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.

It looks official! EbM is part of ISEA 2012 in Albuquerque

I have no details yet, but I can now reveal that Earthbound Moon will be participating in ISEA 2012! Look midway down the list of participating orgs at the end of this post. Here's a bit about ISEA:

"In the fall of 2012, a group of New Mexico arts organizations will present ISEA2012 Albuquerque: Machine Wilderness, a symposium and series of events exploring the discourse of global proportions on the subject of art and technology. The prestigious international ISEA is held every year in a different location around the world, and has a 30-year history of significant acclaim (www.isea-web.org). ISEA2011 will take place in Istanbul, and the last time it was in the United States was in San Jose in 2006. The ISEA2012 symposium will consist of a conference in September of 2012 and a collaboration throughout the fall of 2012, including a series of art exhibitions at various sites, public events, performances and educational activities. This project will draw a wealth of leading creative minds from around the globe, and engage our local community through in-depth partnerships.

The title for the symposium and exhibition is Machine Wilderness. As part of a region of rapid growth alongside wide expanses of open land, New Mexico presents a microcosm of this theme. Machine Wilderness will present artists' and technologists' ideas for a more humane interaction between technology and environment in which "machines" can take many forms to support and sustain life on Earth. The project focuses on creative solutions for how technology and the natural world can co-exist."

We are incredibly honored and excited to be a part of ISEA 2012!

Some participating organizations:
516 ARTS
University of New Mexico
The Albuquerque Museum
The Agora Group/Z-Node
Albuquerque Balloon Museum
Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau
Axle Contemporary
City of Albuquerque Open Space
City of Albuquerque Public Art Program
Creative Albuquerque
Currents: Santa Fe Video Festival
Downtown Action Team
Earthbound Moon
ecoartspace
¡Explora!
Film for Change and the Albuquerque International Film Festival
¡Globalquerque!
Harwood Art Center/Escuela del Sol Montessori
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
Institute of American Indian Arts & Museum of Contemporary Native Arts
Instituto Cervantes
The LAND/an art site
Littleglobe
Local Poets' Guild
National Hispanic Cultural Center
New Mexico Centennial Celebration
New Mexico Consortium – Los Alamos National Laboratories
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance
The Outpost Performance Space
PLAND
Radius Books
Santa Fe Art Institute
Santa Fe Complex
Santa Fe University of Art & Design
SITE Santa Fe
STEM-A
Viralnet.net

Also, our friends, whom we've never actually met, except kind of sort of years ago in grad school, but who we are completely, totally inspired by, PLAND, are deeply involved.

NPR's silent dance party

At moca la for engagement party. The work "large audience for small ensemble" is one of my favorite performance/social artworks ever. A hugely successful, beautifully conceived and executed piece

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Today a new moon is in the sky

Inspiration for our name, our thinking, and our goals. We hope ourselves to place a 23" artwork in orbit in the next few years. Or perhaps, 23mm, we're not terribly fussy.

Bookwheel in progress

 

Jon Whitfill's making spectacular progress on his bookwheel for Evanston. IL. Here are the first pics of the wheel coming together. This is half of a sculpture diptych that Jon is installing with us in the second week of July. The second sculpture is built around the pages removed from these books. We're completely chuffed to see this work coming together so quickly. The bookwheel is being installed on a piece of property leased to EbM by Stel and Angela Valavanis. The companion piece will be installed on the deck at their business, Creative Coworking.

July in Evanston should be quite the celebration for EbM. Jon will be in town for one week. He's bringing his wife and three kids. EbM will have at least three of our five members on hand. As well, as his two sculptures, it looks like Jon will be bringing his collaborative project, The RJP Nomadic Gallery, as well. The R and P (Ryder and Piotrs) of the title may be on hand with their families. We'll all (11+ people) be camping out at Stel and Angela's house.
EbM will also be bringing work by our individual members to share at a show in Creative Coworking. And somewhere in Evanston The Portable Morgellon will be installed to share films and videos by the 23E Studios family of artists.
So it's a big traveling Art Carnival. We hope to bring just as much energy and work to Slaton and Plainview in September, 2011, when we are in Texas with Carla Duarte and Scott Oliver.

Three new commissions

Scott Oliver, Carla Duarte (both pictured above) and Christy Matson are the latest artists commissioned by Earthbound Moon.
Scott will be installing a work in Slaton, Texas, outside the WaterSpace Gallery. Carla will be installing a work on a ranch outside Plainview, Texas. Both installs are scheduled for late September. And should be accompanied by a carnival of events.
Christy will be installing a work in Chania, Greece in 2013.

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome these incredible artists to the project.

Last week, Scott, Carla, and I were in Texas visiting the sites, and meeting the wonderful arts community there. Below you can see Scott and Carla enjoying the plaza where he will be working in September. EbM friend and landscape architect Matt Weaver will be assisting with the project.

Evanston, Slaton, and Plainview are the full slate of 2011 installations. For 2012, EbM is planning two installs near Albuquerque, NM, and one near Moffat, CO, on lands we own. We are looking for a property in Detroit, MI. And negotiating a lease in Baja California, Mexico. We have a few other surprises in the can for 2012, but can't reveal them just yet.

I <3 Albuquerque

A SWA computer malfunction at LAX granted me the gift of a day in Albuquerque. Tonight I catch my connecting flight to Lubbock.

While here I visited 516 Arts. Their current show is beautiful and inspiring. In particular, the installations by Amalia Mesa-Bains & Pepon Osorio, artists I immediately added to the EbM list of possible commissions. Really complex, thoughtful work.

I also met impromptu w executive director Suzanne Sbarge. First, all praise, she pointed me to Barelas coffee shop which has a great green Chile.
Second, she shared a slew of information with me about ways EbM can participate in the New Mexico arts community over the next couple years. <3

The wealth of amazing people I meet every day working on Earthbound Moon is unbelievably gratifying.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Hoorah Illinois! Jon Whitfill install in Evanston, IL, July 2011

This past weekend, Earthbound Moon flew me and Jon Whitfill up to Evanston, IL to meet Stel and Angela Valavanis.
Jon is a wonderful artist, and was instrumental in introducing us to the arts community in Western Texas.
Stel and Angela are business owners and artists who have been actively supporting EbM from day one. I've known Stel since 1992, when we met at a Zeni Geva concert, before going on to play in bands and arts collaboratives together.
Stel and Angela offered us a lease on their yard in Evanston for an EbM install.
And after a successful weekend, I'm proud to announce that we will be back in July with a full crew and a diptych sculpture to install on two sites in Evanston.
We will also be hosting a show of works by EbM members; a visit from Jon's other collaborative The RJP Nomadic Gallery; and a few nights of video art at 23E Studios' Portable Morgellon. And maybe, just maybe, the premier of 23E's Temporary Knowmadic.
Holy mackerel, it's going to be an Earthbound Carnival!

And, as if that weren't enough, I'm finally finding time to work on the business plan and nonprofit paperwork with our brained member, Libby Reed. Hoorah!

Here's some of Stel's 1992 footage of Zeni Geva: