Sun Tunnels (and sheep!)

How often is one stopped by a train en route to an earthwork? We were in Lucin, Utah.

The view from the backseat shows Lexi in the mirror and a couple from Italy in the distance.

My third visit to Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels produced very little sun. This was a brief glimpse of the only shadows we saw inside the sculpture over the two hours we spent there.

I had a long list of performative actions that I solicited from others for Sun Tunnels. For many of them, I enlisted help from willing participants on the field study. The beginning of Hannah Barnes' request for a sun salutation in the middle of the tunnels was performed by four of us but the finale featured me throwing a heart of mud to the east. Photo by Kyla Tighe.

Here Sarah Lassiter is blowing bubbles from a hole that could possible point toward Draco for Nate Larson's request. There is also a hyper lapse video of a variation on Amelia Morris' desire to see me/us crawl through one (the ending is on Instagram).

This was one of my favorite moments when everyone was sketching or observing the artwork. I spent a great deal of time silently studying this piece and look forward to eventually revealing what contents will appear in the Observational Kit.

We drove the northerly route from Sun Tunnels to Spiral Jetty and once again, we were stopped by an obstruction in the road: sheep! This time it proved to be more entertaining as many photographs and videos were taken of the bleating lambs.

Columbus, Ohio Art Pilgrimage

About a month ago, Hannah and I trekked to Columbus, Ohio to see two exhibitions and hang out with our friends, Kevin and Mary at our favorite Indian restaurant.

Fiber: Sculpture 1960 - Present at the Wexner was the main destination and it did not disappoint. Highlights include:

Elsi Giauque's Spatial Element from 1979 (see link for a better installation photo)

Ernesto Neto's Soundway from 2012 (with metal bells and seed pods)

Faith Wilding's Crocheted Environment, 1995 (image via). The depictions of Wilding's installation online are varied - the one below is more accurate in terms of the lighting and scale we witnessed at the Wexner but it is far easier to see the shapes and the way it was installed in the documentation above.

 (image via)

Françoise Grossen's knotted Inchworm, 1970 (image via)

No trip to the Wexner is complete without spending time in the bookstore and two of these were acquired to bring back to our respective houses. It was a fitting purchase since many of the artworks we saw were based on grid structures and mathematics.

  

 

Alison Rossiter at the Columbus College of Art and Design was the biggest surprise and I have since shown her photographs and website to many people out of sheer love for the formal qualities and sequencing she creates from the ghostly remains of photographic paper long past expiration. The image above and the three below are snapshots from her exhibition Light.

For more information about Alison's work see this link (I have spent a great deal of time lamenting the fact that the CCAD website is as poor as the Ball State School of Art's in terms of finding information easily).

Sitter, an exhibition of portraiture at CCAD featured new and old work by Kelli Connell including The Field from the series Double Life:

I was also interested in how Nina Katchadourian presented her iPhone photographs of Lavatory Self-Portraits in the Flemish Style.

I am looking forward to another road trip to Columbus this summer to see Catherine Opie's Portraits and Landscapes. Long live my Wexner membership.

"Landfall" - Laurie Anderson and the Kronos Quartet

Last weekend, Hannah and I drove to the Wexner Center to experience Landfall. My previous encounter with the Kronos Quartet was watching them behind a screen with Phillip Glass as they performed Dracula in Houston, Texas. I once saw Laurie Anderson perform Live in New York in Vancouver, Washington where not a face in the crowd had dry eyes as she described NYC post 9/11. I could not imagine an event more worth traveling to despite it being a hectic time of the semester.

Surprisingly, Hannah and I were two of the youngest people in the audience (though I envied the ten year old boy who was there with his father). The performance was beyond description and I am still trying to find the words to process what we saw. The core of the story featured Hurricane Sandy and one of the most memorable parts was the finale when Anderson described walking into her studio basement to see keyboards, archival papers, and photographs of her dog floating in brown, murky water. These three sentences were projected on the screen above the Kronos Quartet moments before the show ended: "How beautiful. How magic. And how catastrophic." Those words describe many of Anderson's stories whether or not they are related to a horrific event.

Anderson spoke of a list of millions of animals that are now extinct. As their names and locations last found (remains discovered) scrolled by, one cannot help but think how many more in our lifetime will be added. I am mesmerized with each story Anderson tells of animals, as they often feature disaster. Once, I created an artwork based on her description of birds and I keep wondering if anything will come from this event.

Jacinda Russell, From The Lost Photographs, 2003-2005

Laurie reminded us that human beings were not the only ones that lost their lives the day the airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center. Birds, burning, their bodies seared, also fell to the ground amidst the flesh and debris.

Postcard Collective Interview: Hannah Barnes

I am new to the interview process and my sporadic stint on the Postcard Collective Blog proves this. A few months ago, Hannah Barnes agreed to answer a few questions about her interactive postcards. It was the most challenging one because I had to step outside of our friendship, our mutual love of birds, and my admiration for her artwork. Her answers are extraordinarily thoughtful (no surprise) and reveal more about her working process than I ever knew. Read the interview here.

Also, if you are in the area, check out her work in the exhibition Crosscurrents in Contemporary Abstraction at Taylor University.

"Echo of the Object" Installation Photographs from the Downtown Gallery, Knoxville, TN

Poster courtesy of Hannah Barnes.

"Echo of the Object" Travels to Knoxville, Tennessee

Ken Josephson, Tennessee, 1979

Here are some random pictures of the road trip to Knoxville, Tennessee to install Echo of the Object with David Hannon, Hannah Barnes, and Jennifer Halvorson. The professional (not iPhone) installation images will appear tomorrow.

The exhibition of many, many grids.

David making Hannah's drawings even more crooked.

Wall signage!

In progress installation panoramas.

One more name to add to my growing list (this one was a practical joke but I'm happy it included a "q").

Chairs congregating in the Painting classroom at University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee Art and Architecture Building reminded me Le Centre Georges Pompidou c. 1981.

We stopped at Cumberland Falls, Kentucky on the way back to Indiana (hello brown water).

Hannah's map of Daniel Boone National Forest and the Red River Gorge at Cumberland Falls.

More from the NYC Field Trip (Belated April Post)

JR's attempt at street art in Chelsea.

Matthew Benedict, Silent Still Life, 2002-2012 at Alexander Bonin Gallery, NYC

Thomas Ruff's glorious new work at David Zwirner Gallery (photograms and ma.r.s.)

The ma.r.s. photographs required 3-D glasses for viewing. Hannah and I happened to see Thomas Ruff in David Zwirner's office and were star struck the rest of the day.

Hannah sniffing Virginia Overton's installation at Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery

Later we learned that this fantastic building in Chelsea might be the new Whitney Museum. I will find out next time!

Installing Claes Oldenberg's Mouse Museum and Ray Gun Annex at MOMA. Oh how I wish I could have seen this! This Oldenberg classic is a big inspiration for the wunderkammer.

Individual articles from the Mouse Museum before installation (clearly this arrived from Germany).

Photographing blue dresses at the Met #1 (Ingres).

Photographing blue dresses at the Met #2.

Photographing a red tapestry at the Met in the manner of the blue dress above.

JR with Ed Ruscha Books and Co. sign at Gagosian Gallery (image courtesy of Nicole Pancini).