Transformational Energy

I first met Nicola Ginzel at an open studio for Austin Thomas at the Elizabeth Foundation in NYC. We got talking about Joshua Tree and  the residency, then in its early days, and then we both moved on. Nicola was clearly inspired though and she stayed in touch over several years, sharing developments in her practice until I managed to organize a studio visit on one of my trips to New York.

 

In her studio, which was also her living quarters at the time, Nicola shared with me her meticulously transformed objects - found detritus of one sort or another worked and worked so as to become precious and significant objects. The process itself and the installation of he objects in neat rows on the wall, on the table and in boxes all drew me in. As we spoke, Nicola talked about how the process of working on these objects was also a self-transformation and that she believed the objects became imbued with this energy. Ultimately, she hoped the energy could be transferred to people who came into contact with these artworks and that they could be a channel for healing.



As I am always interested in connecting artists to expertise that resides in the Joshua Tree area, I introduced Nicola to Susan Jordan and David Zimmerman. Susan and David are friends who offer many modalities of energy work from tai chi classes to soul retrieval sessions. Nicola shared the next steps she'd like to explore in her learning and experiences, it became clear that they could all work together. And so, we devised a plan to have Nicola come do a residency, work with Susan and David and make work that incorporated the resultant energy shift.



Nicola arrived March 1, set up in the new guesthouse and was very soon working with Susan and David on some intense personal shifts. She brought with a trove of material to transform including some baggage (literally!) and clothing that she had inherited from her father. She had an initial session and then several follow ups and starting working intently. As her work is more contained in size and material, Nicola started out working in the guesthouse and using the studio as a way to look at the work as it developed and to find the relationships amongst the various pieces that were emerging. As this process continued, she told me that she felt a freeing force and that her work became somewhat looser and larger.




Toward the end of the month, we held an open house to share the work and the process and many interesting discussions began around the objects themselves and their presence. And then Nicola was off, back to NYC and the urgency of a show about to open there. Many thanks to Nicola for taking on, and sharing, this exploration and to Susan and David for working with another my of the residents.

The Quiet Roar of Sydney Croskery

Sydney Croskery discovered BoxoHOUSE during the Joshua Treenial and approached me about doing a project. This was at a particular time when the plans and permit for the artist residence building seemed to be dragging forever and I let her know that I wasn't planning more residencies until things got moving again. Which suited Sydney perfectly - she wanted to come out from LA for a few days, do research and then create a new suite of her wonderful pencil and graphite drawings. Seemed like a perfect match - and it was.

The research period was in October, 2015. Sydney came out and we did an intensive version of the residency immersion including the Integratron, an excellent hike on which I saw my first bighorn sheep, a visit to Bobby at Furstworld and a trip to a solar field. 

































The solar field in question is a large installation adjacent to the Coyote Dry Lake bed and is intersected by a road that runs out onto the large open area itself. When we got there, the gates were open on both sides and a maintenance technician was at work on some arrays. Sydney got out of the car and I expected she would head for the area that was unoccupied. No - she chose the one where the technician was at work, went in and spent quite some time examining and photographing. She feels it's always better to snoop in the open than to sneak around and sure enough she was not challenged at all. The field later turned up in one of Sydney's wonderful drawings.








































After researching topics and images, Sydney spent a long time considering the space. The studio/exhibition space at BoxoHOUSE is located in front of a spectacular rock pile. Sydney wanted the exhibition to be shown with the door up and for the whole to be an installation. 

After returning to LA, Sydney spent several weeks sorting the images and subjects, entering the images into her database and planning the exhibition as it would sit in the space. I got regular updates and even some preliminary sketches of the artworks which was a welcome opportunity given that I couldn't peek into the process as I would with a resident in studio.







By early February, 2016, Sydney had the suite of works ready and framed. She held a preview at her studio and then brought the pieces to Joshua Tree where I selected some to feature in my booth at the Palm Springs Art Fair. Her large scale drawings drew a lot of attention and drove some of the audience that attended the opening of the exhibition itself which opened a week after the fair. The exhibition was well received with viewers noting how the work created a particular space and how well it all fit with the rocks behind. Sydney captured something very specific about the local desert environment and the exhibition site itself which resonated loudly with a quiet roar.















































Many thanks Sydney!

Time and Space

Angus McCullough began his timespace project with a truly experiential approach - taking the train from Vermont to LA. He then transposed himself to Joshua Tree and the residency began. 

Angus's residency project was to launch fully into his investigation of timespace (or space-time), an exploration he knew would then continue for quite a while to come. He was soon in the studio making wire models and drawings that depicted the experience of attempting to understand/explain four dimensional concepts. As best I could understand it, the approach developed from imagining what it would be like to be a two dimensional (flat) insect crawling across our three  dimensional shapes. Flipping over the edge of a cube would be like shooting oneself to another universe…







































Another aspect of his explorations was the personal experience of timespace and it's connection to moments of deja vu. Assisted by Kelsy Gosset, a visiting student from Wichita State University, Angus set up a series of markers in the landscape which denoted personal time zones - before standardized time, we each had our own personal notion of time related to the position of the sun overhead our particular location. Once time was standardized to enable commerce to flow more smoothly via the rail lines, personal time was lost. Angus was interested in recapturing personal time and in how the notion tied to the experience of de ja vu. He also kept a dream journal and published entries as part of his exploration.




































Mid-way through his residency, Angus gave a talk about the background of his project to an enthusiastic crowd. Philosophy and physics, history's strange twists and turns and the role of art in uncovering all of this were heartily discussed. We also attended presentations by artists of the Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency at which Angus was able to present his background and introduce the project.



































