INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs Mixed media installation 12 ft x 12 ft x 12 ft 2008
This work came from an earlier residency at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2006. I finished cutting the plates and printing the prints that came from that residency, while I was in residence at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2007. This installation was created for the 2008 AIR Exhibition that brought back all the participating artists for a show. I combined a large drawing, archival digital C-prints, woodcut prints, commercial mesh banners and ephemera to create the effect INDU had on me in 2006.
This work has been featured in a National Parks Publication,
Stiltsville Structure with Stiltsville Print and Blackboard
Construction Cranes and Brickell, Benches
Construction Cranes with Benches
Bench with Crane stamp
Stiltsville art
Brickell Cranes art
Sand Hill Crane art
Stilts and Cranes three watercut sculptures in cypress frame elements, benches, slate black board element, Stiltsville structure with roof 2007
This work was commissioned by Schools of Choice/Magnet Schools for an interior courtyard of one of the oldest schools in Miami Dade County Public Schools. Using the original blueprints from the school district and site visits, I designed an outdoor classroom for approximately 30 students that included seating, a blackboard and sculpture elements. At three of four compass points I placed images of things that could be found at the corresponding compass point: To the East, I made a relief print (watercut aluminum/powdercoated) of Stiltsville and Biscayne Bay that was supported in a structure reminiscent of the Stiltsville houses out on the Bay, incorporating a large natural slate chalkboard; To the West, I made a relief print (watercut aluminum/ powdercoated) of a Sand Hill Crane in the Everglades, a resident of the Everglades’ ecosystem; To the South, in a nod to the rampant construction in the early 2000’s, I made an image of the Construction Cranes that were seemingly everywhere in the sky. Seating was provided near each image on three 12 ft x 12 ft square concrete slabs using concrete pillars (stamped with both Sand Hill and Construction Cranes) and native Cypress plank seats.
A landscape plan with native plants and wildlife attracting, flowering shrubs through the generosity of Rick Yasko, Landscape Architect and Visual Artist. Both the landscape plan and my original design were created to supply an ongoing conversation between this classic 1920’s Spanish Courtyard, the vanishing community of Stiltsville, the Everglades with its indigenous species of wildlife, and the rapid changes to the urban Brickell corridor.
In 2007 during the frenzy leading up to Art Basel/Miami Beach, Chris Ingalls of Ingalls & Associates offered me a wall. Delighted, I asked “where”? She pointed at the 60 ft x 16 ft wall on the west side of her gallery space. I was sorting and processing the images that were to become the book, INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs, and welcomed the opportunity to create something that would use the space. As is often the case, my projects take a significant amount of time to complete, and evolve as I work on them. This banner preceded the small installation I created for Oregon College of Art and Craft’s 2008 Artist in Residence Exhibition following my residency there in summer 2007.
The echo of the environment surrounding Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (INDU), was evident in the not quite gentrified atmosphere of Wynwood. During installation I saw the inhabitants of Wynwood without the art loving crowds in place. It was a significantly different place. As different as the urban corridor in Northern Indiana between Gary, Indiana and Michigan City, Michigan was from the National Park located just North of I-94. Different struggles with similar attributes made this odd billboard fit right in.
Mittal Steel, International Port of Indiana at Burns Harbor
“Farewell,” INDU essay 2, Tom Virgin, 2009
INDU: Commensalists and Hand me Downs
artist’s book closed 15” x 12” x 7” / open 46” x 46” x 6” 2010
This book passes along the experience of discovering an urban National Park, exploring it, capturing it in images, and introducing it to others. The book box is made of maple and red oak indigenous to the park, attached with leather hinges. It opens through several layers to a shallow irregularly shaped box that is 46” x 46” x 6” deep. First up is an 850 word essay, then a layer of four woodcut prints (two inside of doors with images of the park exterior). The next layer contains two etchings and a second essay of 950 words. Hidden under photographs of the dunes and surrounding woods is the last layer, a drawing of one of the Park’s closest neighbors.
Papers used in its production are Rives De Lin, Thai Unryu, Kensho Sekishu Natural, and Vellum. The fonts are Kelmscott Roman NF, and IM FELL English PRO. This book includes four relief prints, photographs, two etchings, transfers, inset Lake Michigan stone and cut steel. It was printed with an Epson 4800 Printer, a Brand Etching Press, and a Vandercook 4 Proof Press. This book is an edition of 5 with two artist’s proofs. Text and artwork by the artist.
