Adrian Villar Rojas, Artist

https://www.dezeen.com/2017/04/13/adrian-villar-rojas-metropolitan-museum-art-banquet-hybrid-sculptures-new-york-met-rooftop/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iALhdzlnQQU

Daisy Gallery, Artist

source daizygallery.wordpress

Barb Hunt, Artist

barbhunt.com

Alexis Boucle, Artist

alexisboucle.com

Gareth Bate, Artist, Canada

garethbate.com

Kiki Smith, B. 1954, Germany

Sojourn Installation Image- Major Henry Trippe House Chamber Room. All artwork: © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. Photo Courtesy the Brooklyn Museum

Kiki Smith, Walking Puppet, 2008. Papier-mâché with muslin overall © Kiki Smith, Courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York. Image Courtesy the Brooklyn Museum

Major Henry Trippe House Hall. This Image features: Sybills, 2005, Oil paint, clear antique glass, gold leaf. Mrs. and Mrs., 2010, Papier-mâché with muslin. So and so and so and so, 2010, Papier-mâché with muslin and graphite. Embroidery, 2010, Wood, metal, linen, cotton. In your eyes, 2010

artobserved.com

Antony Gormley, b. 1950, London, United Kingdom

Another Place

antonygormley.com

The Angel of the North
Antony Gormley
Gateshead, 1998

Since it was unveiled on Valentine's Day in 1998, an estimated 90,000 people a day have seen Gormley's Angel of the North, making it Britain's most famous piece of public art. Standing on the site of an old colliery in Gateshead, the towering steel sculpture pays tribute to the industrial heritage of the North East. 

Nancy Holt, American, 1938 - 2014

Sun Tunnels, Great Basin Desert, Utah

Sun Tunnels is an artwork by Nancy Holt, completed in 1976, consisting of four large concrete tubes, laid out in the desert in an open X configuration. The nine foot diameter, 18 foot-long tunnels are pierced by holes of varying size that correspond with the pattern of selected celestial constellations. There is a tunnel for Draco, Perseus, Columba and Capricorn. The tunnels line up with the rising and falling sun of the summer and winter solstices. The Center for Land Use Interpretation Database

Dark Star Park, Arlington Virginia

Arlington's first major commissioned art project, Dark Star Park features large spheres designed to resemble fallen, extinguished stars. One section of the park contains spheres and poles with shadow-images inset in the ground. Each year on August 1, the day (in 1860) that William Henry Ross acquired the land that became Rosslyn, the actual shadows align with the shadow-images at 9:32 am.

Sachiko Abe, Artist

Japanese artist Sachiko Abe sits atop a building in a white gown, cutting countless sheets of A4 paper into thin, wispy strips. The performance piece known as Cut Paper is both calming and mystifying. Abe sits for hours on end meticulously shredding paper whose cut feathery strands measure a mere 0.5mm in width. She first began this practice while in a mental institution over 15 years ago because it proved to be a calming activity–an alternative form of meditation.

The performance artist’s serene depiction has a strong element of surrealism that makes the spectator feel like they’ve entered into an alternate universe. There is a pillar of fine-cut paper that looks like a fuzzy icicle and makes it seem like we’re all walking on the ceiling. From this tower, there is a trail leading to the artist, cutting away at her paper. Adding to the dreamlike effect of the live show, Abe’s scissors are connected to speakers that amplify the cutting sound as you draw closer to the artist.

The piece is reminiscent of Yoko Ono’s performance art entitled Cut Piece in which she invites spectators to cut pieces of her clothing off of her, though Abe’s art is less physically interactive with the audience.

Historic Site(s) Specific

Below are a few projects completed for the Historic Site(s) Specific Project, Washington State, USA. 

More to see on website

sitespecificarts.org

ABOUT TRACES OF OBSOLESCENCE

Public artist Sarah Kavage will research the photographic history of the Duwamish industrial area to create and install standing framed steel and glass photographic images at the 8^th Avenue Bridge Landing site. This way viewers and passersby can see the translucent historic photos superimposed over the current view.

ABOUT THE ARTIST - SARAH KAVAGE

Sarah Kavage is a trained painter and photographer with a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from UW, both with 12 years of experience.

