Fragment

Fragments of Place

Fragments of Place is a personal reflection of my temporal existence: 

Leaves collected from places which hold special importance in my life 

woven in a tapestry of place. 

The main collection of leaves comes from my husband’s childhood home

a place that has become home to me and my children

as we have become part of his life, his family. 

Leaves from the town where we were married

where we grew up as college students

where I found employment years later.

These were inserted in to the fabric

woven together with grass from our current residence. 

This place is the only place my children know as home. 

Blades of grass are used to construct the tapestry

not entirely visible

building its internal structure. 

The tapestry of leaves gradates in color

fresh green morphs into red

red fades to black. 

It was carefully placed

propped gently against two crossing vines

draping down to carpet the earth in a park where I used to play as a child. 

Rich, black, soil, excavated from the site flows around the black leaves anchoring it to the ground. 

From this soil leaves which had been collected and pressed

radiate in a colorful gradation

then fade to black.

The unity of materials will quickly dry

decay

turn to dust

in the way I have left my own dust in each of these places

and traces of dust from each place has stayed with me.

This journey began as separation

analysis of the soil dug from the place of childhood play. 

Bits of decaying leaves, roots, seeds, shells

were isolated in individual, pristine, housings. 

Separated parts were reunited with their home

photographed in their new pristine housing

           on the contrasting backdrop of the soil from which it was removed.   

Install Day

Walk through the park

I took a walk through the park yesterday evening.  I chose to navigate an area in the backlog the park where I used to play as a child. I had hoped to gather a large amount of leaves from the ground to work with, but they are still holding strong to the trees. I was able to gather a few fallen leaves in various stages of decomposition.  I found many sites with interesting structures formed by dead or dying trees as well as partially fallen trees that have been heaved out of the ground by erosion. The park showed a lot more erosion than I had remembered. Some areas have uncovered evidence of past land development: asphalt, brick, metal.  I remember encountering these in small quantities when I was young. There was a mysterious quality about their history, about our history, our making/developing of land and the decomposition of our efforts.

Tree Labeling

My children are always quite interested in what I am experimenting with.  At one point I was explaining that my can of dirt came from a wooded park on Purdue's campus where all the trees are labelled so you know what kind they are.  Intrigued by this concept, my older one decided to label our trees.  I think she did a fine job...enjoy!

It is certainly nice to have the graphic translation of what I see.  Maybe someday we will give them names.

Nature, Art, and Design

I am excited to begin work on a series of new projects this fall.  I am finding that I naturally fall into a process of creating site-specific installations.  Be sure to click on my Dirt page to see what I am up to now.

The Five Obstructions

From my perspective as a designer, I see the 5 obstructions mandated by Lars Von Trier for the recreation of The Perfect Human short film by Jorgen Leth less as obstructions and more as constraints.  After all, the obstructions did little to actually obstruct the recreated films but, rather, changed their character.  The films were accomplished with skill.  Each set of rules posed unique challenges which had to be accounted for during the process of creation.  Each constraint posed new perspectives and new ways of approaching the subject manner. 

Design works in this way, balancing cultural, social, political and physical constraints imposed by the context of the project.  Some constraints are self-imposed by the values of the designer, some are imposed through the values of others on the projects.  The constraints are determined by working through context and relationships and shape the outcome.  As Michael Agar said about ethnography in his book The Professional Stranger, so it is the same in design – “More than one [design] is possible but not all [designs] are acceptable.  [Designers] are neither completely in charge nor do they vanish from the process.”  The artist is typically honest in their ownership of control.  If an artist relinquishes control to outside forces it is by choice with explicit intent; they never recede or vanish from the process (as designers would like to think they do). 

This film illustrates, clearly, that more than one outcome is possible and can be deemed acceptable in its own right.  This brings us to the question of criteria for what is deemed “acceptable” or “good”.  In design we might judge the outcome based on its attention to constraints and usefulness or function.  In art we may judge the outcome based on its insight, expression, or reaction.  Can we say that each film created in this movie was good?  Do we base our acceptance in reference to the constraints?  This movie is about the process.  It, however, was not just about reacting to constraints, but it became clear that art was created through the process as healing.  Is the process, or the purpose for the act of creating, that which we base our judgments?  One thing remains constant; our judgment is embodied, experiential, and culturally based.  Criteria changes and will continue to evolve; it is contextual and situated in the past, present, and future.