In addition to the drawings, tracings, sculptures and writings, Angus worked on a video piece which became the centerpiece of his open house. The piece interwove material shot on his long train journey with atmospheric moments captured in Joshua Tree. It is a haunting piece that makes time, and the related sense of loss quite, apparent and hints at the uneasy experience which de ja vu invokes in some. 



The open house became one large installation piece with artifacts of the research displayed alongside artworks and works in process. The video was shown as a multichannel projection alongside some shorter works and one made by Amalia Wiatr Lewis who joined Angus for the last week of his stay. Part of the sound track was composed of clips of Angus playing, and playing with, a trumpet the intermittent sounds of which were a wonderful add to the BoxoHOUSE atmosphere.




































The event was well attended and the work very well received. Angus gave a brief talk and then screened the video in full to an engaged audience. The open house ended with a brief concert conducted with another participant via Skype 


















Many thanks to Angus for his dedicated research and exploration and we look forward to seeing where this long reaching project takes him. (Here is the page Angus created to reflect his work from the residency: LINK)

The Tortoise and The Hare

Hannah Hughes arrived from Santa Fe with several ideas in mind. Adopting a desert tortoise, riding dirt bikes and practicing her aerial silks maneuvers. While these were intriguing activities, I wondered how they would unfold and what would result. Hannah arrived in time for a wonderful Joshua Tree Thanksgiving. Once the holiday mood had passed, she got down to pursuing her activities.

The tortoise came in the form of a 6-month old cutie, courtesy of the local Desert Tortoise Rescue organization. Hannah fostered the tortoise while in residence and then took her back for eventual adoption. The tortoise lived in the studio in a spacious (for her) cage with a little house in it. The tortoise was quite active, loved to climb up the side of the cage and would explore the studio perimeter when let out for a  walk.




For the bikes, I managed to connect Hannah with Nicos and Rosie, a couple with land out in Wonder Valley who are reported to have a boatload of toys - including a boat. Hannah was able to go over there, ride out into wild, beige yonder and work on bike handling skills in the tricky desert sand.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, Hannah installed a hook in the crossbeam, hung her silks from a sturdy hook and starting maneuvering. From time to time, various objects would arrive with Hannah - desert findings which accumulated into interesting sculptural forms. Occasionally, she would dress up in outfits and go outside for some film and photo selfies. The wedding dress outfit and the fluorescent pink short jumpsuit were favorites that definitely caught the attention of workers building the new artist's quarters.






In our chats, Hannah began to explain her approach centering on the tortoise as a mythical figure with powers of divination and her interest in games without rules. The bikes played a role in a retelling the tale of the tortoise and the hare. 



These theme came together at Hannah's open house. Actions were performed with Hannah bringing the tortoise into a circle below the silks, grabbing a canceled pack of cards format he nearby Tortoise Rock Casino and maneuvering above the circle while the playing cards fell to the ground. The audience was invited to ask questions of the divining tortoise though the questions were connected to tortoise welfare than to larger life themes.




The other action which took place was a bike race between Hannah and a friend, escorted by umbrella bearers. The objective was to win the race by being slowest while not stalling out. Steady does it as the maxim goes.





Visitors to the open house seemed in turn engaged, mystified, amused, concerned and inspired. A successful showing overall. Many thanks to Hannah for bringing her unique approach to performance art to BoxoHOUSE and the Joshua Tree community. Safe slow travels.

Stonewalled

Just after the Joshua Treenial in May, Larry Lane at Art Queen approached me about his plans for a Stonewall commemoration to take place on the last weekend of June. He asked me to think of artists who might want to have an exhibition in conjunction with the live music he was arranging to be followed by a screening of Milk. 

I approached John Luckett about his interest and he filled me in on a series of his paintings which had shown in an exhibition related to LA Pride last year. Based on illustrations from a swimming manual, the series is titled Search and Rescue and it contemplates the personal and conflicting circumstance of alienation, bewilderment and discovery. They were just right for the context. We also thought of Darin Rich, a performance artist and DJ who has produce some wonderful video works under the guise of Limesparkle.






We installed the work the week before in the amazing metal clad gallery created to house the work of Randy Polumbo. Some of Randy's newer works were included in the exhibition, bringing color, glass, light and a twist to the table. We could not have predicted the announcement of the Supreme Court ruling on marriage that was announced the day before the event. Commemoration turned into lively celebration.
 
A wonderful crowd turned up the event which kicked off with the exhibition and an impromptu performance by Darin. Live music followed and then the film rounded out the evening. The exhibition will remain up until September 7, 2015.
 
Many thanks to Randy, Larry, John, Darin, Tim and Journi.

 

Scales of Exposure

Natasha Peterson, an Australian photographer living locally, and Michael Vine, a Cambridge anthropology Phd candidate, teamed up to explore the Salton Sea as an exemplar of man's relationship with the environment. Natasha shot many images at different scales - both aerial photographs of the sea's environs and macro images of found objects obtained on foray's into the communities surrounding the sea through an electron microscope. The result was a provocative installation titled Scales of Exposure that paired Natasha's photos with Michael's writing. 

 

The images are wonderfully abstract - one of the aerials resembling a late Turner painting hung upside down while one of the macro images appeared to contain a flying buddha in the layers of some discarded glass. Michael's writing set the context which was broken into five essays: Frontier, Exposure, Haunting, Desire, and Decay. 












The opening reception was very well attended and lively discussion was had. Michael gave a talk challenging our notions of revering protected nature (aka National Parks) while trashing everything else outside the boundaries. He also pointed to man's place in the bigger picture of Nature and the Salton Sea as a wonderful example of man's place in nature rather than effect on Nature.










Thank you to Natasha and Michael for the great work and fro bringing it for a few weeks to the studio at BoxoHOUSE.