e s t h e i n t r i n s i c r o l e o f

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

BOOK

t h e a t e r in m o s t cultures and proposes a m o d e s t b u t c o n s t r u c -

FORECAST Update

tive t a x o n o m y o f t h e d y n a m i c s o f p e r f o r m a n c e a n d c o m m u nity. O p p o s i n g t h e g e n e r i c p a c k a g i n g a n d d i s t r i b u t i o n o f

Pubic Art Review turns ten years old this year (an anniversary

t h e a t e r , h e a r g u e s f o r a c u l t u r e o f p e r f o r m a n c e t h a t is

issue is planned for this fall), PAR'S parent F O R E C A S T Public

u n q u e s t i o n a b l y e m b e d d e d in c o m m u n i t i e s .

A r t w o r k s j u s t t u r n e d twenty. T h i s n e w c o l u m n is i n t e n d e d to keep you i n f o r m e d o f F O R E C A S T ' s activities, since you are,

P r e s e n t i n g d i f f e r e n t tactics in u r b a n and rural sites, a n d o f f e r -

by v i r t u e of y o u r PAR s u p p o r t , a F O R E C A S T c o n t r i b u t o r .

ing a wide range of conceptions about c o m m u n i t y work, the essays in this a n t h o l o g y share an u n d e r l y i n g c o n v i c t i o n a b o u t

F O R E C A S T Public A r t w o r k s , a n o n p r o f i t organization based

t h e a g e n c y o f arts and t h e i n s u r g e n c e o f artists. T h e b o o k ' s

in Saint Paul, M i n n e s o t a , s u p p o r t s artists o f all disciplines

t h r e e sections ( " T h e A r t / L i f e E x p e r i m e n t , " " T h e Artist as

w o r k i n g in p u b l i c art and provides p r o g r a m s that increase

Activist," a n d " T h e Artist as C i t i z e n " ) , each i n t r o d u c e d by

awareness of, u n d e r s t a n d i n g a b o u t , and s u p p o r t f o r c o n t e m -

High Performance f o u n d i n g e d i t o r Linda Frye B u r n h a m , are

porary public art. Established in 1978 as an o u t g r o w t h of t h e

w o v e n t o g e t h e r like strands of a single braid.

CETA p r o g r a m , F O R E C A S T started o u t as a gallery w i t h o u t walls, facilitating artists w o r k i n g in a variety of T w i n Cities

This t e x t u r e d anthology captures the rawness, urgency, and passion of t h e o r i g i n a l publications. As D u r l a n d points o u t , High Performance's

mission was t o circulate fresh ideas

settings. F r o m o u t d o o r art and storefront exhibitions to t e m p o r a r y installations and national c o m p e t i t i o n s , F O R E C A S T engages in all m a n n e r of public art-related activities.

a n d discuss u n r e c o g n i z e d w o r k f o r w h i c h o n l y t h e m o s t tentative critical s t r u c t u r e existed. S e t t i n g provisional d i r e c -

Public Art Affairs, o u r annual grant p r o g r a m for M i n n e s o t a

tions a n d c o n n e c t i o n s , t h e b o o k c o m p e l s readers to p a r t i c i -

artists of all disciplines, began in 1989, the same year PAR was

pate in this history and to g r a p p l e w i t h t h e d e v e l o p m e n t and

established. D o z e n s of e m e r g i n g artists have received financial

dissipation o f ideas a n d strategies. In " T w o Lines o f Sight

s u p p o r t and technical assistance to develop or p r o d u c e i n d e -

a n d an U n e x p e c t e d C o n n e c t i o n : T h e A r t o f H e l e n M a y e r

p e n d e n t projects at sites of their choosing. O u r second h o u r -

H a r r i s o n a n d N e w t o n H a r r i s o n , " f o r instance, A r l e n e R a v e n

long video documenting

u n f o l d s t h e s t r u c t u r e of t h e conversations that have sustained

t h r o u g h this p r o g r a m , was recently c o m p l e t e d .

eleven

projects made

possible

this e x t r a o r d i n a r y t h i r t y - y e a r c o l l a b o r a t i o n . M o i r a R o t h , in " T o w n Artist: A n I n t e r v i e w w i t h D a v i d H a r d i n g , " takes a m o r e skeptical a p p r o a c h , e x a m i n i n g a p h e n o m e n o n

