ARTIST RESEARCH Elizabeth Woods There’s going to be a wedding and you’re all invited

ABOVE: Elizabeth Woods There’s going to be a wedding and you’re all invited 2010. 

'There is going to be a Wedding and you are all invited' was a major temporary public artwork developed by artist Elizabeth Woods for Glenorchy, a municipality of greater Hobart, on the publicly owned parkland overlooking Elwick Bay. With visual links to Moorilla Estate and the site of the almost completed Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) on the shores of the Derwent River, it took place on 16 May 2010 as part of the biennial Works Festival.

This Festival is defined as a 'community Festival' and is described by its Director Michael McLaughlin as both arising from, and responding to the community of Glenorchy. Genuine engagement with people which is never tokenistic or exploitative is an article of faith for McLaughlin. The Works is perhaps unique in Tasmanian festivals for the emphasis it places not only on newly-commissioned contemporary artwork, but also on the direct participation by the community in the creation of those artworks.

Woods was a natural choice for the Festival given her record of work which closely engages with communities and also the artistic quality maintained by her directorial hand throughout the process. She was invited by the arts and cultural development staff at Glenorchy City Council to view the Elwick Bay site and discuss the development of a new artwork. Interestingly, the site is about to be developed as the Glenorchy Art and Sculpture Park (GASP!), so the artwork became the first commissioned work to be created there since the designation of GASP!. (See page 70.)

Woods’ practice has for many years revolved around the relationship between place, artist and community and what arises from their connection to each other, exemplifying the modelling of relationships in contemporary site-specific practice such as those noted by Claire Doherty in 'The New Situationists' as ‘giving rise to a marked shift in some instances of the role of the artist from object maker to service provider’. [1]

Woods creates situations that allow the participants to view their everyday environment differently, opening up the possibility of valorising everyday activities, and allows people to view their existence in a different way. Such a practice bears close relationship also to the lineage of practices sometimes termed ‘Social Sculpture’ that dissolve the distinction between public art, community art, art education and such avant-garde practices as performance and conceptual art. She contends that, 'the connection of people and their everyday activities, although often tenuous, is directly related to what binds communities together'.

Woods began the project by inviting the community in the following words:

'This project uses two events that most individuals in the community will at some time take part in:

• A marriage ceremony
• The planting of a tree

This project focuses on the planting and caring of trees for food, and the sharing of the harvest of those trees. It is open to all members of the Glenorchy community, young and old, gardeners and non-gardeners.

We invite community members and organisations to accept the responsibility attached to the planting and caring of an apple tree.

Once the relationship has been confirmed and the person has committed to planting and caring for the tree a civil marriage ceremony will take place. This ceremony will show the commitment of the person and will have the same commitment undertaken in a marriage i.e. to love and care for the tree from this day forward.'

A critical issue is the imperative Woods places on building and sustaining social relations as part of the creative process, underscored by her stress on the significance of the vernacular - ‘sites and social structures that directly relate to the personal experiences of the public. Instead of producing discrete objects, the focus has shifted to the infiltration of or interventions into, the flow of the daily lives within the community. These interactions promise more profound revelations of sites and the creation (or recreation) of a sense of community’.

An intense period of community consultation is undertaken and research to determine particular strategies and materials for each of the production hubs identified.

Engagement with communities requires a balance between offering certain challenges while maintaining an accessible vehicle through which to engage. Woods chose the wedding as such a vehicle because weddings are rich in personal and communal meaning and the concept of a wedding as a window to view the site itself suggests many possibilities: the intergenerational family nature of passive social activity in the Park; the more direct references to the use of the park for actual wedding activity; and the close proximity of the site to a working winery, which hosts wedding functions. The wedding is also a catalyst for exploring a major theme in Woods’ own work - 'how temporary public artwork can make the domestic public. The wedding carries both private and communal symbols of union, of plenty, of reproduction, of life cycle and much more'.

In 2011 the participants in this project will be photographed one year on with their trees and the photographs will be displayed at the Moonah Arts Centre in Glenorchy. The event may be temporary but the outcomes potentially survive across generations.

