Harwood

LAND/ART

This collaborative exploration of land-based art involves over 25 NM arts organizations in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Mountainair over the course of six months (June - Nov 2009). Learn about the impressive statewide activities and exhibits here.

Coming in November
Christopher Robbins & John Baca's "Pause"

November 9 - 16, 2009. These artists will prevent a tree from losing its leaves this autumn. 

Visit the grounds of the Harwood Art Center during daylight hours as the artists attend to their ambitious project. Barring any extreme conditions, the artists will live under the tree for the duration of their stay.


 

 

 

 

Stuart Frost's "Portable Grove"

English artist Stuart Frost breathes new life into dead trees by transforming raw organic materials into something new and captivating. Frost developed a technique of pyrography in which intricate patterns are defined by scorching the surfaces of dead trees. These eleborate patterns are loosely based on 19th century wallpaper motifs. Frost received his M.A. in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art in London. He has established himself as a contemporary environmental artist interested in the ephemeral characteristics of natural objects. He travels all over the world temporarily transforming landscape before the environment ultimately destroys the work. His installations remind us to appreciate the fragile beauty in nature that we often take for granted in our everyday lives.

 

Jason Pressgrove and Rebekah Lynn Potters's "Tumbleweed Assembly"

What can be made of its hook and hold, its lightness, and its transparency? How does it stack? How does it take to being, at least relatively, constrained and coupled? Will it work well with others? Will it participate? Through stacking, threading, and if necessary, tying, pinching, and binding, Jason Pressgrove and Rebekah Lynn Potter seek to materialize space and form with a most delicate, natural material. One that can be inhabited, one that can be empathized with, formalized, and experienced through gestalt. What are the architectural possibilities of the tumbleweed?

View images of the installation on our Facebook page (you do not need to log in to view).
Funding for this project has been made possible by the Puffin Foundation.

 

Nan Erickson's, The Carden

Eventually, cars will no longer be the main mode of transportation. Cars can be reused as gardens for growing food. Cardens are portable vegetable gardens that serve as ambassadors of food security and raise awareness of the misuse of land for development.

Only 3% of our food is grown in New Mexico. Albuquerque's agricultural land has been swallowed up by development. This project attempts to reclaim unused parking or open space for growing food. This project fosters community engagement and development. 15% of New Mexicans are hungry (compared to 11% in Central America). By growing more food in state, we can increase food security. This model celebrates the historic car culture of Route 66 and the acequia culture of the North and south Valley, while increasing food production in Albuquerque.

Check out the images of the car-to-carden transformation on our Facebook page!
(You do not need to log in to view these.)

Notes on Seasons of a Millet Seed

Lu sage feeds the birds using approximately 25 seed blocks to construct a life-size human form composted of milo, white proso millet and sunflower seeds. Once the birds begin to feed upon the seed, the cyclical process of regeneration begins with the birds spreading the sees, the seeds sprouting and germinating new plants.

We are the stewards of the earth. We can nurture and feed the earth or we can destroy it. Even with global warming, the poisoning of air, earth, water and with species going extinct we can still choose to become a part of the healing of our planet. With loss of habitat, animals will have fewer opportunities to feed themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

Emma Lee Young's images from "Bodyland II"

Emma Lee Young presents work based on her understanding and the visual representation of the connection between women's bodies and the land as sight and battle ground in the struggle to navigate the consequences of patriarchy. The directness of image and body is an attempt to eliminate metaphor and communicate immediacy of connection.

Basia Irland's "Atlas Scroll Series"

This ongoing global series presented by Basia Irland explores waterborne diseases whose transmission occurs when people drink contaminated water, or submerge themselves in water for bathing, swimming, ceremonial or religious purposes. This series of scrolls depicts various pathogens that kill a child every eight seconds somewhere in the world after they are exposed to infected waters.