(albeit

m o d e s t ) in t h e U n i t e d K i n g d o m that appears to have had little i n f l u e n c e in t h e U n i t e d States, w h e r e artists are rarely e n v i s i o n e d as an indispensable part o f a general m u n i c i p a l

A n e w project gets u n d e r w a y this s u m m e r w i t h t h e Science M u s e u m o f M i n n e s o t a . Entitled C a u s e & Effect, it features f o u r t e m p o r a r y "scientifically treated" installations a r o u n d t h e m u s e u m , l o c a t e d in d o w n t o w n Saint Paul. In a d d i t i o n to l o n g - t e r m partnerships w i t h several local groups, F O R E C A S T a u g m e n t s its annual i n c o m e t h r o u g h c o n s u l t i n g o t h e r s in a

structure.

variety o f projects, f r o m t o u r s of T w i n Cities public art to P e r f o r m a n c e is a discursive d y n a m i c r a t h e r than a singular

d e v e l o p m e n t and m a n a g e m e n t of p u b l i c art p r o g r a m s . W e

g e n r e . T h i s plural field o f impulses has raised s o m e o f t h e

offer w o r k s h o p s and lectures, facilitate p l a n n i n g and i m p l e -

m o s t incisive a n d insistent questions a b o u t public art, artists

m e n t a t i o n , and refer artists to a w i d e array of clients.

in c o m m u n i t i e s , and t h e c o m p l e x relationships of audiences a n d artists. T h e w o r d s a n d w o r k s o f A d r i a n P i p e r , J o h n M a l p e d e , G u i l l e r m o G o m e z Pena, L u c y L i p p a r d , R i c h a r d Posner, a n d o t h e r s , all m a k e this p u b l i c a t i o n an intelligent a n d i n s p i r i n g r e s o u r c e . T h r o u g h t h e s e p r o m i n e n t artists' voices we discover the vulnerability and e x c i t e m e n t

i n q u i r y , t h e s t u n n i n g p o t e n t i a l o f e m e r g i n g ideas, and t h e a l c h e m y o f theoretical i n t e g r i t y paired w i t h personal t e n a c ity. A b d i c a t i n g a s t r o n g critical authority, The Citizen

Artist

nevertheless improves t h e prospects o f a m o r e reflective c r i t icism f o r public art.

F O R E C A S T strives to be a m a j o r resource in the field. I n d e e d , this singular j o u r n a l provides a critical link, a clearinghouse of i n f o r m a t i o n , ideas, issues, and lessons to be shared w i t h i n t e r ested colleagues like you, w h o w a n t to stay in t u n e w i t h p u b lic art. Yet like m o s t n o n p r o f i t s , F O R E C A S T relies o n t h e generosity of o u r donors; if you enjoy PAR or simply wish to help us celebrate o u r anniversary, please take this o p p o r t u n i t y to let us know. We look forward to k e e p i n g you posted. As w e c o m e of age in the a p p r o a c h i n g twenty-first century, F O R E CAST eagerly looks forward to the f u t u r e o f public art. For m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t F O R E C A S T and o u r programs

Patricia C. Phillips is dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, State

visit www.forecastart.org; e-mail f o r e c a s t @ m t n . o r g ; or call us

University of New York at New Paltz.

at 6 5 1 - 6 4 1 - 1 1 2 8 .

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

RECENT

West

Oceangoing canoes were a way of life for many of the Native American peoples w h o lived along the Pacific coast. Andy Wilbur, Joe Gobin, and Steve Brown celebrate that past in their sculpture, WELCOMING FIGURE: H O N O R I N G THE FIRST P E O P L E OF KING

COUNTY, dedicated on October 3, 1998, in Shoreline, Washington. Their figure is really a pair, carved in Coast Salish style with the woman holding a steering paddle while the man wears a Salish-style canoe as a headdress

Escudero-Fribourg Architects;