The notion that art can be a catalyst for social change and possess transformative capacities seems now more than ever to have relevance. Artists are working in non-art contexts and avoiding the rhetoric and tropes of art in the way they are articulating these positions. Another factor for this rise in socially engaged practices may well be the ‘end game’ consciousness which is pervasive in an era of climate change, rampant ecological ruin and socio-political divisiveness. As recently as the eighties the ‘political’ significance of art remained largely within the frame of the politics of cultural exchange and eschewed to a large extent the wider social import of the practice of art.

Source: https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/3445/elizabeth-woods-there-is-going-to-be-a-wedding-and/

ARTICLE A comparison of straight- and curved-path walking tests among mobility-limited older adults.

Relevance: consideration for the walking track

Abstract:
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2013 Dec;68(12):1532-9. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glt060. Epub 2013 May 8.
A comparison of straight- and curved-path walking tests among mobility-limited older adults.
Odonkor CA1, Thomas JC, Holt N, Latham N, Vanswearingen J, Brach JS, Leveille SG, Jette A, Bean J.
Author information
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Habitual gait speed (HGS) and the figure-of-8 walking test (F8WT) are measures of walking ability that have been associated with mobility outcomes and disability among older adults. Our objective was to contrast the physiologic, health, and behavioral attributes underlying performance of these two walking tests among older adults with mobility limitations.
METHODS:
HGS and F8WT were the primary outcomes. HGS was measured as time needed to walk a 4-m straight course at usual pace from standstill position. F8WT was measured as time to walk in a figure-of-8 pattern at self-selected usual pace from standstill position. Separate multivariable linear regression models were constructed that predicted walking performance. Independent variables included physiologic, cognitive-behavioral health attributes, and demographic information.
RESULTS:
Of 430 participants, 414 completed both walking tests. Participants were 67.7% female, had a mean age of 76.5 ± 7.0 years and a mean of 4.1 ± 2.0 chronic conditions. Mean HGS was 0.94 ± 0.23 m/s and mean F8WT was 8.80 ± 2.90 seconds. Within separate multivariable linear regression models (HGS: R (2) = .46, p model < .001; F8WT: R (2) = .47, p model < .001), attributes statistically significant within both models included: trunk extension endurance, ankle range of motion, leg press velocity at peak power, executive function, and sensory loss. Cognitive and physiologic attributes uniquely associated with F8WT were cognitive processing speed and self-efficacy, and reaction time and heel-to-floor time. Pain and peak leg press strength were associated with only HGS.
CONCLUSIONS:
Both HGS and F8WT are useful tests of walking performance. Factors uniquely associated with F8WT suggest that it may be well suited for use among older adult patients with balance problems or at risk for falls.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23657972

ARTIST RESEARCH Richard Long

Richard Long: Boyhood Line.

Richard Long is a wanderer, and walking in its many variants – from epic wilderness walks to short road walks – is the backbone of Turner Prize-winner’s work. Whilst a student at Central Saint Martin’s in 1967, then 22 years old, he walked back and forth in a straight line in the countryside and photographed the trail of trampled grass. Poised between performance and sculpture, the unassuming work is now a landmark in contemporary art. In his strikingly simple outdoor sculptures, photography and sparse text works that double as travelogues, you can see minimalism through the lens of German romanticism, which found an almost religious wonder in dramatic landscapes and scenery.

Source: http://www.itsnicethat.com/features/richard-long

Richard Long, A Line in the Himalayas 1975, printed 2004  Colour photograph on paper


Richard Long is well known for his interventions in the natural landscape based on epic walks. In the late 1960s, artists began to move beyond depicting the natural world to start to use it as a setting or even a medium for their work. As a student at St Martins College, London at this time, Long was already making works that have been closely associated with this movement - Land Art - like A Line Made by Walking 1967, where he walked back and forth in a straight line through grass and photographed the trail made. To bring his experience of nature back into the gallery space, he later extended this practice to creating and photographing sculptures using materials found in these landscapes (both at the site itself or in the gallery), creating text works, or later still applying mud in by hand directly to a gallery wall. He has walked many different terrains; both in the UK particularly in the south west of England around his home town of Bristol, and internationally, often in deserted and spectacular wild landscapes.

