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06-22-15

Spring 2015 Education Program Perspective — Mary Elizabeth Hogan, Student

Mary Elizabeth Hogan, photo: Nina Dietzel

Mary Elizabeth Hogan, photo: Nina Dietzel

Mary Elizabeth Hogan
Spring 2015 Student

I am interested in definition and the process of defining in regard to place and orientation. The efforts to explain one’s position require a similar process—delineating boundaries, difference, accounting for location in relation to otherness, and situating oneself between origin and destination. Through the use of text, performance, and collaboration, I practice making flexible formulaic inquiries such as What is this? or, Where am I? to facilitate indeterminacy and reevaluate where determinacy fails.
http://nitro-trail.ca/

Why are you interested in creating work in response to a place/site?

Don’t you think that by establishing artificial barriers we deliver a blow to the idea of limitless thought? By limiting our movement forward, we facilitate moving backwards.

I wrote down this quote while re-watching Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972). It addresses my fascination with form (formlessness) and place (placelessness) and the responsibility I feel to state and articulate my position formulaically, impose boundaries, separate, and consider things as apart. I find site-responsive and site-specific work demands a close study of both form and place, and allows for another type of translation to occur.

What is one impression that you took away from this experience?
At the FOR-SITE property, I had the opportunity to rethink the patterns I choose to notice and be affected by—the most significant being the passage of time. While exploring the property and its surrounding area with the expert contributions of geologist David Lawler, and local historian Hank Meals, I was introduced to another way of looking, measuring, and understanding a site. This meant evaluating geological landmarks, seeking out significant grinding rocks vital to the Nisenan people that first occupied the area, crawling through drainage tunnels left over from hydraulic mining, and trekking up a disintegrating mountainside to see from a new and quickly disappearing vantage. These experiences impressed upon me the importance of accruing your own non-standardized data from which to measure the little histories that frame the forming present.

In what way has this experience affected or complemented your practice?
I have recently been experimenting with different types of text written for performance, i.e. scripts for situations, short plays, speeches, and open letters. The site itself became a significant player in some of the written work I produced on-site. The collection of mindful and intelligent participants provided useful feedback and criticism. I think the full effect of my time spent at FOR-SITE will continue to influence my thinking as I work to reflect on the strata of substantial moments.

What were the benefits of working in the land as opposed to the classroom?
It was a unique experience to reimagine a classroom setting using the natural perimeter imposed by the land. With Mia’s guidance, we were able to apply a fluid pedagogical framework that focused on open critical discussion and exploratory conversation and fit our activities and meal-making. I often find that classroom settings can become limiting, and that to access most subjects requires a level of research and dedication best sought outside of the academic institution. The FOR-SITE property provided a significant opportunity to move beyond these limits. The land itself became an archive to reference, a space of respite and reflection, and material for response. And, you can’t watch a blood moon lunar eclipse from a classroom.

Were there any unexpected challenges?
I think that any challenge that occurred was physical, but it was the kind of challenge that only invites more determination. For example, hoisting yourself up a rope to reach the top of a black oak, or navigating back to camp by headlamp avoiding trees and poison oak. We also had a fantastic host and support team in [Program Director] Jackie von Treskow and [Site Manager] Joseph Meade, who addressed every possible concern, and became vital, thoughtful contributors in all of our endeavors.

Describe the artwork or project that emerged (or is still emerging) from your experience.
One of the works I developed was called Transitu: What if boundaries only appeared when you summoned them? (making landmarks for when you need them). I collected small rocks along the route I would take from my tent to our workspace, painted them with phosphorescent pigment, and placed them back in the land. On our final evening, I read an essay (of the same title) and led a flashlight-lit night walk along my chosen path. As the flashlights illuminated the ground, the painted rocks collected a charge and took on a ghostly glow. For the rest of the evening, the path remained illuminated, guiding people through dark. I was interested in creating landmarks that only existed through maintained interaction, memory, and re-illumination from a collective effort.

