I'm Still In the States - Carrie Update

So Where Have I Been? -Warning- Crazy Long Post!

    As John noted in his last post, I am not in Australia. When he left, I was actually in Vermont for school. So this post is not going to be about Australia, instead it will cover my residency at VCFA in Vermont last week. Let me give you a bit of background information before diving into the craziness that are residencies...
 
    I am enrolled in a low-residency MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. I work at home (wherever home is) for six-month semesters and then travel to Vermont for 10-day residencies to present my work as well as make a study plan for the coming semester. My school work consists of two parts, studio and visual culture. My studio work consists of my artwork and is overseen/critiqued regularly by an artist teacher (AT as we call it... I have gotten used to using abbreviations for everything despite my best efforts to resist). This AT is someone I have found and proposed to the faculty at VCFA; they are not necessarily affiliated with the institution prior to my proposal. Each semester I find a new AT to work with in order to keep in line with my changing thoughts about my artwork and gain a new person's perspective. In addition to that, during the semester I am responsible for conducting research, which is called visual culture research or our VC projects. During each residency, we are assigned to a new Faculty Advisor (FA) that will help us structure our research and be in long-distance contact with us all semester. My favorite thing about this program is that I choose what to research each semester. I am expected to understand the current dialogues in the 'art world' and to be well versed in art history and critical theory. However, I am not reading the same texts as my classmates.... Are you confused yet? Let me stop the explanation in generalities for now and tell you about my experience.

    I was in Vermont from the 26th of July to the 4th of August. This residency consists of a student exhibition, presentation of student research, lectures by faculty and guests, critiques of student work, and preparation for the coming semester.

VCFA Continuing Student Exhibition August 2012

VCFA Continuing Student Exhibition August 2012

The exhibition space is designed by our Exhibition Coordinator, Kathy Couch. Upon our arrival, it is our job to set up our work and manipulate the space as best we can to fit our ideas. Here are some images of my piece from this residency:

View of my installation from the side.

This is a view inside the window of my installation. I had to cut a hole in the wall which was fun!

View of my installation from the other side. I was very particular in wanting only one side to be open (seen in previous photo). This way someone could walk by and almost miss the whole piece, simulating how we often dismiss nature in an effort to rush from point A to point B.

View behind the wall. The hole in the wall allowed a stream of light to hit a portion of the wheel drawing attention to a central spot.

Now that you have seen the finished piece... Here is what went into the making:

     This was my first installation which meant I had to figure out how to execute an idea that was in my head. For those of you who know me, my head is a bit crazy and my ideas usually follow suit. Allow me to describe my thought process as best I understand it. My interests lie in how humans interact with the spaces they inhabit, particularly with in the natural world. My research has led me to look at phenomenology, existentialism, spatial relationships, psychology's play theory, semiotics, American cultural ideologies associated with nature and the wilderness etc. In this work, I wanted to simulate an experience that mirrored the viewers relationship to nature. That brought me to this wheel and wall idea.

     I spent the semester taking photos of a spot in Massachusetts that I frequented regularly. I printed out these images and attempted to rebuild the space I remembered by using collage. Had I just shown these collages, the viewer would have been presented with a daily practice and remnants of another person's journey in understanding a place. I wanted the viewer to have their own experience rather than respond to mine. So came the idea of an installation.

     Here are the questions this piece attempted to answer. How do I create the illusion of control while simultaneously commenting on one's lack of control? How do I construct a piece that forces collaboration, meaning one person cannot experience it as a whole on their own? Can I create a physical barrier that speaks to mediated experiences?

      Then came the building. I had to build something that was light enough / small enough to be shipped to Vermont. Luckily, I was allowed to cut a hole in an existing wall at VCFA rather than bring one. John and my Dad helped me visualize how to make a wheel/stand that could support the weight of almost 2,000 photos and spinning as well as being able to break it down small enough to ship. (That might have been the best challenge.) I also made a small frame for the hole I was to cut in the wall,  in order to make it more appealing for viewers to get close.

    I could not put the photos on the wheel before traveling, because I wouldn't have been able to ship it that way. So immediately after getting to Vermont, I cut a whole in a wall (with a saw that I brought.. not the one seen.) and almost asphyxiated myself with glue from adhering the photos to the fabric. It worked though, and came together beautifully.

     Almost 2,000 photos later, most of which hidden from view under the layers and then hidden again behind a wall, the piece was finished.

     Here is a view of the back of the piece. I had to tension the fabric in a way that allowed the wheel to be a bit untrue (I wanted it to appear unstable, thus making the viewer feel unsure about spinning it) but secure at the same time (in reality the viewer could spin it quite fast with out anything happening to it).
    I put the piece on a pedestal inside to over emphasize the precariousness of the piece. Also, I made the hole in the wall just a bit higher than eye-height so that the viewer had to also stand on a pedestal to fully engage with the piece. Once on the step, the viewer realized they were then too tall to look in, and had to crouch down to see inside. No matter what they did, there was no easy way to experience the piece as a whole. Also the wall was 8' wide, making it impossible for the person looking through the window to also spin the wheel.The work became a collaborative experience between multiple participants.

  This installation stayed up all week. My piece is just one artwork in the larger student exhibition space shown in the first photo. Through out the week, the students sign up for and participate in small critique groups led by either faculty or guest critters (guest artists that are invited to critique our work). These groups consist of between 4-6 students and go on for roughly 2 hours. We spend time going to each students work and reacting to it, giving feedback, and offering our interpretation of the work to the artist. Each critique is made up of different students (we sign up to be with the faculty member or the critter and whomever signs up for that time/person is in the group). These critiques offer constant feedback and different opinions.

    In addition to the presentation/critiquing of our work, we participate in small research group meetings. The first half of the week is spent wrapping up the previous semesters work and the second half is spent drafting a research proposal for the coming semester. Last semester, I researched how memory has been used as a literary tool by authors such as Virginia Woolf, Toni Morrison, Marcel Proust, and Chris Marker. I also looked at how the evolution of the National Park system in the United States influenced cultural ideologies associated with nature. This all feeding into an attempt to understand how different cultures interact with nature and how they see themselves playing a role in the livelihood of the natural world.
    Each student in in charge of designing their own Visual Culture project. With everyone conducting vastly different research projects, it is fascinating to come together and find correlations between my work and someones research on feminist theory, aging, or consumerism, for example. I enjoy finding that my colleagues are often interested in the same philosophical questions as me, but executing the from an entirely different perspective.

    Now I am back in Illinois, have devoured two books and am about to make the rounds visiting family and friends before heading to Australia. I hope this post gave my family and friends a little insight into my MFA program. Thanks for your patience through this long winded post!
-- Carrie