Site Specific Art

Armory 20th Anniversary Exhibition

August 17, 2009EcoLOGIC LAAnniversary Exhibition, Armory Center, Art Installations, Barry Mcgee, Betye Saar, Bruce Nauman, Daniel Buren, Deborah Aschheim, Ed Ruscha, Edgar Arceneaux, John Trevino, Kim Abeles, Mario Ybarra Jr, Matthew Moore, Pae White, Rudy Perez, Sarah Perry, Seth Kaufman, Site Specific Art, Southern California Artists

Installations Inside/Out
September 20 â€“ December 31, 2009
Opening reception, Saturday, September 19, 2009, 6â€“9 p.m.
Jay Belloli and SinÃ©ad Finnerty-Pyne, curators

This exhibition will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Armory Center for the Arts by commissioning twenty contemporary artists, who have created art installations in the past, to make new site-specific art installations both inside and outside the Armory. Artists in the exhibition will include Kim Abeles, Edgar Arceneaux, Deborah Aschheim, Daniel Buren, Carl Cheng, Seth Kaufman, Bruce Nauman, Barry McGee, Michael C. McMillen, Carlos Mollura, Matthew Moore, Jane Mulfinger, Sarah Perry, Rudy Perez, Ed Ruscha, Betye Saar, Barbara T. Smith, John Trevino, Pae White, and Mario Ybarra Jr.

The Armory has a long-standing goal of supporting contemporary Southern California artists, as well as the Galleryâ€™s determination to bring art to the public in exterior, non-art locations.

At the Armory, Caldwell, Mezzanine, Art All iance Galleries and outside the Armory.

Go to EcoLOGIC LA

Wildflower Works followup

June 30, 2009newsAesthetic Grounds, Artist Rights, Chapman, City Of Chicago, Court Case, Decades, Federal Appeal, Federal District Court, Foreground, Frank Gehry, Gardener, Managing Expectations, Original Art, Ovals, Pedestrian Bridge, Rectangle, Site Specific Art, Visual Artists, Watercolor, Wildflowers

I’ve received a few emails alerting me that I had information wrong in my previous post on Chapman Kelley’s piece, Chicago Wildflower Works.

Here’s a shot from 1992, taken well before the park was altered by the city of Chicago. The image was provided by the artist.

And the shot I used in my previous post was taken after the piece was altered in 2004.

In addition, here’s a watercolor proposal for the piece done in 1984.

And a photo of the park with Frank Gehry’s concert pavilion in the foreground. A curving pedestrian bridge connects that pavilion to the altered garden by Chapman Kelley.

Although I was a bit confused on this originally, seeing all these images has greatly helped me understand Chapman Kelley’s federal appeal that his site-specific installation is original art under the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act. In September 2008, a Chicago Federal District Court said the park piece did not meet the definition of original art, and this spring, Kelley appealed that decision. More than half of the wildflowers were removed and as you can see in the photos, the ovals were altered to a long rectangle with one oval in the middle.

For really good reaction and analysis of this court case, there have been two excellent posts on the Arts and Ecology Blog here and here. Also, there’s a good post from 2007 on the Aesthetic Grounds blog.

As an artist and gardener, my heart is definitely with Chapman Kelley on this appeal. How terrible to see a garden that you designed and helped maintain for decades get ripped up? The main thing seems to be managing expectationsâ€”something the city did horribly by not working with the artist when deciding to alter his work.

Some might say this is simply landscaping but somewhere in there (and I guess this is the point of the court issue) there’s the line between art and landscaping, artist rights and the rights of the city or whichever institution manages site-specific art.

If anything, I’m glad some of the wildflower park is still there and maybe a compromise can be reached to expand or do the best to return the Wildflower Works to it’s original proposed format.

Go to Eco Art Blog

APInews: LAND/ART Opens in New Mexico

June 29, 2009news1960s, American Southwest, Art Project, Art Works, Bus Tour, Earthworks, Guided Bus, Land Art, Land Use Interpretation, Landscapes, Lightning Field, Mexico Land, Nature And Culture, New Mexico, Roden Crater, Site Specific Art, Speakers Series, Spiral Jetty, Star Axis, Sun Tunnels

“LAND/ART,” a massive six-month environmental art project involving more than 25 presenting organizations in New Mexico, opened last weekend with a symposium. Coordinated by 516 ARTS, events began June 27 with a guided bus tour by The Center for Land Use Interpretation through dramatic built landscapes. Continuing through December 2009, “LAND/ART” explores relationships of land, art and community through dozens of new exhibitions, community-based projects, site-specific art works, speakers series, performances, tours, excursions and a culminating book. “Historically,” says the organizers, “New Mexico has been a place where the intersection of nature and culture is at issue. In the 1960s and â€˜70s, the American Southwest was the location of the first generation of Land Art or Earthworks,” including The Lightning Field, the Star Axis, Spiral Jetty, the Sun Tunnels and Roden Crater. Details are online.

via APInews: LAND/ART Opens in New Mexico .