Star Midden at night on The Land

These images are from Leah Stravinsky’s glass installation, done on The Land/An Art Site itself–April, 2011

Star Midden

Star Midden will be leaving Albuquerque soon. We’d love to bring it to Santa Fe. Suggestions for venue? It is a glass and poetry installation by Leah Stravinsky and Miriam Sagan.

If You Missed Star Midden Opening

Invitation to Star Midden Gallery Show

Miriam Sagan and Leah Stravinsky: Star Midden
April 2: THE LAND/an art site
April 8-30: THE LAND/gallery
Opening reception at the gallery Friday, April 8, 5:30 – 8 pm.
THE LAND/an art site, Inc.
419 Granite Ave. NW Albuquerque NM 87102
(505) 242-1501

THE LAND/gallery open Thursdays 11 am – 5 pm and Saturdays by appointment. THE LAND/an art site, Mountainair, open to the public during scheduled exhibits and events and by appointment.

The gallery is so cool–even from the outside!

If you missed the opening, please come some time this month!

Photographs thanks to Matt Morrow.

Star Midden

This project for The Land/An Art Site in Mountainair, NM has been a long time in the making. It began with the idea of winter stars fallen from the sky to earth. The Land has lots of pack rat middens, which are fascinating, and can be studied by archeologists to understand climate change. etc.
Two summers go, Richard I went to Star Axis, Charles Ross’s massive installation in the desert–a pyramid constructed to view the sky and the progression of the North Star. I was thinking of the opposite, something private. Tom Cates, who along with E, Nuevo curates The Land said “an inner north star.”
I began talking to sculptor Leah Stravinsky about collaborating. After much discussion, our working idea is glass bowls or containers of some kind, with words on them.
Last weekend she installed seven bowls of slumped glass in a tree midden on The Land. On Friday, we had our opening in the Albuquerque gallery.

Here is the text:

winter stars, pebbles in the arroyo
what do you gather in, hold

islands in the seas, the body
as an image of the cosmos

what do you gather in, hold
alaya–a storehouse of senses and seeds

as an image of the cosmos
a place marked and swiftly abandoned

alaya–a storehouse of senses and seeds
like a Anasazi stone granary

a place marked and swiftly abandoned
Pleiades are a wound in the constellation

an Anasazi stone granary
Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran

Pleiades are a wound in the constellation
of the starry horned Bull

Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran
color is vibration made visible

the starry horned Bull
is just a kiln of suns

color is vibration made visible
fused across empty space

is just a kiln of suns
crucible, calligraphic

fused across empty space
distance is distance from the self

crucible, calligraphic
what does it mean to be lost

distance is distance from the self
the map drawn in the dirt erased by wind

what does it mean to be lost
even the blind know the horizon

the map drawn in the dirt erased by wind
a shadow falls behind, as does the past

even the blind know the horizon
a cast of dried mud and raindrops

a shadow falls behind, as does the past
anthills, packrat middens

a cast of dried mud and raindrops
your words written in radium

anthills, packrat middens
architecture is narrative

your words written in radium
your words written in dust

architecture is narrative
the opening exhibition is Polaris

your words written in dust
a meaningful north star

the opening exhibition is Polaris
my souvenir of the Milky Way

an inner north star
or destination

my souvenir of the Milky Way
islands in the seas, the body

or destination–
winter stars, pebbles in the arroyo

***

The most amazing part of the installation is the poem translated into light and gesture. It was interpreted in sign language-the signer wore gloves with lights on the tips:

On a personal level, this was a transcendent experience to see my words lead into a vision of glass and light. Thank you Leah Stravinsky! Thanks too to intrepid photographer Matt Morrow who captured these not so easy to get images.

Invitation to Star Midden Gallery Show

Miriam Sagan and Leah Stravinsky: Star Midden
April 2: THE LAND/an art site
April 8-30: THE LAND/gallery
Opening reception at the gallery Friday, April 8, 5:30 – 8 pm.
THE LAND/an art site, Inc.
419 Granite Ave. NW Albuquerque NM 87102
(505) 242-1501

THE LAND/gallery open Thursdays 11 am – 5 pm and Saturdays by appointment. THE LAND/an art site, Mountainair, open to the public during scheduled exhibits and events and by appointment.

A midden of seven slumped glass star bowls, grouped around a tree, as if they had fallen to earth, and been collected. The seven bowls have partial poetic text embedded in the glass and some glass pack/woven/nest text items in and around them. Solar lights in the bowls will allow the shapes to shine at night. The midden honors the context of the poetry and alludes to the natural instinct to gather and place and name (even objects in the night sky). The stop action of the glass flow on these iconic shapes denotes time captured in a specific vortex.

The poetry was written by Miriam Sagan at the site during a residency. The bowls and extended midden were made of recycled glass by Leah Stravinsky at her studio in Santa Fe, NM.

The installation at the Mountainair site will be open to the public Saturday, April 2. Please contact THE LAND for hours and directions.

The gallery exhibit is an extension of the project conceived and installed at the site. The poetry, including a video of the poem in sign language with LED lights, extended midden, and a video of the site installation will be on display through April 30 during regular hours and by appointment.

Building a Star Midden with Leah Stravinksy

Leah Stravinsky created these forms of glass which will be part of a sculptural installation at The Land/An Art Site. They are a response to and elaboration of my poetry text–Star Midden–and will incorporate some of the words. Don’t know exactly when it will go up–will post when I do! Imagine them set in earth surrounded by grains of glass, words on glass, and some fluid hanging forms. In moonlight?

Winter Stars Midden–The Land

WINTER STARS MIDDEN

I’ve been working on a project for The Land/An Art Site in Mountainair, NM. It began with the idea of winter stars fallen from the sky to earth. The Land has lots of pack rat middens, which are fascinating, and can be studied by archeologists to understand climate change. etc.
Last summer Richard I went to Star Axis, Charles Ross’s massive installation in the desert–a pyramid constructed to view the sky and the progression of the North Star. I was thinking of the opposite, something private. Tom Cates, who along with E, Nuevo curates The Land said “an inner north star.”
I began talking to sculptor Leah Stravinsky about collaborating. After much discussion, our working idea is glass bowls or containers of some kind, with words on them.
Here is the text in progress. the first version is a split pantoum–obviously too long to install but it is the basis or wellspring. Then I trimmed it down to just each essential line, without repetition. We’re trimming it down even further, to words for the glass.
If you scroll down in the blog you’ll see Leah Stravinsky’s photographs of The Land–although we haven’t yet determined the actual site. I’ll post more as this emerges.

winter stars, pebbles in the arroyo
what do you gather in, hold

islands in the seas, the body
as an image of the cosmos

what do you gather in, hold
alaya–a storehouse of senses and seeds

as an image of the cosmos
a place marked and swiftly abandoned

alaya–a storehouse of senses and seeds
like a Anasazi stone granary

a place marked and swiftly abandoned
Pleiades are a wound in the constellation

an Anasazi stone granary
Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldeboron

Pleiades are a wound in the constellation
of the starry horned Bull

Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldeboron
color is vibration made visible

the starry horned Bull
is just a kiln of suns

color is vibration made visible
fused across empty space

is just a kiln of suns
crucible, calligraphic

fused across empty space
distance is distance from the self

crucible, calligraphic
what does it mean to be lost

distance is distance from the self
the map drawn in the dirt erased by wind

what does it mean to be lost
even the blind know the horizon

the map drawn in the dirt erased by wind
a shadow falls behind, as does the past

even the blind know the horizon
a cast of dried mud and raindrops

a shadow falls behind, as does the past
anthills, packrat middens

a cast of dried mud and raindrops
your words written in radium

anthills, packrat middens
architecture is narrative

your words written in radium
your words written in dust

architecture is narrative
the opening exhibition is Polaris

your words written in dust
a meaningful north star

the opening exhibition is Polaris
my souvenir of the Milky Way

an inner north star
or destination

my souvenir of the Milky Way
islands in the seas, the body

or destination–
winter stars, pebbles in the arroyo

***

winter stars, pebbles in the arroyo
what do you gather in, hold

islands in the seas, the body
as an image of the cosmos

alaya–a storehouse of senses and seeds
a place marked and swiftly abandoned

like a Anasazi stone granary
Pleiades are a wound in the constellation

Sirius, Betelgeuse, Aldeboron
the starry horned Bull

color is vibration made visible
is just a kiln of suns

fused across empty space
crucible, calligraphic

distance is distance from the self
what does it mean to be lost

the map drawn in the dirt erased by wind
even the blind know the horizon

a shadow falls behind, as does the past
a cast of dried mud and raindrops

anthills, packrat middens
your words written in radium

architecture is narrative
your words written in dust

the opening exhibition is Polaris
a meaningful north star

my souvenir of the Milky Way
or destination