Jonathan Whitfill - ArtTakesLondon

Jonathan Whitfill - ArtTakesLondon

speculative world

(A carbon nanotube space elevator rises from Earth to a tethered moon. This Earthbound Moon is publicly owned space, open to all humanity. Its surface is a sculpture garden, where original works mingle with replicas of the works EbM has seeded across the planet Earth, her original moon, the surrounding planets, the sun, asteroids, comets, lagrange points, and extra-galactic vessels. Our businees plan calls for this second moon to be placed in orbit in 02032. In this image the tethered moon is an oversized, hugely oversized, Sputnik 1. One of the arms reaches down to Earth as a space elevator, the others counterweight the moon.)

One of the greatest challenges of EbM is explaining our vision, which is transgenerational, and rather grandiose. We are trying, after all, to terraform a populated planet. Finding a succinct and accurate way to explain in words what this means, and why we think it is a laudable goal, is difficult.
Supplementing words with images is a traditional and wonderful way to increase comprehension. To that end, all of the members of EbM are trying to spend time each week creating speculative images that share our vision of what our future might hold. These may be images of future sights, dream projects, or different visions of the final stages of a terraformed planet. These may be manipulated photos, or paintings, or collage, or video, or maybe soundworks. Or, in my case, a scentwork (I'll be introducing a new perfume in Evanston at the EbM show accompanying our installation of Jon Whitfill's new works.)
Some of us may spend a year on a single image (Carson, how's that three panel terraformed universe in lush oil paint coming along?) Others, like myself, will photoshop images.
Oh hey, here's one of those now:

This is a speculative work I created to try and share our vision of how the inherent meaning of a fence can be subverted in a public space. It is a vision of what an SF garden we were negotiating with might look like if an artist were to "knit" the fence. This speculative image hints at the beauty, poetry, and intellectual engagement a great artist can bring to a public work.
With luck we will regularly be able to share these visions of the world and universe as we imagine it.

EbM in Temporary Art Review

Delightfully, EbM and Alex Clausen are the featured Site/Project Profile in the newest issue of Temporary Art Review.
Above, Alex discusses the Bledsoe site, before EbM was a gleam in his eye.

TTU friend Chris Taylor's Land Arts class in the NY Times

One of the folks we've had the honor of meeting in Lubbock is Chris Taylor, who runs the Land Arts of the American West program at TTU. We've actually corresponded with Chris more than met him. He was on the road with his class the last couple times we were in Lubbock.
But, featured in this NY Times article, Chris describes much of the wonder and passion EbM feels for the SouthWest, and for a vision of a planet terraformed as a sculpture garden.

From the article:
Mr. Taylor describes it as a “semester abroad in our own backyard,” and said he planned it to try to be as agnostic about the definition of art as the vast landscape itself is. “I define art as anything people have done on the land,” he said, adding that the West is an ideal place for such an approach. (“Arid lands are unable to hold secrets,” Mr. Taylor once wrote.)

He added: “I think there are important lessons here that are more than just art history lessons. Not to take anything away from art history, but this is more broadly about how we’ve shaped the land, and how it has shaped us.”

What Heidi is up to

Lokal Global Plan opened this past weekend in Copenhagen!

And coming up Tuesday, May 24:

Global confusions, local solutions

How does art strengthen our attention towards our local area when tv and internet can make events happening on the other side of the earth more present than what is going on outside our own street door? How to create an exchange between outside and inside, micro and macro, artist and local communities?

Performance, film screening and debate with the Lokal Global Plan artists Ben Kinsley (US), Jon Rubin (US), Didem Özbek (TR) & Osman Bozkurt (TR) on Tuesday May 24, 7-9pm.

The event will be conducted in English and is a part of the exhibition

Lokal Global Plan
Address; Ålekistevej 101, 2720 Vanløse, DK
Exhibition period: 20 May - 5 June 2011
Office hours: 1-6pm, but most of the art works are accessible 24h

EbM in Art Practical

The delightful and insightful Christine Wong Yap's article in Art Practical 2.16 "Portrait of an Artist, Wily and Engaged" includes EbM amongst the interviewees:

I was particularly interested in the initiative and ambition of these artists’ projects. For example, Cummings self-subsidizes major travel to create her work; she sent her responses from Thailand, where she was working on a film.
Earthbound Moon’s first project brought the Danish artist Heidi Hove to Bledsoe, Texas, to create a site-specific sculpture—a fantastically surreal illuminated “Welcome” sign. Pembleton explained that Earthbound Moon “intends to terraform the entire planet” and that he fancies the collaborative becoming a “multinational nonprofit corporation…. Seeing ourselves as a startup allows us to be fully engaged with the philosophies and practices of economics and governance, if we're successful. Our goal in 2010 was to establish that what we envisioned was possible—a proof-of-concept. That done, we are attempting a larger, grander year in 2011.” Of their ambitions, Pembleton said, “Attempting the possible is not terribly exciting. Attempting the impossible is exhilarating.”

That last quote is the title of the issue. Sweet.