Broward College Visiting Artist Lecture and Workshop

I had a really enjoyable experience getting to know some of the students at Broward College during my talk at their North Campus on Thursday evening, as well as during the workshop the following Friday afternoon at the airport.  I’ve set up my “community studio” again during this visit, and this time I’m encouraging visitors to join in the creative process by taking a stab at making a little something of their own on the fly, in the moment (no pun intended, necessarily, but such an approach seems appropriate, given the transient nature of airports and the ephemeral aspects of the construction project).

Any rate, this idea formed the basis of the workshop for the Broward College students on Friday.  After talking with them about my own process, and viewing my installation of 10, backlit photographs on view in the Lee Wagener gallery, I tasked them with coming up with their own creative response to the airport’s transformation in relation to their own experience and understanding.  I had a variety of basic art materials on hand – modeling clay, paper and pencils, charcoal, tissue paper, sculpting “sand”, carving tools, backdrop cloth, etc. – as well as a stack of about 300 photographic work proofs that could be used as inspiration and/or incorporated into new works.  The students also took a brief wander outside to gather natural materials and random debris, which they used to great effect! 

I have to say, it was a really fun afternoon and these students inspired me with their creative energy.  A few images of the students at work as well as their resulting artworks are below.

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Cloud Puffs and Blue Air

I was really taken with the sky on this last visit, more so than usual.  Having spent the last 15 months fixated on the ground, and the transformation of that same stretch of earth, I realized the sky above had changed just as much – in fact it never stopped.  Over the duration of this process (the construction itself, my wandering excursions, the dead time on the site between spurts of activity) at no two points in time would what was once above, directly correspond to what was below.  The constant movement of the clouds through the atmosphere, and the incessantly shifting hue of the blue above make sure of this.

Of course I couldn’t help but think of the relation between this on-ground experience to our in-air perception of the same – seemingly so similar, yet entirely distinct. 

Below are a few images from my recent visit to the site:

Piled Earth From Near to Far

I couldn’t help but be impacted by my recent research trip to Iceland (where I took part in an artist’s residency in the northern part of the island) upon my return to the Floridian, tropical landscape that surrounds the still-shifting site of the airport’s runway construction. The Icelandic landscape evoked many of the same responses I’ve had to the runway site over these last 15 months – albeit in a much more extreme manner.  With the runway site in the front of my mind, the otherworldly terrain I encountered while traveling resonated in a particular manner it may not have otherwise – I found myself questioning piles of dirt and various formations, and having difficulty discerning whether they were man-made or naturally occurring, in some instances.  The visual results of the modification of the land, impacted by either geology or technology can seem strangely in harmony and discord, simultaneously.

These thoughts were at the forefront of my mind as I captured new images of the site – returning to many of the spaces that have become so familiar, taking note of the variance in accumulation and coloration of earth and debris on my favorite little “mountains”, and looking again to the palms and mangroves that line the periphery.

A few rough composite images from my last visit are below.

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Airport Residency and Public Art Project – A Few Details

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So, just what exactly is going to be/has already been involved with this experimental residency and long-term project?  Several tons of dirt, multiple site visits, a slowly rising inevitable mountain in the form of a runway, a makeshift community studio in the airport, many photographic frames exposed, printed and tested, video gathered from above, below and in-between, and a thick blanket of black asphalt icing the dynamically compacted earth to seal it all in.  A bit of a poetically styled description, but that’s the gist of it.

But let me break it down a bit more pragmatically.  The impetus for this entire project is the construction of a new runway at the Fort-Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport as well as a terminal expansion.  This massive undertaking involves a significant transformation of the physical surround.  Most significantly, a tiny mountain with an elevation of 65 feet is in the process of being fabricated on-site.  This, of course, will be the runway, its elevation necessary to clear the highway that will lie beneath.  Regularly scheduled trains deliver massive quantities of limestone from nearby quarries in Pompano and Medley where it begins a process of what seems an endless and continual piling, smoothing and grading.

Where do I come in? I get to respond to these transformations and note the gradual and dramatic shifts over an almost two year period.  My first short-term site visit resulted in an initial record that will serve as a start-point for what will ultimately become a type of archive.  However, rather than documenting the process of the construction itself and literally tracking changes in a scientific or methodical manner, my imagery may well be ambiguous and at times difficult to decipher.  My concern is not with constructing a temporal continuum that relates to the start and finish of the project, but with allowing the very nature of the structural transformations to dictate my response.  In other words, I am interested in the deep, ecological time evoked by the layered strata of earth as might be depicted in a photograph, or the seemingly infinite experience of a waft of dust floating in the air, slowed down even further in a video representation.

The first completed artworks are scheduled to be installed in October and will take the form of multi-channel, silent video works that will be installed in one of the airport terminals.  This will be followed by a longer-term residency in the month of December, which will include a community studio in the airport.  During this time, I will bring materials directly into this studio and work on the project while interacting with travelers interested in the project.  Shorter-term visits will follow along with two additional longer residencies with community studios and public lectures in May and September of 2014, culminating in the installation of site-specific works throughout the airport.  During each of these stages, I will keep a log of my activities on this blog and will post works-in-progress and test studies.

In the meantime, below are a few images from the initial site visit that have been worked on a bit in terms of sequencing and arrangement.  It is unlikely that many single photographic images will be used, as my interest is not in any kind of isolated “moment” but rather in the natural extension and the back and forth movements across a slice of space and time.  (More on this to come….)

Click on images below for detail view