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.
Miriam's Well: Poetry, Land Art, and Beyond 