Citizenship, Travelogue, Values

Points of Reference: Utah

View from a summit outside of Park City, UT.

I just visited Utah for the first time on a collectively-organized art retreat. N invited us to share work, get feedback, talk shop, explore new landscapes and art experiences, re-connect with distant colleagues, and generally re-set. I feel blessed to have come along for the journey with such worthy shipmates and epic landscapes.

Utah’s natural landscape is an unending source of wonder and discovery. Dolomite-like mountains, luminous calcite caverns, pristine waters, dense starry skies, fat moons, salt flats—it was all stunningly beautiful, with nice people and fascinating historical sites. Here are a few highlights.

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Robert Smithon's Spiral Jetty.

Robert Smithon’s Spiral Jetty.

Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty
Completed 1970, 1,500′ long coil 

We made an art pilgrimage. After a period of submersion, Smithson’s famous work of Land Art has partially resurfaced, and we waded out on it. It sits on a surreally pinkish part of the Great Salt Lake, with a few cartoon blots of raw oil. It’s huge, very impressive, and literally immersive. In imagining Smithson tackling this monumental work, he cuts an even larger than life historical figure.

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Golden Spike National Historic Site
Transcontinental rails joined in 1869, creating rail lines 742 to 1,032 miles long

Spiral Jetty is just past the Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the Transcontinental Railroad was finished. Since Salt Lake City is synonymous with Mormons, it was eye-opening to situate the histories of other Americans, such as the Chinese and Irish immigrants who built the railroads, here too. (We also learned that we were a few hours away from the Topaz War Relocation Center, the huge internment camp that processed 11,000 Japanese Americans in WWII.)

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Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels.

Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels.

Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels
Completed 1976, each tunnel 9′ diameter x 18′ length

Like a rare earth magnet, Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels drew us clear across the state to a remote swath of BLM land near the Nevada border. It is a really powerful, iconic work by one of the few women Land Artists. Four concrete tunnels are arranged as two intersecting lines that frame the sun on the summer and winter solstices. Each tunnel bears holes corresponding to constellations. It’s an elegant intervention in the landscape, with varied viewing and sensate experiences—even for a day visitor (imagine visiting the site at night, or on the solstices, or under snow). At the Jetty, I looked at the lake, but mostly at the jetty. At Sun Tunnels, I looked at the concrete tubes, but also considered how it framed the landscape, and how the landscape framed it. I noticed mountain ridges near and far. It made me see gaps between ridges, where salt flats lay beyond view, and horizons were too distant to see through the atmosphere. The clarity of the sky and sunlight seemed to come into focus with the tunnels. I think Sun Tunnels is worth the trek. The detour’s not small, and this recommendation not insubstantial, when you consider the four anxious hours we were stranded without cell phone service after the shale-specked roads shredded two of our tires.

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Bonneville Salt Flats.

Bonneville Salt Flats.

Bonneville Salt Flats
The remains from 17,000 year old Lake Bonneville; ~12 miles long and 5 miles wide

Just over the ridge from the Sun Tunnels was this landscape marvel and heart-fluttering mecca for motor sports enthusiasts. The crunchy, crystalized earth stretched into the distance, making for a surreal aural space as well.

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Anaglyph Map of the Bingham Canyon Mine and Vicinity, Utah, on display at the Center for Land Use Interpretation's Wendover Complex, Orientation Building.

Anaglyph Map of the Bingham Canyon Mine and Vicinity, Utah, on display at the Center for Land Use Interpretation’s Wendover Complex, Orientation Building.

Center of Land Use Interpretation
Founded in 1994, with field offices in six states

Nearby, the strange historical and industrial sites around Wendover, Utah, are nicely presented by the CLUI’s Orientation Building. To get there, you follow specious directions to an seemingly abandoned military base, and then punch a code into a door. There is a 3-D map of one of the largest mines in the world, an archive of notable military sites that are terrifying (the Enola Gay hangar, replica German houses for munitions tests) and odd (a cavern that servicemen outfitted with a jukebox), and notes on unimaginable environmental degradation (moving tons of earth for a few pounds of ore). You can access much of this archive online at CLUI’s Land Use Database, but I felt very grateful and honored to visit this site guarded only by a sense of commons.

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Bison. Antelope Island State Park.

Bison. Antelope Island State Park.

Antelope Island State Park
Initial park creation in 1969; 15 miles long by 7 miles wide

This testament to the importance of preservation sits in the Great Salt Lake, and is home to 500 bison and numerous antelope, coyotes, jackrabbits, and birds. It was a peek into a past wildlife-filled America that will never exist again. I could not really comprehend the bison that ambled on to the road near us. It was so massive, and so unlike any other animal I’d ever laid eyes on.