ABOUT 8TH AVE BRIDGE LANDING

The 8th Avenue South Bridge once connected Georgetown with South Park over the Duwamish. It was built in 1914-15, and later relocated in 1923. It was ultimately closed in 1937, before being dismantled. 

Today, there is a Port of Seattle park near the location where the southern landing of the bridge once stood. This park features large bridge gears painted a vibrant red – a homage to the history of the site.

ABOUT LAKE WASHINGTON PALIMPSEST/WINTER’S VEIL

This two-part project Lake Washington Palimpsest and Winter’s Veil will explore the connection between Winters House, the Mercer Slough and the lowering of Lake Washington and it’s impact on the landscape.

Lake Washington Palimpsest
Bellevue College Gallery Space
Building D, second floor, room D 271 (above the Library)
3000 Landerholm Circle SE
Bellevue, WA 98007

Hours: Monday-Thursday, 9:30 am-4 pm.
Opening reception: Wednesday, January 14, 4-7 p.m.
Special viewing: Saturday, January 24, noon- 4 p.m
Closing reception: Sunday, February 15, noon- 4 p.m.

Lake Washington Palimpsest juxtaposes lush landscape imagery with concrete traces of the historic alteration of Lake Washington, representing this transformation through black and white pinhole photographs, a sound collage of field recordings, and an innovative approach to wall text, creating an exhibition that is evocative and thought provoking. The large-format photographs circumnavigate the lake, recording places that were most significantly changed, while the soundscape places the viewer at the water’s edge: from the serenity of water lapping on the shoreline to the chiming of halyards and oarlocks clanking on a rowboat.

Winter’s Veil
Winters House
Hours: Tuesday, Thursday- Sunday 10 am-2 pm
Opening event: Saturday, January 24, 11 am- 2 pm

Winter’s Veil, two installations at the Frederick Winters House and the adjacent boiler building at the entrance to the Mercer Slough will take the viewer from this larger environmental overview to an intimate glimpse of the life and times of individuals who profited from this transformation.

Sollod has developed an original multimedia installation inviting visitors to experience the charms of the site and appreciate its history. She has transformed the Winters House breakfast room into a camera obscura—bringing the surrounding landscape indoors—and created an original audio installation in collaboration with sound designer Johanna Melamed. The audio combines archival radio footage with sounds of breakfast, weather, and household activities. Nearby, at the entrance to the Slough, a profusion of flowering bulbs, that Sollod has forced over the winter, will be installed in the remnants of the boiler building of the Winters’ bulb farm, referencing the building’s original use.

Complementing Winter’s Veil, Eastside Heritage Center will present an interpretive exhibit on site about the history of the lowering of the Lake, discussing its impact on the Mercer Slough property as well as other places, businesses and people in Bellevue and the surrounding area.

ABOUT THE ARTIST - ELLEN SOLLOD

Known for her large scale public artworks around the Northwest, multidisciplinary artist Ellen Sollod has also created a number of site specific installations that reference the history and character of the places they inhabit, including Jack Straw Foundation, Smith Tower and Pier 62/63. Johanna Melamed has designed sound for Porkfilled Players, ACT, True Colors in Atlanta and Willamette University theater. This is their second collaborative work.

VISIT ARTIST'S WEBSITE

ABOUT F.W. WINTERS HOUSE

Built in 1929 by Frederick and Cecelia Winters, the Winters House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1992 it was recognized by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation for its excellent restoration.

The Winters House is significant both for its distinctive architectural character reflecting the Spanish Eclectic style, and its association with bulb growing and the floricultural industry in King County and Washington State. It is one of the few buildings associated with the past agricultural activity in the Bellevue area that remains on its original site and has retained its architectural integrity.

The Winters settled in the Bellevue area in 1916, and purchased 10 acres along the Mercer Slough in 1917, where they established a wholesale floral business. By 1924, they had built several greenhouses on the property and purchased an additional 10 acres in the area in order to expand their business into flower bulb farming.

Jean Marie Casbarian, Artist

Counting Pomegranate Seeds
Rapid Pulse International Performance Festival, June 2012
Defibrillator Performance Art Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2-day performance with Sami Ari

Counting Pomegranate Seeds is based on an Armenian family myth that the pomegranate, a symbol of life and fertility, holds 365 seeds. If one were to place a seed in their pocket every day, they would be granted good luck. Using old linen nightgowns and hand-me-downs, small pockets are constructed, each holding a seed. As the artist obsessively counts the seeds, the fruit bleeds into her lap in an attempt to renew and regenerate youth.

jeanmariecasbarian.com 

Greg Lookerse, Artist

With chalk I drew concentric circles on several stones in the brook at Zeleny Les. While at Zeleny Les the idea of the passage of time was prevalent in all of the land. Human intervention and shaping of nature was seen around every bend.

While contemplating the passage of time I was drawn to the use of circles and their similarity to tree rings.

greglookerse.com

At Zeleny Les in a field where are horse was buried a tree was also dead.

I attached the title page of Faulkner’s text with a water soluble glue. It rained the very next day.

greglookerse.com

Fred Wilson, American, b. 1954

MINING THE MUSEUM
Text excerpts from an essay by Elisabeth Ginsberg
Source is beautifultrouble.org

“What they put on view says a lot about a museum, but what they don’t put on view says even more,”[2] Wilson said in an interview about his installations. He communicated this point by contrasting what is with what should be. By drawing attention to the overlooked black figures, his installment asked whose truth was on display at the Maryland Historical Society.

Metalwork 1793–1880

The installation juxtaposed ornate silver pitchers, flacons, and teacups with a pair of iron slave shackles. Traditionally, the display of arts and craft is kept separate from the display of traumatic artifacts such as slave shackles. By displaying these artifacts side by side, Wilson created an atmosphere of unease and made apparent the link between the two kinds of metal works: The production of the one was made possible by the subjugation enforced by the other. When the audience made this connection, Wilson succeeded in creating awareness of the biases that often underlie historical exhibitions and, further, the way these biases shape the meaning we attach to what we are viewing.

Modes of Transport

Wilson communicated his critique through a strategic juxtaposition of the museum’s artifacts. The audience was left to draw the conclusions. Wilson exhibited an old baby carriage in which a Ku Klux Klan hood substituted the usual bedding. The baby carriage was placed next to a photograph of black nannies with white babies — their future employers. Again, Wilson did not make any explicit statements, but simply provided the audience with a strong visual statement about the persistence of racial hierarchies. The suggestion that children readily absorb their parents’ prejudices was clear.

Why it worked

There have been other attempts to use satirical techniques to critique museum institutions from within. Often these have caused controversies due to misinterpretations and the difficulties inherent in the ambition to destabilize one’s own foundation. “Mining the Museum” worked because it was suggestive rather than didactic, provocative rather than moralizing.

Wilson’s intervention was a correction of the museum’s identity in the sense that it made the underlying racism apparent. Using glass cases and neat labeling, Wilson’s installations mimicked the usual methods of museum display but with a twist so that a new voice or persona was created. As he said it himself: “By bringing things out of storage and shifting things already on view, I believe I created a new public persona for the historical society.”

Love and Loss in the Milky Way, 2005

1 table with 47 milk glass elements, 1 plaster bust, 1 plaster head, 1 standing woman and a ceramic cookie jar, 

77 3/4 x 92 x 43 7/8 inches. 

Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate. Courtesy The Pace Gallery, New York.

 Untitled. 2005. 

1 table with 47 milk glass elements, 1 plaster bust, 1 plaster head, 1 standing woman and a ceramic cookie jar, 

77 3/4 x 92 x 43 7/8 inches. 

Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate. Courtesy The Pace Gallery, New York.

"...Love and Loss in the Milky Way is a subtle and moving assemblage that reflects on the fragility of human relations. Here, seventy-five pieces of milk glass—one of which belonged to Wilson’s late mother—are displayed on a tabletop. Among these vessels are four sculptural elements: a standing Greek figure, the bust of a black woman with an elongated neck, a mammy-type figurative cookie jar, and a broken plaster bust of a white male, modeled on a classical Roman prototype. The work suggests an encounter between various cultures and alludes to the relationship between fine art and material culture. Yet the figures here are not just true to type. The way in which they face one another, with the white male figure lying broken among them, suggests a more philosophical response than one expects from Wilson. No longer does the artist attempt to embody one of these representations. Instead, he approaches his subject from a distance; viewers may sense that the real story lies among these pieces, in the gaps between races, ideas about race, and the way those are fixed in objects." 

John Zarobell

March 14, 2012 artpractical.com

Fred Wilson