STANDING, a fountain figure by

T h e passage of time is cele-

Michael Davis and Diedrich

Kiki Smith, was unveiled at its

brated in David Griggs' PENDULUM

Architects and Associates, Inc.;

site between the Basic Science

PROJECT, dedicated in 1998, and

Gilbert Lujan with Miralles

and Medical Teaching Buildings

located in Porter Hall on the

Associates; George Stone with

at the University of California's

campus of Adams State College

AnilVerma; and R o b e r t Millar

San Diego campus on October

in Alamosa, Colorado. Griggs'

with Ellerbe-Becket. As an arti-

24. T h e work is part of the

piece includes an actual p e n d u -

cle in the New York Times noted,

college's Stuart Collection, and

lum, which swings above a

the entire Metro Art project is

features a female figure stand-

marble floor where a hand

imaginative and unusual in that

ing, arms open, atop a twelve-

plants a seed. A surrounding

artists have been able to work

foot-high column cast from the

wall bears granite tiles with

with architects as stations were

mold of a eucalyptus tree

symbols of the scientific disci-

constructed rather than being

Smith found on campus. Water

plines taught in the building.

invited or commissioned later

falls gently from her lower arms

| below Photo courtesy the artist]

on. T h e MTA also plans to offer

and hands, splashing onto a

art tours of its new stations.

base of pale stones. O f her first

Parking garages and canoes

Welcoming Figure was sponsored

seem unlikely partners, but

by the King County Public Art

TRAVELLER, sponsored by the City

Program and the City of

of San Buenaventura Public Art

Shoreline.

Program, seeks to establish that

Los Angelenos interested in art may have to temporarily abandon their cars to take a ride underground.The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) plans to open 4.6 more miles of its METRO RED LINE subway in May, with three more stations planned for the year 2000. T h e route connects Los Angeles with N o r t h Hollywood. Each of the five stations has a different theme related to its area history which artists interpreted both above and below ground at entrances, on walls and floors. Artists working with architects include May Sun and

Midwest

permanent outdoor sculpture.

above his cedar bark hat.

[below Photo by Joe Manfredini]

PROJECTS

Smith claims: "I wanted

Matjorie Pitz's sculptural

something modest and quiet,

environment THE SACRED CIRCLE

not heroic or aggressive or any-

sits atop a sunny slope in

thing problematic."

Minneapolis' Loring Park. Eight utility poles f o r m the

connection. In Shishilop the

Some luggage will never leave

circle, each covered in a thickly

Brotherhood of the Canoe

the new terminal at the

woven coat of willow saplings.

made unique board canoes. Blue

Sacramento International

These "tree trunks" represent

McRight, an artist working

Airport. Over 700 suitcases,

segments of the community

with Warren Wagner, an archi-

trunks, and golf bags are part of

affected by

tect, designed Traveller to suggest

SAMSON, a new very-mixed media

needle users, parents, siblings,

HIV/AIDS:

that history. Two groups of steel

work created by Brian Goggin

spouses, friends, gay m e n and

sculptural elements, or lanterns,

for the terminal. Two airport

women, children, and blood

are installed on walls of the

baggage carts were welded to

transfusion recipients. O n

Downtown Parking Structure.

two twenty-three-foot columns

display through May, the project

In the sidewalk in front of the

in the baggage claim area.Then

is one of five demonstration

Santa Clara Street wall is a stone

wires and hooks were used to

projects sponsored by F O R E -

slab bearing the words of the

support the towering heaps of

C A S T Public Artworks, Arts

last Chumash canoemaker,

luggage.The work, sponsored by

Over

Fernando Librado: " T h e canoe

the Sacramento Metropolitan

Foundation, with support from

is the house of the sea."

Arts Commission, was dedicated

the Jerome Foundation. O t h e r

[below Photo byTres Parson]

October 21, 1998.

artists included Kevin Johnson,

[below Photo courtesy the artist]

Anne Sugnet, Christine

AIDS,

and the Mayfield

Baeumler, Mark Knierim,

RECENT

Ann Klefstad, and Mollie O ' C o n n o r . Fundraising is underway for a permanent AIDS

PROJECTS

Near the Minnesota State

a Web site, tours, and, eventually,

programmed by students; and

Capitol, on the site where R e d

a catalogue. T h e first installation,

Ground Cloud, a large circle of water vapor over a grate that

River ox carts once began their

Glint, by Susie Brandt, opened

memorial at the site,

treks north, now stands Saint

at Merion Station in November.

dances, as Janney put it, "accord-

[left Photo courtesy the artist]

Paul's W E S T E R N SCULPTURE PARK,

Because this station is near the

ing to the whim of the wind, at

dedicated September 25, 1998.

Barnes Foundation with its

times static, at times furious."