Mary Elizabeth Hogan, Transitu: What if boundaries only appeared when you summoned them? (making landmarks for when you need them), 2015, photo: Nina Dietzel

Mary Elizabeth Hogan, Transitu: What if boundaries only appeared when you summoned them? (making landmarks for when you need them), 2015 (process view), photo: Nina Dietzel

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Happy Birthday to the brilliant Ai Weiwei (@aiww) 
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Image: Ai Weiwei @Large exhibition curator Cheryl Haines consults with Ai Weiwei at the artist's studio in Beijing, June 2014; Photo: Jan Stürmann
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Happy Birthday to the brilliant Ai Weiwei (@aiww) ⠀ Image: Ai Weiwei @Large exhibition curator Cheryl Haines consults with Ai Weiwei at the artist's studio in Beijing, June 2014; Photo: Jan Stürmann
15 hours ago
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Occupying a suite of former military structures in the Presidio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Home Land Security (2016) brought together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name. 

The exhibition extended FOR-SITE’s focus on provocative art about place, inviting viewers into decommissioned batteries, an administrative building, and a chapel — some open to the public for the first time — that served for decades as key sites in the US Army’s Coastal Defense System. #ArtAboutPlace

Image: DÍAZ LEWIS, 34,000 PILLOWS, 2016–ONGOING (VIEW FROM OUTSIDE BATTERY BOUTELLE); USED AND DONATED CLOTHING AND KAPOK FIBER FILLING; COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND ASPECT/RATIO, CHICAGO; © DÍAZ LEWIS; PHOTO: ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK
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Occupying a suite of former military structures in the Presidio overlooking the San Francisco Bay, Home Land Security (2016) brought together works by contemporary artists and collectives from around the globe to reflect on the human dimensions and increasing complexity of national security, including the physical and psychological borders we create, protect, and cross in its name.  The exhibition extended FOR-SITE’s focus on provocative art about place, inviting viewers into decommissioned batteries, an administrative building, and a chapel — some open to the public for the first time — that served for decades as key sites in the US Army’s Coastal Defense System. #ArtAboutPlace Image: DÍAZ LEWIS, 34,000 PILLOWS, 2016–ONGOING (VIEW FROM OUTSIDE BATTERY BOUTELLE); USED AND DONATED CLOTHING AND KAPOK FIBER FILLING; COURTESY THE ARTISTS AND ASPECT/RATIO, CHICAGO; © DÍAZ LEWIS; PHOTO: ROBERT DIVERS HERRICK
2 days ago
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2/9
@anateresafernandez’s Sanctuary rug design, titled Erasure, showcases a work from a series of the same name for which the artist documented a performance of erasure: painting her body black with thick acrylic paint in front of a black background. The resulting video and suite of signature large-scale, hyperrealist paintings leave only glimpses of color—in this case, a searing pair of eyes. Fernández performed this act of removal and mourning in response to the 2014 disappearance and presumed murder of forty-three young male student-activists in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. For the artist, this unconscionable act raises critical questions: “Whose life can be erased so quickly? Why are some sectors of our community treated in such a disposable way? What do we need to do as a society to be seen and treated equally, like valued human beings?”

In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@anateresafernandez’s Sanctuary rug design, titled Erasure, showcases a work from a series of the same name for which the artist documented a performance of erasure: painting her body black with thick acrylic paint in front of a black background. The resulting video and suite of signature large-scale, hyperrealist paintings leave only glimpses of color—in this case, a searing pair of eyes. Fernández performed this act of removal and mourning in response to the 2014 disappearance and presumed murder of forty-three young male student-activists in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. For the artist, this unconscionable act raises critical questions: “Whose life can be erased so quickly? Why are some sectors of our community treated in such a disposable way? What do we need to do as a society to be seen and treated equally, like valued human beings?” In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
4 days ago
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3/9
Titled Here we die, @mpane.aime’s design for Sanctuary was based on one of his carved plywood portraits from a series of the same name. He creates these portraits with an ancient tool called an adze, which allows him to scrape away layers of wood and reveal his subject by reduction. Each panel is roughly twelve by twelve inches: the equivalent of a human head’s surface area. “Because my work deals with problems of race and the stereotypes of black people, the three layers within four-millimeter-thick plywood make me think of the three layers within human skin,” he explains. Despite the dark histories underlying his work, Mpane’s portraits are not somber: his embrace of bright color lends an air of inextinguishable hope and promise.

In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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Titled Here we die, @mpane.aime’s design for Sanctuary was based on one of his carved plywood portraits from a series of the same name. He creates these portraits with an ancient tool called an adze, which allows him to scrape away layers of wood and reveal his subject by reduction. Each panel is roughly twelve by twelve inches: the equivalent of a human head’s surface area. “Because my work deals with problems of race and the stereotypes of black people, the three layers within four-millimeter-thick plywood make me think of the three layers within human skin,” he explains. Despite the dark histories underlying his work, Mpane’s portraits are not somber: his embrace of bright color lends an air of inextinguishable hope and promise. In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
7 days ago
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4/9
@hankwillisthomas Sanctuary contribution, titled Keep the Faith Baby, comes from a series invoking buttons and slogans from political campaigns and social movements from the last 50 years, removing them from their original context to allow audiences to reinterpret the messaging through a contemporary lens. Thomas remembers encountering a button bearing this particular wording as a child. The phrase, used by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, originally served to communicate the hope and profound faith that fueled the American civil rights movement. “It may sound trite, but commercialism is the new religion. We are all believers. Even the most radical of us,” Thomas has said. “It’s not propaganda anymore.”

The notion of sanctuary—both physical and psychological—has been fundamental in shaping a sense of selfhood and social identity throughout human history. But in an era of increasing global migration and rising nationalism, the right to safe haven is under threat, and the necessity for compassion is greater than ever. Seeking to address these issues and ideas, In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
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@hankwillisthomas Sanctuary contribution, titled Keep the Faith Baby, comes from a series invoking buttons and slogans from political campaigns and social movements from the last 50 years, removing them from their original context to allow audiences to reinterpret the messaging through a contemporary lens. Thomas remembers encountering a button bearing this particular wording as a child. The phrase, used by New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, originally served to communicate the hope and profound faith that fueled the American civil rights movement. “It may sound trite, but commercialism is the new religion. We are all believers. Even the most radical of us,” Thomas has said. “It’s not propaganda anymore.” The notion of sanctuary—both physical and psychological—has been fundamental in shaping a sense of selfhood and social identity throughout human history. But in an era of increasing global migration and rising nationalism, the right to safe haven is under threat, and the necessity for compassion is greater than ever. Seeking to address these issues and ideas, In 2017 FOR-SITE invited 36 artists from 21 different countries to design contemporary rugs reflecting on sanctuary, offering visitors a multiplicity of perspectives on the basic human need for refuge, protection, and sacred ground.
1 week ago
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5/9
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
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Deinstall continues! While we are on hiatus, keep in touch by subscribing to our newsletter at the link in bio.
2 weeks ago
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6/9
Susanne Cockrell’s (@aradicalstitch ), Indwelling invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling.

Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum.

Image: Susanne Cockrell’s, Indwelling, 2016, California College of the Arts
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Susanne Cockrell’s (@aradicalstitch ), Indwelling invited students to move their toolkits, studio, and lens of production to the Sierra Nevada and work through their own experiences of being on the land. Through guided walks, and meetings with local artists, community groups, herbalists and trackers students focused on understanding the complex relationships between their art practices and a sense of indwelling. Since 2003, FOR-SITE’s education program has enriched the experience of graduate-level art students with learning opportunities that extend beyond the traditional academic curriculum. Image: Susanne Cockrell’s, Indwelling, 2016, California College of the Arts
3 weeks ago
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7/9
Established in 2003, the FOR-SITE Foundation is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. Our exhibitions and commissions artist residencies, and education programs are based in the belief that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environment.

Image: Artist Chris Drury at work
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Established in 2003, the FOR-SITE Foundation is dedicated to the creation, understanding, and presentation of art about place. Our exhibitions and commissions artist residencies, and education programs are based in the belief that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environment. Image: Artist Chris Drury at work
3 weeks ago
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8/9
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
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Reflections from preschool students who visited #LandsEnd
4 weeks ago
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