Mark Bradford

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Stacey Levi: The Natural Processes of Art

Courtesy of State College Magazine

By combining a masters in Art and a minor in forestry, Stacey Levy makes sculpture that produces a visual representation of the processes of nature.

She is particularly interested in those processes so subtle or small that they are invisible or almost invisible to the naked eye. According to Levy's artist's statement, these include "the invisible aspects of microorganisms and their complicated relationships of eating and being eaten, the spiraling hydrological patterns of a stream, the mosaic of growth in a vacant lot, the prevailing winds and their effects on vegetation, the flow of water through a living system."

 Levy's works are often site specific and large in nature. They work with the environment to help it tell it's own story.

"I wanted to make work that changed with the situation,"Levy says, "like if the wind blew, it responded, or if flooded it showed the flooding. Or, it would show what was at work in the soil, or the water, that you couldn’t see. So it was about showing what was invisible, but in a very active way."

For instance, Levy's Tide Flowers move with the water of the Hudson River to show the tide coming in and out as the day progresses. There are twenty-five large vinyl flowers are attached "in a field-like formation on selected pilings" at the end of Piers 25 and 26 on the river. 

As you can see in the photograph on the left, the petals "bloom" at high tide and then close as the tide goes out again. I think this might be a mock up photo because in the video below the flowers are bright orange and pink, not blue.

I love how the petals bob up and down with the movement of the water. I'm from California and so I've been to quite a few piers in my time. It's strange that I don't really remember noticing how much the water moves up and down against the pilings. But these bright petals definitely highlight that movement. I think its great.

"Often people think that nature ends where the city begins. But natural processes are always occurring in the city. I like to explore the idea of nature in the city and make it visible to people. I look for sites which give me the opportunity to bring the patterns and processes of the natural world into the built environment,"says Levy.

She goes on to state that the Hudson River's "tidal activity connects us to the ocean, to the moon and to a daily schedule that is nature’s own." I love that too! It's so true. There is nature everywhere, even in the city, it's just not as easy to see.  And I do feel that we need to try and remember the fact that we are apart of nature and are connected to it, even if it isn't readily accessible.



 Here are some other works of hers, not all of them are site works. Some are large installation pieces in museums like Levy's Blue Lake.

It's an interesting piece because you are allowed to walk among the discs and as you can see in the picture on the right, even lay down and look up at the blue vinyl discs.

Here's another piece that I thought was particularly interesting, though kinda gross.

It's MOLD.

The title is Mold Garden and they are "Enlarged images of common molds (bread mold and fruit mold) were sandblasted onto glass, Each of the carved out areas in the glass became like tiny petri dishes which were filled with growth medium, and inoculated with mold spores. During the show the mold grew on the glass, creating a double portrait of the fungus, both life sized and hugely magnified."

How gross but how cool!! The patterns are beautiful, something you wouldn't think about except that the mold has been magnified to the point where you can see the growth patterns. It's fascinating to think that something that we consider to be a bad thing is really quite stunning.

Chris Drury: Cloud Chambers

Photo Nicholas Sinclair 2000

Chris Drury is a British environmental artist born in Sri Lanka. His art is along the same lines as Andy Goldsworthy: large outdoor installations about human interaction with the environment, but Drury does these really interesting structures called Cloud Chambers.

Drury's website has a whole page dedicated to his different Cloud Chambers. He's built them all over the world: seven in the UK, two in the United States, two in Ireland, Belgium, Italy, and even Japan. Here is a paragraph from Drury's website explaining how they work:

"These circular chambers made outside, work on the principle of a camera obscura. The interiors are dark, the entrance being from a door or curved passageway, the floor or viewing surface is white, and there is a small aperture or lens in the ceiling or wall. Images of clouds, branches, waves, landscape, are thus projected inside." 

So basically if you've ever made a pinhole camera in an intro photography class, its the same kind of idea. Only there's no film and the box is big enough to sit inside.  Oh, and its made out of super heavy rocks.

This is the Sky Mountain Chamber. It was built for Arte Sella,  in the Sella Valley, Borgo Valsugana, Italy. It's made of 150 tons of limestone, which is roughly 300,000 pounds. That's a lot of stone.

The structure is also mimicking the Dolomite Mountain range that can be seen from this valley. It's also some of the Dolomite mountains that are reflected on the floor of the structure through the aperture.

Sky Mountain Chamber aperture image

How cool is that? through a small hole in the structure, using no electronics, there is this image reflected inside of the chamber. Granted, it's upside-down, but still. And the really cool thing is that the image changes constantly; it will be different every time you go in and for every person who goes inside. The image is just a reflection. As a result, the image will change throughout the day.

Star Chamber

Along with some of the photography students at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, Drury built the Star Chamber at Dyer Observatory. This structure not only utilized the camera obscura technology but also "functions as a huge sundial which marks the passing of the seasons by projecting a noon-day image of the sun on an analemma."

"Year-to-year if one marks the noonday sun, it will precisely follow the analemma's figure eight pattern falling on the interior of the chamber. The body of the chamber is surrounded by a spiral, a galaxy-like formation of placed limestone and is located amongst the trees on a secluded southern point of the Observatory grounds. Inset within these spiral arms are large alignment stones marking the sunrises of the solstices and equinoxes. At night, the top of the chamber may be opened in order to observe the seasonal passing of prominent stars and objects at the zenith." -- Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory.

Here's a video from youTube documenting the construction:

As you can see, there is a lot of work that goes into making one of these chambers. I mean, there's heavy machinery involved. That's pretty intense in my book.  Also there are a lot of art students. From what I understand, the school was also doing a construction project and so all of the stone used to make the chamber was excavated from the Vanderbilt campus. So, way to recycle!

Some pictures of the reflected image:

But Drury doesn't just use stone for his cloud chambers. There is one at Wildfowl and Wetland Centre in Arundel, Sussex, UK that is made of reeds appropriately titled the Reed Chamber.

This structure was actually made on a floating boardwalk among the reeds, made of willow battens and curved chestnut poles. It's thatched with the same reeds that it sits amongst. The aperture projects an image of the reeds waving in the wind.

This chamber is also one of the only chambers of his that is not conical or round in shape. It also doesn't reflect the sky like his other cloud chambers. So, this is much more a reed chamber than a cloud chamber, not only is it made of reeds but also reflects the reeds.

Carbon Sink

I actually like, at least aesthetically speaking, some of Drury's other works more, like his piece Carbon Sink, but this camera obscura idea was really intriguing.

Drury's art is kind of twofold: not only does he make these amazing structures, but he makes them into art makers as well. The structures make the images that he wants to produce. He's like a photographer that not only takes pictures, but makes the camera he uses to take those pictures.

Its something that is inspiring to me. I work a lot with different patterned paper and I've been contemplating making my own paper, a pretty labor intensive process, but not nearly as extensive as making your own 300,000 pound camera.

Linda Gass: Environmental Art through Quilting

Linda Gass

Linda Gass is an environmental artist living and working in the great state of California. She uses intricately quilted hand painted silk, to comment on the impact of man on the California environment.

In the artist statement on Gass' website, she states:

"I deliberately work in textiles with the intention to reach as many people as possible with the issues expressed in my work. Textiles are an unintimidating medium; people feel a familiarity and comfort with fabric since it plays such an integral and basic part in our lives."

Her piece San Joaquin Merced Revival focuses on the impact that the Friant Dam had on the flow of the San Joaquin River and its Chinoock Salmon population. Before the 1940's the river supported a population of over 300,000 thousand salmon but with the completion of the dam and the diversion of the river water to farm irrigation the salmon population was completely destroyed by 1950. 

The intricately quilted silk is breath taking and absolutely beautiful. I'm in awe of the amount of time and energy that went in to all of that sewing. I've tried my hand at sewing and it is not an easy task, whether by hand or on the machine. 

Thank you random google search

Gass' use of color is also impressive. For those who don't know California, I like to say that we're called the Golden State because in the summer all the grass turns yellow and the hills look like golden velvet. My brother, (a business major, no imagination) always looks at me with an incredulous look and says its because of the Gold Rush. Well, obviously, I'm just more poetic than that. 

Speaking of the Gold Rush, Gass has a piece about that:

  

 Well, kind of. This piece is titled After the Gold Rush. This is a depiction of I-5, the interstate that runs the length of California. This is depicting where the interstate crosses the California Aqueduct, which brings water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to farm land through out California. 

