Some photographs from the Reed College exhibition

The Case Works exhibition space at Reed College strikes again! Here are some stills by Allie Tepper from the Reed Arts Week: Geographies show earlier this month.







I really enjoy seeing the photographs intermixed with the sculptural objects (thanks Nance and Ian for the designing of the cases).

Stephanie Snyder's Catalog Essay for Reed Art's Week RAW: Geographies

"3 weeks, 6 earthworks, 1 portable studio, & ALL that lies in between is an itinerant art and performance project by artists Jacinda Russell and Nancy Douthey that re-examines a group of American earthworks created during the 1960s and 70s. For three weeks during the summer of 2009, Russell and Douthey traversed the Western United States in a rented SUV on an irreverent, but celebratory pilgrimage to the following: Robert Smithson’s (1938–1973) Spiral Jetty (1970) and Amarillo Ramp (1973); Nancy Holt’s (b.1938) Sun Tunnels (1973–6); Michael Heizer’s (b.1944) Double Negative (1969); James Turrell’s (b.1943) Roden Crater (1979–present); and Walter De Maria’s (b.1935) Lightning Field (1977).

In many respects “3 weeks” is a work of art captured in the shadows of giants. The picturesque photographs, antic videos, and conceptual artists books that comprise the project’s massive compendium wick their significance from the stoic and achingly monumental works they embrace and critique. Russell and Douthey question the persistence of the earthworks as works of art—under the pressure of the present— replacing their canonical representations (repeated in endless art books and articles) with images that cast the works as theatrical sites, autobiographical backdrops, and art historical “texts” calling for re-interpretation.

In Russell and Douthey’s appraisal, the earthworks become characters in a decidedly feminine and experimental narrative. The artists photograph and film themselves engaged in all sorts of performance actions accompanied by kitschy store-bought props and artful handmade objects. Props take on particular importance as the artists transform the earthworks into ruins by repeatedly re-framing them within the technologies of the present.

At their most theatrical, Russell and Douthey don costumes, make-up, and disguises, such as false mustaches to portray unspecific but stereotypical character types (villains, vagabonds, etc.) both within the landscape and on the journey. In one video sequence, Douthey—dressed and made-up like Anne Hathaway’s cowgirl character from the film Broke Back Mountain—attempts—and fails—to twirl a length of bright synthetic rope, as if she were lassoing a calf. The ersatz lariat falls to her feet like a cast-off dress. In the artists’ truncated, energized video dramas—and there are quite a few—the journey is often represented in inconclusive, interrupted, and incomplete narratives. Here, the impression of space and geography feels far more virtual—subject to sudden shifts—contingent, and decidedly unmonumental. The same is true of many of the photographs. Here, the frame of the landscape is transgressed by unexpected and disturbing textures and colors—billowing pink tulle, for example. In a particularly poignant image, Russell and Douthey straddle the gulley of Heizer’s Double Negative (emphasizing the feminine attributes of the work’s concavity) chatting on a “telephone” made of two tin cans connected by bright pink cord. Communication is a critical theme of the project. On their first road trip together in 2008, the artists played a game in which they screamed “GEODOME!” each time they saw anything resembling a mound or dome. These playful acts of exclamation flutter against the history of the American West’s representation in art and film. What fun to imagine John Wayne screaming “GEODOME!” in the red rock landscape of The Searchers.

Tracking time and space in “3 weeks” is challenging—particularly in the project’s most comprehensive form as an online Blog. At times, it feels like trying to use a GPS system that has been hacked by a karaoke duo masquerading as art historians who are producing a television series about American land art for young girls in China. The narrative drift is palpable. If it weren’t for the conceptual weight of the earthworks, one might just float away into fantasy, or comedy, or absurdity. But that’s OK. There’s nothing better than being on the road."

Stephanie Snyder
Reed College RAW 2011

The catalog will soon be published by Matthew Stadler's Publication Studio. A hand-bound beautiful book coming soon to a Midwestern town near you. Thank you Stephanie and Matthew!

A New Year, A New Blog*

"Something Between Want and Desire" was a phrase I couldn't help but write down when my cousin was struggling to find the right word while proofreading my artist statement for "Nine Fake Cakes and Nine Bodies of Water." It is appropriate as it indicates a search... something that I routinely visit in my own art and day-to-day existence. I credit Amelia Morris with "plaster meringue emporium" though this blog will extend far beyond fake cakes and Drew DeBoy for giving me the responsible advice of using my name for the website address rather than something more vague as I had planned.

I'm trying this on my own after two years of dedication to In Search of the Center, my collaboration with Nancy Douthey. For the eight of you that routinely read the other, welcome to the new incarnation!

This blog is about the process behind the end product which eventually appears on my website. It's another manifestation of my sketchbook. I always have too many fires burning as I simultaneously make work about widely divergent subject matter. What is in store for the immediate future?

More cakes (one magnificent piece made out of snow in my attempt to think positively and delve into a season that I wish was far shorter):



The Autobiography (at long last = a decade in the making) beginning with the lists I've been keeping since the 1st June (200+):



Earthworks (as always, I can't get them out of my mind):



All the research my assistant Elise Rorick did for me on Richard Long and Hamish Fulton will materialize into my application for:



My first installation since Strange Artifacts: A Found Object and Photographic Wunderkammer featuring obsessive collecting and:



And finally.... another road trip in the making! A project I tentatively refer to as VB (not Vanessa Beecroft): Venice Beach and the Venice Bienale. More plans for artist stalking and the search are in the works and how does one begin? With Ed Ruscha of course.

Ed Ruscha with his books, c. 1969 courtesy of Gagosian Gallery, LA

*All posts before this one that extend into 2010 were moved over from In Search of the Center, painstakingly, gradually, and at long last.

FEATURING: JEFF NILAN, JACINDA RUSSELL, and NANCY DOUTHEY

"RR 2 Box 281 is a bi-monthly zine dedicated to photo-based contemporary art. Each of the six yearly issues will be focused on the work of two living artists working and living outside of traditional art centers. The title RR 2 Box 281 comes from the childhood address of the zine's editor Travis Shaffer. Travis and his wife/ co- editor, Angela, grew up in neighboring rural communities in southwestern Pennsylvania. Travis is currently an Instructor of Photography at the University of Kentucky and Angela teaches high-school art in the small town of Lancaster, KY. Through Digital and hard copy dissemination, RR2 seeks to increase the exposure of artists' working and living in the rural settings, thereby creating a dialog around relationships between contemporary art, regional identity and rurality.

Six times a year a new issue of RR 2 Box 281 will be released as both a free .pdf file (to be viewed online or downloaded via issuucom) and a hand bound hard copy zine (to be sent via standard post). The hard-copy zine will be 15$/ issue, or 60$ for a yearly subscription."

ZINE -- http://issuu.com/travisl.shaffer/docs/rr2_v1_is1

FACEBOOK -- http://www.facebook.com/pages/RR-2-Box-281/127947723918928

BLOG -- http:rrtwo.wordpress.com

To My Great Astonishment

When google searching images for the last post ("Ed Ruscha Nine Swimming Pools"), a few dozen images also appeared on the same page. Oh my... I don't know what to think of this.



Half of the blog, "In Search of the Center" has infiltrated Ed Ruscha on Google. Yikes.