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Timpanagos Cave.

Hansen Cave, Timpanagos Cave National Monument.

Timpanagos Cave National Monument
65 million year old caves, ‘discovered’ 1887, National Park in 1933.

Like Antelope Island, this site in the Uinta National Forest filled me with gratitude for the visionaries who preserved such wonders for future generations. Three large caverns stoked my geology interest with their ethereal, translucent calcite formations. The area, shot through with craggy Dolomite-like peaks, evinces the drama of the Continental Drift, with oceanic matter in this high-altitude, land-locked state.

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Go Parks! Leave No Trace. Tread Lightly.

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News

9/14-10-16: Art Moves Festival of Billboard Art

Very excited to be showing Ribbon Texts (including my first in Polish) in this art festival, alongside awesome artists Susan O’Malley (fellow CCA alum), Alicia Eggert (whose work I stumbled across a while back), and Peter Liversidge (whose conceptual works at the Armory Fair are usually my favorites). Looking forward to my first visit to Poland and meeting the other artists!

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September 12–October 16, 2012
Art Moves 2012
5th International Festival of Art on Billboards (Festiwal Sztuki na Bilbordach)
Opening: September 14, 7pm, Brama Klasztorna
Rapackiego Square, Chopina Street; Kraszewskiego, Szosa Che?minska/NOT; and various locations, Toruń, Poland
artmovesfestival.org

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Art Competition Odds

art competition odds: Djerassi Resident Artists Program

The Djerassi Resident Artists Program received over 600 applications for 65 residency openings in 2013.

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or 1:9.2, or 10.8%

See all Art Competition Odds.

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Research

Vexman.net

I’ve been sewing flags. Mini desktop ones. Full-sized ones. Scouring the garment district for woven synthetics, heftier lamés. Strategically planning grommet-hammering sessions to for my neighbors’ sakes. Very excited about opportunities to show them in  New York (Art in Odd Places, October 5–15) and beyond (details forthcoming)….

One sleepless night, I stumbled upon Vexman.net, a vexillology resource by Dave Martucci. Vexillology is the study and science of flags. Martucchi’s site harkens back to the early days of the web, when home pages expressed the depth and variety of one’s enthusiasms via long, encoded HTML pages with small, quick-loading graphics. Pages include:

I enjoyed learning about flag terms, cultural associations, and histories. I’ve been experimenting with colors, shapes, and proportions on my own, because I wanted to make my flags free of referent. They should simply express Irrational Exuberance.

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Research

what i have learned, and what i have learned again

What I have learned:

Things made with Liquid Nails are very difficult to take apart. Windshield cutting wire is not nearly as effective as one might hope. There is no substitute for elbow grease.

Sometimes you need four people to move a wall. When you personalize not being able to lift one half of a wall in a walking clean-and-jerk, it means that you’re too harsh.

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What I have learned again:

Mise en place is gratifying. You will feel better after you put things away.

You will always over-pay for fruit from a deli salad bar. Just get a banana.

Walk fast. Jog slow.

Running too can be a natural, autotelic rhythm. Inertia: To feel propelled, you must first impel.

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Values

Resilience training

After a running-related injury earlier this year, I’ve been whining about losing the little speed and endurance I gained last season. Instead, I should be glad to remain injury-free. I should be grateful for so many things—what I have, and what I’ve been spared.

Running abounds with inspiring stories of resilience. You think you have pretty good excuses about why you can’t run today, or why you can’t faster, longer or more, but then you hear about people who overcome hurdles—in running and in life—much bigger than your own, and go on to achieve much more. By their feats, they give perspective and motivation.

The 2012 Olympics Track and Field events has featured some amazing stories. Here are the ones I’m most moved by:

The US took second place in a qualifying heat for a 4 x 400 relay race—after Manteo Mitchell ran half of his race on a fractured leg. Mitchell knew his leg was hurt, yet his performance gave no indication the the pain he was in: see a video of the race. (How fast did he run? 400 meters in 46.1 seconds. That’s over 19 MPH!) Interviewed on BBC World Service earlier today, Mitchell was a class act, speaking with high regard for his teammates, and optimistic that his team will do well in the finals even without him.