“…Walking - as art - provided a simple way for me to explore relationships between time, distance, geography and measurement. These walks are recorded in my work in the most appropriate way for each different idea: a photograph, a map, or a text work. All these forms feed the imagination.”

This work, A Line in the Himalayas 1975,  is one of several works that resulted from a walk in the Nepalese Himalayas that Long made in 1975. The photograph records a line of white stones arranged by the artist, which stretch towards the mountain peaks in the distance. With no human or animal presence of any kind, it is hard to gauge the scale of the stones  which appear to encompass a great distance. The line is a key motif in Long’s work. Lines imposed on the environment are usually the result of processes creating roads - pathways between two points. However, unlike a straight “as the crow flies” line on a map, the paths are affected by the contours of the landscape, taking on a physicality of their own. The straightness of Long’s lines makes them both part of and separate to the landscape, both natural and man-made.

“My work really is just about being a human being living on this planet and using nature as its source. I like the intellectual pleasure of original ideas and the physical pleasure of realising them. A long road or wilderness walk is basically walking all day and sleeping all night. I enjoy the simple pleasures of wellbeing, independence, opportunism, eating, dreaming, happenstance, of passing through the land and sometimes leaving (memorable) traces along the way, of finding a new campsite each night. And then moving on.”.

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/richard-long-line-himalayas-work-week-24-may-2010

ARTIST RESEARCH Pawel Althamer : Path

 Pawel Althamer:Path





For Sculpture Projects Münster 07, Pawel Althamer will construct a path. Starting where a footpath and bicycle trail meet in a municipal recreation area near Lake Aa, Althamer's path will lead, through meadows and fields, out of the city. Just short of one kilometre, however, it will abruptly end in the middle of a field of barley. Surprised that the trail has suddenly ended, visitors will have to decide how to react upon this open situation and how to return to the city.

The path, whose sporadic quality distinguishes it from the more permanent paths, passes by a main road leading out of Münster and enters an agricultural area on the outskirts of the city. Simultaneously, this change of environment alters the way that the path itself is perceived, as it is transformed from an intervention in the city's existing infrastructure into an adventurous way out of the routines of everyday urban living. Reminiscent of walks taken during childhood, the trail leads visitors into the countryside, past a small woodland area and across a stream - highlighting precisely the natural qualities that we often no longer perceive in our media-saturated world. At the place where it abruptly ends, the trail challenges visitors' ability to make a decision, to face the situation at hand, and to assume responsibility for themselves. The special appeal of this work lies in its capacity to change familiar patterns of action and create an open-ended situation in which visitors can - and, indeed, have to - renegotiate possibilities. It is work that, for the duration of the exhibition, will continually change and grow as each visitor takes his or her own individual decision. 

BELOW: stop frame animations of Path

Source : http://culture.pl/en/event/pawel-althamer-at-sculpture-projects-munster

Relevance: 
It was interesting to see a land artist that does not use straight, geometric lines. And an artist that used the walk in a very different fashion to Richard Long

ARTIST RESEARCH Michael Heizer

Relevance: technical exploration, aesthetics

ISOLATED MASS/CIRCUMFLEX (#2), NINE NEVADA DEPRESSIONS, RIFT (1968-72) BY MICHAEL HEIZER, MENIL COLLECTION.
(Rift images via Stephen Bachicha)

Houston's Menil Collection front lawn is embedded with earth sculptures by Heizer. 

