VAST HORIZONS: shared raisins

VAST HORIZONS: shared raisins

Since 2011, the ANU School of Art Environment Studio’s Field Studies
program has connected to a network of practice led research programs in the
American South West. VAST HORIZONS shared raisins features work made in
the context of the Land Arts of the American West program, University of
New Mexico (UNM), Albuquerque, following several visiting artist exchanges.
Contributing artists are Bill Gilbert & Jeanette Hart-Mann (UNM);
Yoshimi Hayashi (Mira Costa College, CA); Roberto Salas (Buena Vista, TX);
John Reid, Marzena Wasikowska, Amelia Zaraftis & Heike Qualitz (ANU).

17 - 28 April 2013
Opening | 6pm Thursday 18th April
ANU School of Art Foyer Gallery

Fringe Forum | 1-2pm Thursday 18th April
School of Art lecture theatre

ANU SCHOOL OF ART FOYER GALLERY
ELLERY CRESCENT, ACTON, ACT 0200
GALLERY HOURS
tuesday – friday | 10.30am – 5pm
saturday | noon – 5pm
closed sundays & public holidays

[t] (02) 6125 5841
[e] sofagallery@anu.edu.au
[w] www.anu.edu.au/art

shared raisins
Image: Heike Qualitz
saline sanctuary, 2013
inkjet on rag, 24” x 36”
(with Amelia Zaraftis)

Collaborative Project: Barrio Buena Vista, El Paso

Amelia Zaraftis

     On October 1st, we met at the Mattox Building in Albuquerque to pack the van for Trip #2.  Evidently, the daily 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM routine of Land Arts was sufficiently imprinted on all participants during Trip #1, as we were packed and ready to go by 7:50 AM.  Bound for the West Texas town of El Paso, it was great to be together again as a group, catching up on the events of the past two weeks in Albuquerque, including the ISEA Conference and the Land Arts Cook Out.

     After a refreshingly short drive from Albuquerque to El Paso, we pulled into the Barrio Buena Vista neighborhood, passing the bus shelter built by Land Arts in 2011, and were delighted to see its shade being appreciated by a member of the community.

     We were welcomed by our host, Roberto Salas, Director of the Centro Artistico y Cultural - Buena Vista (CAC), and gathered to discuss the collaborative project our group would work on over the next four days; a project related to the Buena Vista Community's long established connection to a spring-fed wetland known as the Cement Lake.  Three groups were formed to work on different aspects of the project, with regular meetings to share progress and make changes according to information shared.  One overarching goal of the week's activities was to contribute to the development of an Environmental Protection Agency grant application to fund a Community Environmental Education project for the Buena Vista community.

     Throughout the week we were blessed with the company and assistance of Armando Carlos, President of the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association.

Armando Carlos and Amelia Zaraftis

Chrissie Orr

     Guest artist, Chrissie Orr, joined the Land Arts 2012 program for the El Paso component, leading a group of students who interviewed Buena Vista community members about their connections to the nearby Cement Lake wetland.

     The group of which I was a part of met with El Paso City representatives to discuss the collaborative project and seek partnerships for the grant application.  On Wednesday afternoon, we went to City Hall and met with Socorro Diamondstein, Cultural Funding Coordinator of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, and Courtney Niland, District #8 Council Representative.

Marne Elmore & Roberto Salas during the meeting at City Hall

Courtney Niland & Socorro Diamondstein

     Following our meeting at the City Hall, two representatives of the Cemex company who currently manage the Cement Lake Preserve, met with us at the Rio Grande Studio.

Arturo Pastrana (Cemex), Andy Zarabia (Buena Vista), & Carlos Aguilar III (Cemex)

     Wednesday evening saw the group break with home-cooked tradition and head for a meal at the famous Rosa's Cantina.  We were treated to the sounds of a Conjunto Norteno band, which came in off the street and played for an hour or so, inspiring dancing amongst the group.

Table's-eye-view of the group dinner at Rosa's Cantina

     Our group spent most of Thursday drafting letters and emails to potential partnership organizations and community members in order to be ready for distribution on Friday.

Bill Gilbert, Roberto Salas, Marne Elmore, and KB Jones

      On Friday morning, Arturo Pastrana from Cemex organized a site visit to the Cement Lake for our group.  We were required to wear hard hats and high visibility vests, as the lake is currently considered to be part of the mine site, and thus requires particular safety precautions.

Arturo Pastrana, Marne Elmore, Bill Gilbert, and Roberto Salas

     During the week, work was progressing on asbestos removal at the Centro Artistico y Cultural Buena Vista.  On our final afternoon in Buena Vista, the group took a walk to view the space.  Artwork and material related to the social practice we have engaged in this week in Buena Vista will be exhibited in the Centro at the start of 2013.

