----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Thanks Alana! I'm Fascinated by your ghillie suit project! I'd also like to
hear more about your experience wearing the suit, especially in urban
environments, e.g. "uncamouflaging #16":
http://alanabartol.com/artwork/2873744-Un-camouflaging-16.html. What might
your nearly disappearing tell us about the relationship built environments
and plants, or the way plants are part of the build environment of cities.
For some reason, your discussion of transitional spaces also reminded me of
Janine Marchessault's exhibit "Land/Side: Possible Futures." Obviously hers
is a very different project -- and on a much, much larger scale -- but it's
also about transitions between built and green spaces, particularly the
border areas where green and built environments blend together along the
"Greenbelt" in Ontario. (For those who don't know about Ontario's
Greenbelt, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenbelt_(Golden_Horseshoe.)
Working with everything from digitized diaries, 3D projections and
augmented reality, the artists in Marchessault's exhibit propose new
histories and new futures for the use of land.
I'm just wondering how your project, too, draws attention to juxtapositions
and transitions between built and green environments, and how it might
also, in some ways, speak to transitional temporalities. In "uncamouflaging
#16" the suit looks like an urban plant that has been neglected, despoiled,
and diminished over time. I wonder, then, how neglected plants remind us of
the passage of time, even as they go seemingly unnoticed. Are these
neglected plants part of an urban subconscious that remind us of mortality?
Patrick Keilty
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Information
Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies
University of Toronto
http://www.patrickkeilty.com/
On Fri, Jun 12, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Natasha Myers <nmy...@yorku.ca> wrote:
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Thanks so much, Alana, for getting our 2nd week conversation moving.
I was sad to miss the performance of the Ghillie Suit last summer, but
remember seeing remarkable images. I love the haunting, looming, lurking
and uncanny effect of the plant-human form that seems to shape-shift in a
space of near invisibility. Can you say more about the kinds of shifts the
performance effects in human/plant encounters? Does the piece perhaps speak
to the ways that plants are so often relegated to the undergrowth, the
backdrop on the stage where human and animal agencies are so actively
performed?
What is your experience of wearing the suit. Of nearly disappearing? Is
there a way that the piece encourages the performer to *vegetalize* their
movements and sensorium? I've been spending a lot of time thinking about
where the human (always more than human) sensorium meets the vegetal
sensorium...and am becoming convinced that the sensorium of those whose
lives and work turns around plants gets vegetalized...
I would love to hear more!
I'm also so glad to hear of your engagement with Jo Simalaya's work
Singing Plants. Such a remarkable piece that I have been thinking about for
a number of years in conversation with the scientific works of Indian
polymath JC Bose, who saw it as his life's work to give voice to the
unvoiced life of plants. Very much looking forward to sharing that work
soon!
This would also be a great opportunity for our other moderators this week
to tell us more about the Plant Sex Consultancy...Such a remarkable work
that will I'm sure produce some fascinating threads of conversation!
All the best,
Natasha
Natasha Myers
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology | Convenor, Politics of
Evidence Working Group | York University
2032 Vari Hall, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Canada | Tel. (416)
736-2100 x 22394 | Fax (416) 736-5768 | nmy...@yorku.ca
Website <http://www.yorku.ca/nmyers> | Plant Studies Collaboratory
<http://plantstudies.wordpress.com/> | Sensorium
<http://finearts.yorku.ca/sensorium> | The Technoscience Salon
<http://technosalon.wordpress.com/> | Politics of Evidence
<http://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com/> | The Write2Know Project
<http://write2know.ca/>
On 2015-06-11, at 11:42 AM, <he...@alanabartol.com> <he...@alanabartol.com>
wrote:
----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Hello Everyone! I am delighted to join this discussion. Thank you Natasha
for inviting me to participate. I am an interdisciplinary artist, working
in performance, video, drawing, environmental art, installation and
community-engaged art. My collaborative and individual works explore
concepts of visibility and survival through our relationships with nature
and each other.
"Forms of Awareness: Ghillie Suit" is a series that reveals and examines
the prevailing set of aesthetic and environmental concerns in North
American culture. The ghillie suit is traditionally used by military
snipers and hunters to camouflage the human body, allowing the wearer to
blend into various natural landscapes. In this series, the suit is
repositioned in the open air of suburban and urban spaces. Wearing the
suit, I appear as Ghillie in transitional zones, naturalized areas and
green spaces. The appearances or “un-camouflagings” are captured through
photography and video.
I first learned about ghillie suits when I was living in Vermont and was
introduced to the suit at a nearby military base. It wasn’t until I moved
back to Windsor, Ontario, a city fraught with many environmental and
socio-economic issues, that the character “Ghillie” evolved and I began
making and wearing the suits.
The suits are made of a combination of natural and synthetic materials,
which are tied and woven into a netting base. I then weave dried weeds,
grasses and other plants (found in the discarded yard waste), into the
suit. In suburban neighbourhoods, Ghillie appears in transitional zones,
'naturalized' areas and green spaces. While Ghillie inspires many reactions
including fear, confusion, anger and laughter, she often remains unnoticed.
This work has also been developed in collaboration with others. Last year
I worked in partnership with a group of teenagers to create their own
ghillie suits and develop a site-specific performance in Guildwood Park
(Toronto) for Restless Precinct, an exhibition and performance series. Jo
also participated in the exhibition and I had the pleasure of encountering
"Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory". It was one of the most memorable
pieces from the exhibition and I wanted to share a short reflection on the
experience:
As my hands hovered above the plants, I was met with a chorus of chants,
beats and pulsating rhythms. Another woman (who I did not know) stood next
to me and we soon began a collaboration of sorts as we experimented with
the movement of our hands in relation to the plants and sound. There is
power and magic in technology...
Upon receiving the transmission, I felt immersed in and permeated by the
sound. The sound was intense but I continued the playful collaboration with
the stranger beside me. Reflecting back on it now, the experience created a
bodily awareness that is often absent in my everyday encounters.
Thank you Jo for creating such a moving and poignant work. I wonder how
the installation for the Restless Precinct exhibition differed from other
iterations of the piece? How did you feel about presenting the work in a
park?
Thank you and I look forward to the ongoing discussion.
Alana
Works from the Ghillie Suit series can be found here:
http://alanabartol.com/section/333127-Forms-of-Awareness-Ghillie-Suit-A-Series-of-Un-camouflagings.html
Video:
http://alanabartol.com/artwork/3716498-Forms-of-Awareness-Ghillie-Suit-An-Un-camouflaging.html
Information about Restless Precinct can be found here:
http://restlessprecinct.ca
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http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
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http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
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