Source: http://stephanieclayton.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/art-spaces-menil-collection-front-lawn.html

ARTIST RESEARCH Cai Guo-Qiang: Heritage

Cai Guo-Qiang: Heritage at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art 2013

Relevance:
The significance of this work is that it raises awareness of our impact on an ecosystem. This was achieved by the soft sand edging around the water. When I step on the soft sand I became aware of my impact on that environment. The security guard simply raked away the footprint and said "that is the point"




ABOVE : Cai Guo-Qiang, Heritage, 2013. 99 life-sized replicas of animals, water, sand, drip mechanism; installed dimensions variable (detail)

Ninety-nine animals stand in a circle, heads bent, drinking from a clear pool of impossibly blue water. Predators and prey are lined up in peaceful harmony: lions and tigers together with giraffes, zebras, and antelope; a big black bear with small furry creatures... Heritage ... was inspired by Cai’s visit to the pristine environment of Stradbroke Island, off the coast of Queensland. These “creatures great and small,” at first sight examples of artful taxidermy, are in fact polystyrene casts covered in hyper-real fur made from goatskin.  Likewise, Cai’s installations suggest that human redemption is possible only through oneness with nature. He often uses the number ninety-nine, as it represents a sense of perfection and, at the same time, something as yet incomplete. Although my first response to Heritage was a childlike sense of wonder and delight, I couldn’t help feeling wistful  as I reflected on the implications of this imaginary Eden.

http://dailyserving.com/2014/01/cai-guo-qiang-falling-back-to-earth-at-the-queensland-gallery-of-modern-art/

Artwork proposal (Notes for 5min presentation, week 4)

Artwork proposal (Notes for 5min presentation, week 4)

To give some context, in my arts practice I explore the relationship between religion, contemporary society and the human condition.
What is the project brief ?
The project asks you to address issues surrounding the conceptual and technical
mechanisms of investigation as a genesis for art making. Your studio work will explore
methodologies of contemporary art and thought – working with process to engage your work
to evolve and change. You are asked to address questions of your work and research through the exploration of conceptual and technical methodologies that focus on notions of process and phenomena.


Conceptual focus 
For me my working process is to establish a concept and then research ways that I can discuss it. Then begin creating the work. Each “stage” of my process informs the other. So during the construction new research informs the outcome of the work.
The overarching concept I am looking at for project 1 is the passage of life.With the intention to create a interactive land art installation, that is a contemplative space, and that brings into question preconceptions, plans, expectations, mortality and legacy. It will be the process of recording the artwork that will be submitted.




Initial research
The nature of land art: I feel that it is important that when you engage with a particular metholdolgy, technique or material that you have an understanding of the historical weight that it brings with it and its nature.
I am consious of the intrusive impact and destructive action that land art often has and intend to use this as an artistic device as opposed to the Ephemeral. (we dont go throughout life without impacting those around us and our environment)
So ive looked primarily at artists such as Richard Longs and Pawel Althamer as opposed to the Ephemeral focus of land artist such as andy goldsworthy
artist looked at :
Richard long – looked at his process of creating line, the leyline and british walks
Cai Guo-Qiang (head on, falling back to earth) impact on an environment.
RIFT (1968-72) BY MICHAEL HEIZER
Mark wallinger - the string line
Pawel Althamer – walk from the city
bill Viola ? Video work of walking through a forest with suit cases
(liz woods national parks QLD ???) slurry on the ground
shawn gladwell skade board(storm sequence) video art
rosemary lang ??? sculptural relief artist



Proposed Execution
There are two aspects of this work that I need to consider :
The physicality artwork AND the recording of the artwork.


The physical artwork will be located in Kingscliff NSW. (Show map)
At present I am considering two elements within the work. One being a walking track, that begins as a straight line and gradually increases in curviture until lit becomes a miandering path that winds, twists and turns(life after all is not a straight path) . The second element being a straight line (possibly a string line ) that is suspended overhead. It is an unattainable path, but one that is ever present. It is the interplay between these two lines that will create a dialogue.


“it is very human to create lines, and edges. Just look around you. Through this work I wish to invite the visitor to become aware of their surroundings, allow them to contemplate, the where when why of life”


Due to its location, it will be an interactive artwork, allowing the visitor to engage with the space.
The space is very close to the pacific highway, there is a lot of highway noise in close to the road but when you are near the creek side it is quiet. So I have to consider the sound of the space as an integral element of the work as well.


The record of the artwork will be the final work (for assessment).. such as richard longs works.. the physical artwork will also be accessible. :At present I intend on creating an Interactive record of the artwork. Other considerations will be
photographs
and real time film
interactive media (zoom function in html)


The way I intend on making the artwork at the moment is through a walking track


process stages
development of concept
intervention with the environment/ initial walk
creation of the walk
recording of the artwork ( the final artwork ? )


Relevance
Prayer walk, my british heritage. I often use walks as a meditative process, a way of connecting with the divine.