Of course, there’s Oscar Pistorius, the South African “Blade Runner.” Pistorius’ lower legs were amputated at the age of 13 months; I’d heard about him first via nasty accusations that his prosthetics gave him mechanical advantages. Having won in the ParaOlympics, Pistorius dreamed of running in the Olympics. Here’s a video of him in the 400 meter semifinals. He doesn’t qualify to move on to the finals, but he’s humbled by the chance to fulfill his dream. The race winner exchanges bibs with him in a gesture of fellowship.

Kellie Wells takes bronze in the 100m hurdles. Wells suffered a major injury (torn hamstring), but that’s just the beginning of it—she overcame significant abuse and childhood tragedies. She came public with her story for the sake of other victims of abuse. In a great race, she became an Olympic medalist, and also, despite the individual nature of the competition, and the highly nationalistic context, she shared congratulatory hugs with the other runners. Kellie Wells is huge. I’m a fan.

Everyone runs their own race, in life and in sport. I love this video of the women’s 100 meter, especially the runners’ level view at 2:45. Look at how fast they’re going! Then keep in mind all the obstacles women runners have faced. (Here’s a great slide show of female groundbreakers at the Boston Marathon.) Olympic running events were only opened to women in 1960, and the first women’s marathon wasn’t until 1984. (And of course, 2012 marks the first year of women’s Olympic boxing.) There’s so much more to come…

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Research, Sights

On the Fungibility of Language: Forensic Linguistics, plus Performance Art

As an artist who works with text, I’m always fascinated with the fungibility of language.

Jack Hitt parses the gap between spoken word and constructed meaning in his article about forensic linguistics (“Words on Trial,” New Yorker Magazine, July 23, 2012):

Most people assume that meaning is embedded in the words they speak. But, according to forensic linguists, meaning is far more vaporous, teased into existence through vocalized puffs of air, hand gestures, body tilts, dancing eyebrows, and nuanced nostril flares. The transmission of meaning still involves primate mechanics worked out during the Pliocene era. And context is crucial; when we try to record a conversation, we are capturing only part of the gestalt of that moment….

According to (retired F.B.I. forensic linguist James) Leonard, words serve as catalysts, setting off sparks of potential meaning that the listener organizes into more specific meaning by observing facial expressions, body language, and other redundant cues. We then employ another powerful tool: prior experience and the storehouse of narratives that each of us carries—what linguists call “schema.” To every exchange we bring unconscious scripts; as any given sentence unspools, we readjust the schema to make better sense of what we are hearing….

Meaning, Leonard noted, is constantly bend by expectation, and can be grossly distorted.

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Likewise, I was excited to hear about this performance along the same theme…

August 9, 10 & 11 @ 8:30 pm.
Emily Mast: B!RDBRA!N
REDCAT, Los Angeles

Originally conceived of for Pacific Standard Time, B!RDBRA!N is a series of vignettes that form a live collage based on the juxtaposition of an accumulation of highly stylized details that all relate to channels of communication in which language is problematic, challenging and/or inappropriate. I have been working with a stuntman, a stutterer, a sign-language interpreter, an actor, an auctioneer, a comedian and a child to investigate and interrogate language as a prop onto which we project meaning, language that hides or deflects meaning and all-out rebellion against words.

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Research

This is your Brain on Art

In Jill Suttie’s review of Elaine Fox’s new book, “Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain,” on the Greater Good Science Center blog (July 30, 2012), she shares some fascinating insights for optimism and aesthetic experiences.

I often wonder, in the course of my Irrational Exuberance projects, whether objects attract or repel viewers, how, and why. How does presenting art about happiness and pleasure impact viewers? Suttie and Fox might lend a clue:

if optimists and pessimists are exposed to pleasurable stimuli, like a picture of a beautiful sunset or a box of chocolates, both will experience good feelings in the moment; but optimists can better sustain those feelings longer, because of asymmetric brain activity in which the left side is more active than the right.

Further, I’d suspected that optimism and pessimism might be related to the trust or skepticism that viewer enact when they focus their attention on challenging contemporary works that don’t look like art.

This difference in brain activity may help explain why optimists are more likely to take risks in approaching potentially rewarding experiences while pessimists, who have greater activity in the right side of the brain, tend to be more cautious.

Researchers have also found that people who are anxious or depressed—who also tend to be more pessimistic—have less connection between the prefrontal cortex of the brain (associated with cognitive activity) and the amygdala (associated with a feeling of fear). This means that pessimists are less able to control their fear response with thoughts, making them susceptible to emotional trauma from non-threatening situations and to difficulty recovering from setbacks in their lives.

What an insightful review and promising book. I’ve been feeling cautious and anxious—yes, pessimistic—lately, so this sounds like the perfect reading to add to the mix of references this summer.

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