In-Situ
Grass Braiding / Weaving These woven
grass installations are created by
braiding, styling or weaving tall grasses
in-situ, as if the earth had hair. It
delights me to create work that is more
formal in nature, that is created outdoors
with little more than some gloves and
gardening tools. I get a great deal
of satisfaction from the physical labor,
and a clarity that comes from having to
observe closely and respond, moment by
moment, to the very specific conditions of
a site. Woven Grass Village, 2011, Smoke Farm (collaboration with
Adria Garcia)
Created for the Lo-Fi Art and
Performance Festival.
.
For Smoke
Farm, Adria and I were interested in
creating a space that people would
actually inhabit and use. We ended
up with something that was part living
room, part village, and part stage.
This part of the installation was about a
30-foot oval.
Adria and me
at the very beginning of the piece.
Photo: www.zverina.com
Adria in the entryway to the Village.
Five-strand woven 'welcome mat' and giant
french twists in foreground.
This lovely
old maple tree was our shade and resting
spot and served as a backyard to the
Central Plaza of the Village. The
piece around the maple tree is about 40
feet in total length.
The Village
functioned pretty much as we had hoped –
people napped, read poetry, held
impromptu performances and singalongs,
and just hung out there.
Passage,
2011, McCormick
Park, Duvall, WA.
Created as part of The Long Walk, a four
day, 45 mile art event / walk through the
King County Trails system organized by
Susan Robb.
Several
braids, each 75 – 150’ long, led
participants into the fields of tall
grass surrounding the park.Moving
into new territory, be it personal or
physical, was the essence of The Long
Walk experience and I wanted to
use the braid as a way to guide and mirror
the experience of exploration.
The
installation served as impromptu
performance space for fellow Long Walk
artists the Bicycle Choir, who braved
mosquitos and rough ground to lead a
sunset singalong.
The cul-de-sac ending of one
of the braided pathways. Susan and I had
talked a bit about the fact that the
Long Walk would traverse urban,
suburban, rural and finally forest
landscapes - Duvall sits at the suburban
/ rural edge and was the transition zone
into the forest.
Grass Braid
Redux, 2010, West Sammammish
River Trail. This installation for
the City of Redmond wound around an entire
patch of tall grasses along a bike trail.
This is a panorama of the southwest corner
of the installation, by John Reinke.
See the rest of John's photos here.
Detail from the first braided grass piece at
Smoke Farm's 2009 Lo-Fi art & performance
festival.
Detail of Rob's Spiral, part of the piece
along the W. Sam River Trail.