Other considerations
At present I am considering two elements of this artwork, One Striaght line which intercets the walking track, likely overhead. The other is a walking track which moves throughout the landscape. After all life is not a straight line, there is often detours.
The path is a reflection of my beliefs as a christian.
The straight line is a reflection of our need for a sense of control and understanding.
Width of the track ( single width track – life is done alone)


Some technicalities

The owners of the space and local council environmental and planning division have been contacted in regards to the intention for the space, and approval for the creation of an artwork has been made by both parties.

Initial brainstorm for project 1

Process driven artwork::: passage of life (after salvation)

artist looked at :

Richard long

Cai Guo-Qiang (head on)

bill Viola ? Video work of walking through a forest with suit cases

liz woods national parks QLD

shawn gladwell skade board

rosemary lane

Artistic concept:

the passage of life.

Process concept :

the walk, the meditative process in the action of the walk

the process of making the work will be fluid, for all my planning the natural landscape will heavily influence and change the artwork as I am making it.

my plan or path … and the one that is out of my control ( the natural landscape that influences the path).

Linear path, singular destination.. varied landscape.

The record of the artwork will be the final work.. such as richard longs works.. the physical artwork will also be accessible. :

photographs

film

interactive media (zoom function in html)

process stages

development of concept

intervention with the environment/ initial walk

creation of the walk

recording of the artwork ( the final artwork ? )

Post modern and contemporary discouse that we are inherently good. My assumption will begin with the foundation that we are sinful by nature, so reflecting this each time a participant walks along the track they are adding additionally reflecting our destructive nature

The walking track

The use of geometric/straight or curved line is a very “humanist thing to do... god/nature does not create straight lines (rarely)

So walking under our own strength/human perspectove creates a straight line... the simples and fastest way to get where we are going... with the curved line or miandering line/mediative line curves, winds and twists. Connecting us to the environment we are in..

The mind tends to wander when walking in straight or gently curved lines.

LAND ART

Land art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs.

Land art is often a very intrusive and destructive action (with the exception of land artists such as goldsworthy). In this installation I intend on using this aspect of land art to further support my concept. In that going through out life, we leave an impact. Life is not a passive or neutral act.

richard long .. english in his practice .. culturally go for long walks

land artists heighten public awareness of peoples relationship with the natural world

how the works sit within the landscape

how did galleries respond to land art

sculptures are not place in the landscape, rather, the landscape is the means of their creation.

Working with the earth to create the work.. scaring the earth or not ? Land art is sometimes seen with a negative light ends of the earth : land art exhibition

Installation artist (Cai Guo-Qiang) Exhibition seen that relates to the sculpture project

The animals around the lake/pond.

How it relates ? When stepped on the sand surrounding it we bacame consious of our impact on that environment... the security guards simply raked away the footprints and said “that is the point”

Blog requirements

artist research and reviews of exhibitions (concept process and material based influence from artist)