Centro Artistico y Cultural Buena Vista

Landmarks of Art, MiraCosta College, California

Heike Qualitz and Amelia Zaraftis
September 22nd and 23rd, 2012
(Photographs by Heike Qualitz, Amelia Zaraftis, and Yoshimi Hayashi)

      During the break between the first and second Land Arts trips, we travelled to California at the invitation of Professor Yoshimi Hayashi of MiraCosta College in California.  Hayashi, himself a graduate of the Land Arts program, convenes a similar Landmarks of Art program, which takes students on three field research trips each year, the first of which is to Los Angeles.  An invitation was extended to us to join this year's trip to Los Angeles over the weekend of September 22nd and 23rd.

Day 1
     First stop was a visit to the Centre for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in LA where we viewed the current exhibition and browsed the bookshop.  A few doors down the street we entered the Museum of Jurassic Technology for a very enjoyable, unusual experience, including the taking of tea and a look around the gorgeous rooftop garden.

Hayashi briefing students about CLUI prior to entering the building

The group enjoyed tea in the rooftop garden at the Museum of Jurassic Technology

Traveling by train in LA enabled a shared social experience

Students utilized travel times between museum and gallery venues

Student work in progress, streets of LA

Landmarks of Art group photo amongst Chris Burden's Urban Light at LACMA

      During the afternoon, we visited the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where one could easily spend a whole weekend.  In a mere few hours, we considered works by Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, and Michael Heizer, to name very few.

Michael Heizer, Levitated Mass at LACMA

Day 2
     Day two started with a visit to Chinatown, where there are a number of contemporary art galleries.  Students worked on their projects, and we both purchased parasols to compliment our outfits and combat the searing sunshine.

Heike Qualitz, Reflection with Parasol

Amelia Zaraftis & Heike Qualitz, Parasol Combat in Chinatown

     After lunch, we went downtown to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) where the Safety Complex outfit made its LA debut.  This was followed by a stroll around the Frank Gehry designed Disney Concert Hall for further immersion and discussion.

Safe immersion in a saturating Rothko experience at MOCA

Students gather on the steps after visiting MOCA

Playing with the reflective surface of the Gehry building

Safety (at the Gehry is) complex

     We digested our big city Land Arts experiences during the long and somewhat bumpy LA freeway drive back to Carlsbad, both very glad of the opportunity to have seen how students engaged and responded to the urban environment as a primary resource for interdisciplinary art research.  The following day, we each presented talks in the sculpture workshop at MiraCosta College, followed by a guided tour of the very impressive Art Department facilities.  We encountered lots of smiling faces, both student's and staff, always a positive sign.

Farewell Landmarks of Art students and MiraCosta College.  We wish we could stay!

Snap Shots From the Land Arts Journey So Far

Amelia Zaraftis
September 8th, 2012

     Prior to our departure, the Land Arts 2012 crew meets for seminars over three days at the Mattox Building, University of New Mexico.

     Our group has its first crack at setting up the infamous Land Arts Cook Tent, when we arrive at Fire Point Campground on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

     Having distilled the experience of visiting Roden Crater, the group meets to reflect on the experience and discuss aspects of the work in the context of Land Arts and contemporary arts practices.

     During our time at Fire Point, the Safety Complex outfit explores creative possibilities in the context of the Ponderosa Forest.

     This afforded me an encounter with the Ponderosa's butterscotch scented bark.

     Matt Coolidge oriented our group to the Center For Land Use Interpretation's South Base, where the group spent some time looking at the facilities there and photographing areas of interest.

     The target gallery at South Base shows a variety of shooting targets, both diagrammatic and photographic.  At a nearby artillery range stands this lone shooting target.

     This photograph was taken through the van window on our way out to the Bonneville Salt Flats, which were underwater due to the recent heavy rains.

     Within minutes of arriving at the Salt Flats, we head for ankle deep immersion in the salty brine, leaving a beautifully composed community of boots on the salt shore.

     An ongoing interest in the road signs of the American West was nurtured at the Center For Land Use Interpretation, as the workshop contained an assortment of discarded road signs.  This one prompted a quick sojourn with the Safety Complex outfit on our last day at CLUI.  In the background is the Enola Gay Hangar.

Farewell Wendover and CLUI.  We've packed the van, and have an eleven hour drive ahead of us to get to Muley Point near the San Juan River in Utah.

Wrapping (Work in Progress)

Amelia Zaraftis
August 30th, 2012

         At the Fire Point campsite on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, I took the opportunity to wrap a tree - a process I have been experimenting with over the last few years.  In this instance, the tree was a small Ponderosa pine.  Using plastic forestry tape, this wrapping process provides a way of getting to know a single tree via sensory experiences, and was markedly different to the tree wrappings I have done in Australia.  Pine needles prickled my skin, sap stuck to my arms and fingers, the rough texture of the bark and the strong smell of pine both left an impression.  The performative nature of this process has been apparent to me for some time, and as a potential way to translate the work for exhibition, I decided to put aside my hesitations about video and, wearing my safety complex outfit, document the wrapping of the tree.  I was pleasantly surprised with the way the video conveys my engagement with the tree.

Please click here to see Wrapping (Work in Progress):

https://vimeo.com/48757488