Creature Discomforts: a geography of symbols
Four artists, we stand on a steep incline. Three great rocks form a dramatic trinity. Although it is already richly inhabited with flora and fauna, we are challenged to express ourselves with minimal disturbance to their survival. From our first steps on the site our instincts to ameliorate discomfort and establish domain make the extent of our challenge manifest. We are battling impulses which were deeply embedded in our social system by Baroque Europe's Reformation ideals and proto-scientific zeal for codification--to name a thing is to know a thing is to own a thing. Now, as we reshape the land, we strive for impermanence with a gentle hand. We send surrogates, symbols that will not be perturbed by mosquitoes or black flies: 4 heads (us), three markers for the human spirit (horse (mind), boar (body), pole lady (spirit)), pyramids (aspiration), bowls (containment), and one chi-chi doggie guide to watch over the site while intermittent sounds and voices keep the other present in our minds. And though we define our artificial geography with sparkling bags of blue water, contained reminders of long forgotten ocean crossings, the changing light beneath the leafy canopy randomly shifts their perceived boundaries, reminding us that time, observed or not, mediates all symbols, all meanings. Christine Unger - Agora 2 / 2005
Creature Discomforts: a geography of symbols
in collaboration with
Bonnie Baxter, multimedia visual artist
Michel Beaudry, sculptor
Michael Oesterle, composer
July 16 - September 5, 2005 www.fondationderouin.com