Assessment 2346QCA Interdisciplinary Sculpture 1

2346QCA / Interdisciplinary Sculpture 1
Dr. Sebastian Di Mauro
sebastian.dimauro@griffith.edu.au
The Phenomena of Process
The project asks you to address issues surrounding the conceptual and technical
mechanisms of investigation as a genesis for art making. Your studio work will explore
methodologies of contemporary art and thought – working with process to engage your work
to evolve and change.
You are asked to address questions of your work and research through the exploration of
conceptual and technical methodologies that focus on notions of process and phenomena.
Questions that arise may include:
• Does one generate work through issues related to “natural”, “fabricated” and
“chance” processes?
• What of the investigation and influence of facts, occurrences, risk and the
extraordinary to contemporary and individual art practice.
• How does one navigate the exploration of permanence and transition
through studio work/research?
• What are the similarities and differences of phenomena (phenomena : an object or aspect
known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition; a fact, occurrence, or
circumstance observed or observable: to study the phenomena of nature.) and process
within visual (and non-visual) art?
• How will you develop a working methodology to critique and/or challenge
conventional notion of the form visual art takes.
• How do you investigate issues of process and phenomena in connection to
time and chance?
So think of:
Change and examine how one thinks of change in viewing the practice of Western
Contemporary Art? Are many artists conscious of change, or are they content to just let things
flow? How much does an artist accommodate, alter, convert, and modify an idea/ideas
through process and change?
What about improvements, development, refinement, rearrangement, transformation or
transition?
What part does change, chance, and/or nature play in the process of creativity–or are they
deleted completely in the final process?
What of a predetermined, decisive end of process?
And then there are other terms to ponder, such as: willful, decide, specific end result, product
control, plan, permanent.
Permanent/Permanence – Or can “anything” be permanent? Or is everything in transition?
Permanent – lasting or tending to last indefinitely; remaining unchanged; enduring. (opposite
of temporary – temporal; or pertaining to time. Pertaining to or concerned with the present life
or this world; worldly).
Is there any phenomenon in existence that does not change? If not, a paradigm (the set of all
forms containing a particular element) that presents permanence as reality is in opposition to
Nature. The culture’s representations reflect a belief that it can be distinguished from Nature.
It follows that a cultural paradigm that does not acknowledge Chance sees itself able to
control Nature thorough understanding of and harnessing natural forces.
And then there are the Oppositions to ponder…
Oppositional ways of ordering phenomena can result in ‘difference’ being perceived in a
judgmental way that forms hierarchical cultural values based on black and white distinctions.
And what about the ‘grey’ areas – the merging of the ‘either’ ‘ors’?
EITHER OR
culture nature
conscious unconscious
willful instinct
mind body
analytical irrational
reason emotion
clear obscure
science arts
light dark
good evil
spirit matter
exposed enclosed
exterior interior
masculine feminine
(and so on)
Documentation Process – Is the Documentation the “Permanence” in terms of the artwork?
It appears that it is the “evidence” that some work ever existed – Does this make the
“evidence” more important than the “process”?
Think about the similarities and differences in notions of the temporal and time within various
media areas of the visual arts (and disciplines outside the visual arts).
What working methodology can you employ that may challenge conventional notions of the
form an artwork takes?
How can you explore time and temporality in your research/work?
Project 1
You are to develop studio work that is generated through the notion of ‘process’ – (or the
action and operation of working through a series of changes) to produce the first studio
project. Process plays an integral role in contemporary art. It is important to remember that as
an artist’s ideas and concepts change – so does the visual outcome. Often mistakes can be
the opportunity that the artist was looking for….
Your work must involve 4 distinct changes (or evolve through 4 different processes).
Think of your materials – these may be object based, the moving image, sound, text, or a
combination of materials and methods. The work may begin as an object that then develops
to a time-based stage, and then back to an object…the possibilities are endless.
Remember that you are working from a conceptual starting point that may be generated
through issues of culture, place, history (or non-history) and that the mapping of your ideas
plays an important role.
Reference points include: The 6th, 7th and 8th Asia Pacific Triennial’s of Contemproary Art;
The everyday: 11th Bienniale of Sydney catalogue; 20th Bienniale of Sydney exhibition The
future is already here–it’s not just evenly distributed.
Also Artists: John Cage, Nam June Paik, Bruce Nauman, Shaun Gladwell, Joseph Beuys,
Robert Rauschenberg, Rosemary Trockel, Rebecca Horn, Ann Hamilton, Simone Mangos,
Sophie Calle, Annette Messanger, Wolfgang Laib, James Turrell, Spike Jonz and Marcel
Duchamp (to name just a few).
Your process works are to be reviewed in Week 7. Thursday 18 April.
Process/processing your ideas and materials
Please consider the following ‘low tech’ items that you can use in formulating your
series of changing works:
1. Nail/hammer
2. Screw/screw driver
3. Needle/thread
4. Sandpaper
5. Wax
6. Paper/Cardboard
7. Wire
8. Glue
9. And – all the amazing ‘found’ objects that can be c