Landscape architect Jim Brewer

marvelous collection of

and sculptor Paul Benson

Impressionist art, Brandt's work

transformed a hazardous, neg-

refers to light, color, and motion

lected open space into a vibrant

as did the paintings of Seurat,

park and outdoor sculpture

Van Gogh, and Cezanne.

gallery. In this private-public

Thousands of reflective disks

collaboration, residents of the

mounted on pins will flutter

Fuller-Aurora Neighborhood

with every change in the air

Association worked with the

and reflect light and patterns

city's Parks and Recreation

that pass. Later artists include

Department and Public Art

Tim Rollins and

Saint Paul.

Adams, and Maria Elena

[center Robert Ressler, Armadillo.

Gonzalez. All installations

Photo by George Heinrich]

should be complete by the

T h e W i n t e r / S p r i n g 1999 issue of Chicago Public Art Group's Newsmagazine headlines the completion, in April 1998, of"WATERMARKS.This project, installed in Gateway Park at the entrance to Navy Pier, is composed of four mosaicencrusted, cast-concrete, serpentine benches and a multicolored terrazzo pathway; it honors the 150-year history of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. T h e group's most ambitious project to date, Watermarks involves dozens of organizations and hundreds

K.O.S.,

Dennis

spring of 2000. East

Kitty Wells, Andrew Jackson, and Davy Crockett may never have met in life, but they are united in R e d Grooms' T E N N E S S E E FOX TROT C A R O U S E L in

Nashville's Riverfront Park. Thirty-six Tennesseeans were chosen by Grooms for reincarnation on his fully operational Carousel, completed last year at a cost of $1.85 million. Grooms' largest and most ambitious project to date, the carousel was conceived as a tribute to state history;

Although construction noises

surplus income from revenues

of individuals. Olivia Gude,

Grants from the Philadelphia

have ended, sounds still eminate

will be given to art scholarships

Kiela Songhay Smith, Cynthia

Exhibitions Initiative of the Pew

from the plaza ofJ.Y.Joyner

and projects in Nashville and

Weiss, and Miertes Zwierzynski

Charitable Trusts, the NEA, and

Library at East Carolina

Middle Tennessee,

led the artist team and sixteen

the Andy Warhol Foundation

University in Raleigh.

[right Photo by Chad Driver

assistants, w h o then used their

for the Visual Arts have been

Cambridge, Mass., artist

Courtesy of Paine/Pomeroy]

experience to create other

given to the Main Line Art

Christopher Janney and project

community mosaics. For

Center in Haverford, Penn., for

architect Larry Robbs c o m -

information contact CPAG at

its three-year program of public

pleted SONIC PLAZA in December

312-427-2724; e-mail:

art installations called POINTS OF

using percent-for-art funds

cpag@ mcs.net.

DEPARTURE: ART ON THE L I N E . T h e

administered by the N o r t h

P u b l i c A r t R e v i e w . SPRING.SUMMER.99

site-specific installations are

Carolina Arts Council.The

planned for eight train stations

plaza contains a Percussive

along the R 5 Regional rail line

Water Wall with ever-changing

from 30th Street to Bryn Mawr.

patterns of mists and jets trig-

Programming for the projects

gered by passers-by; a Media

includes workshops with the

Glockenspiel, featuring a ring of

artists, lectures about public art

twelve video monitors within

and the history of the railroads,

an eighty-five-foot clock tower

RECENT

The team of Mags Harries and Lajos Heder has completed an extensive pathway project for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo and the Department of Natural Resources. MUD LIFE OF THE MAUMEE AND THE OTTAWA RIVERS,

completed in May 1998, features a series of brass line drawings, up to seventy-seven feet in length, of the living food cycle existing within the nearby river waters. Gigantic depictions of the mayfly, sludge worm, larva, clam, and polichaete are embedded in concrete pathways winding through a park in Toledo's Point Place community, [below Photo courtesy the artists] Giant sharpened sticks seem to project from the exterior wall of the Harry Dejur playhouse of the Abrons Art Center on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, actively asserting that this space won't be used for billboards. In STICKS, artist Dan Witz [see PAR 12 for earlier Witz projects] used his illusionistic paintings to symbolically protect the neighborhood and inspire a dialogue about encroaching commercialism.The work is a project of the Public Art Fund, commissioned through its In the Public Realm program of site-specific works by New York artists. Sticks was placed on view in October and will remain through June.