She calls the aqueduct "the second mining of California" as it is over 700 miles long and turned the dessert landscape of California into farmland. This piece is not necessarily against the aqueduct and isn't advocating for its removal, Lord knows that wouldn't go over well, but is simply trying to "beautify an unnatural landscape." 

The Aqueduct is man-made and has drastically changed the enivironment that it runs through. Dessert to farmland, kind of a big jump. Gass is simply calling attention to the impact that man has on our world and the need to be concious of our actions and how the affect our environment, for good and bad.

Here are some more pieces, I won't talk about all of them but will link to their pages on her website if you would like to learn more about the history or politics behind the piece.

Owens River - diverted to the Los Angeles Aqueduct - Inyo County Star Tulip, now endangered due to the diversion

Sanitary?

Refined?

Treatment?

"I use the lure of beauty to both encourage people to look at the hard environmental issues we face and to give them hope. My paintings are done on silk, a naturally beautiful surface, and I gravitate towards luminous, saturated colors, giving my work an optimistic feeling. Although many of the landscapes I depict are ugly in reality, my landscapes are beautified as I prefer to engage the viewer through pleasure. I am trying to create an attitude shift from feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of the problems to feeling inspired and empowered to take action through the experience of art."

--Linda Gass 

I love that. I know that often people feel overwhelmed by the crazy things that are happening to the environment and don't think they can do anything to help, I know I do, but I do feel inspired by her painted quilts. They are beautiful and definitely make me feel as though there is hope for a better environmental future. 

Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Artist

Andy Goldsworthy is British sculptor and photographer. He lives and works in Scotland, but has produced art all over the world including the North Pole. The majority of his works are site specific and ephemeral, or they last for a short period of time, and can only be appreciated through pictures.

Goldsworthy is an interesting artist because he deliberately makes his work ephemeral. He takes one picture after he is finished and then just lets his art fade away as nature wills.

"I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and "found" tools--a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn. "

I think that is so cool! Going out on a hike and seeing some cool leaves or sticks and picking them up and then making art right where you are, snapping a photo and leaving it. I would be so tempted to try and preserve it somehow though. To glue the leaves down onto some paper or take the sticks with me and reassemble in a place where they can't be destroyed. It would be difficult to leave something to the elements.

Here are some of his ice sculptures. He takes pieces of ice or icicles and glues them together using water and sometimes his own saliva while it is still freezing outside.

Some of his pieces made out of leaves or flowers:

Here are some made of rocks and stones:

And finally some of sticks and logs:

As you can see, spirals, circles and spheres play a large role is Goldworthy's work. He says that he is especially influenced and inspired by rivers and the ocean.

From IM

Hence the title of the 2001 documentary film made about him: Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time. The film got a 7.9 on IMDb, I found it to be a little slow but very interesting and beautiful. The camera shots of his pieces are breathtaking and its really fascinating to watch him work for hours on his sculptures and to watch as nature takes back his art.

 Goldsworthy also has quite a few "coffee table" books for sale as well.

 Here is part 1 of the film:

You can find the other Nine parts on YouTube if you're interested; it is also available on Netflix instant (and via snailmail) for those of you lucky enough to have that at your disposal.

This video shows some excerpts of Goldsworthy working. The music is a little overwhelming but there's a really interesting part about 0:54 seconds in that shows a piece he constructed out of what looks like driftwood on the side of a river. The video also shows the river engulfing the piece and slowly demolishing it from the edges in.

 

The University of Cincinnati/Raymond Walters College has a few pages about Goldsworthy and in the section titled Philosophy on his page Goldworthy says:

"Movement, change, light growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue....Process and decay are implicit."

The idea of making something and then just letting it exist and be demolished if that's what the weather dictates is new to me. Like I said earlier, I don't know if it is something that I think I could do, but Still really cool. To work hours and hours on something, sometimes in the freezing cold and then watch it fall apart when the sun comes up or the river swells would be so frustrating. Infuriating even. Which is why I respect the way that Goldsworthy works, because I could never do it. It's very Zen and I am not Zen. I wish I was Zen.