PROJECTS/EXHIBITIONS

Jann Rosen-Queralt, working with Roma Campanille, turned the idea of a memory room into an experience of place at the Annmarie Sculpture Garden on Solomons Island in Maryland. Their work, A SURVEYOR'S MAP, begins with a trellis, continues on a gently rising boardwalk, and culminates in a tree house platform. Those who make the journey are surrounded by the native plants and trees of the site. The work was completed in the spring of 1998. [below Photo courtesy the artists] Although Shimon Attie's B E T W E E N DREAMS A N D HISTORY

was only visible on building walls in New York's Lower East Side from October 22 to November 14, 1998, its words will live on in a half-hour documentary film made by Christopher Beaver. In his first American public art project, sponsored by Creative Time, Attie explored the neighborhood of the Lower East Side, researched its architecture, and interviewed residents, asking them about their own lives and memories. Collaborating with Norman Ballard, an artist and technology expert. Attie wove their words into a text that was then projected by laser light on buildings, illuminating dreams and history.

Beavers film will be shown in an upcoming retrospective of Shimon Attie's work organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, [below Photo courtesy Creative Time] South

Swimmers in Atlanta will see familiar reflections on the water: themselves. Underwater photographic portraits by Deborah Wian Whitehouse resulted from time spent at the bottom of the pool with an oxygen tank, lights, and an underwater camera while the children swam overhead. Commissioned by the city's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs, h e r JFK NATATORIUM MURAL, c o m -

pleted last December, surrounds the pool with four 8' x 32' digital prints on vinyl panels, [far right Photo by the artist]

EXHIBITIONS D I E G O RIVERA: ART A N D REVOLUTION

began a four-city, year-long tour in February at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Over 120 paintings and drawings, both familiar and seldom exhibited works, are included in this new survey of the Mexican master's oeuvre. From May 30â&#x20AC;&#x201D;August 16, the exhibition will be displayed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, followed by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston September 19-November 28, and the Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City December 17-March 19,2000. Bringing added attention to the life and loves of the artist is a new biography by Patrick Marnham. [See Publications] AD FONTES: THE ART AND PROJECTS OF VEBJORN SAND i n t r o d u c e s t h e

work of this young Norwegian artist to American audiences. Curated by Melinda Iverson, the show began in November in Washington, D.C., was seen at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) in February, and is now at the Somar Gallery in San Francisco through May 9. It will move to the Chicago Athenaeum in September. Sand is a painter who feels that art should return to its Renaissance roots, as the show's title, Ad Fontes (To the Origins),

EXHIBITIONS

suggests. Sand is best known for

You heard them, you saw them,

1997 c o m m i s s i o n , ^ Shift in the

An exhibition organized by

his public art projects the

and yet you didn't quite believe

Stream, for Des Moines'

the Public Art Fund BEYOND

Leonardo Project and Troll Castle

your eyes and ears. G e r m a n -

Principal Financial Group, lec-

THE MONUMENT presented the

(Trollslottet). For the Leonardo

born artist Trimpin's M.I.A.M.I

tures by critics Michael Brenson

work of four emerging artists

Project, Sand was inspired by da

KLANGFLOTTE (Sound Fleet) is a

and Eleanor Heartney, and a

at the Metro Tech C o m m o n s

Vinci's design for a 240-foot

fleet of tricycle rickshaws

metal sculpture to be created

in Brooklyn as a continuation

stone bridge to cross the

("trishaws") loaded with

with community youth and the

of the Metro Tech public art

Golden H o r n , which would

modified acoustical instruments

elderly in the fall of 1999. An

program. D o - H o Suh's Public

have been the world's longest

such as horns, drums, and xylo-

exhibition catalogue is available.

Figures featured a stone pedestal

bridge had it been built in the

phones, whose musical offerings

For information contact the

supported by hundreds of

sixteenth century. Thanks to

are all computer-controlled.

Des Moines Art Center; phone:

miniature anonymous male

Sand, a 190-foot-long version

T h e rickshaws made their debut

515-277-4405.

and female figures. Tony

of the original design will

in six Miami and Broward

become a graceful pedestrian

C o u n t y locations in April 1999,

"Will art related to AIDS enter

bridge near Oslo. T h e ten tow-