Smell Like You Mean It

Here are some images from Karl Schwiesow's BFA show reception last week:

Karl himself, in piscatorial attire:

He walked up to one of his pieces, attached a small bellows, and began pumping with his foot.

Along the way to inflation, a few adjustments were made.

The crowd watched the emergence of a green silhouette.

Once the green silhouette was raised to its full stature, Karl produced a poem from his slicker, and read it (the title of this blog post is taken from the poem's concluding line).

The poem was returned to its pocket.

The performance's devolution was diligently recorded.

The bellows was used to deflate the inflatable.

Or perhaps the inflatable should simply be called the "deflatable" at this point.

And I'll leave you with a few more images from the show, both populated an abandoned.

SNC Goes to NCECA to Create Proposed Installation

Photo by Karl Schwiesow

On March 23, 2012, nine students and two faculty headed up north to Seattle, WA to the National Council on the Education for the Ceramic Arts. One student in particular, Karl Schwiesow, proposed a clay installation to Seattle's juried exhibition for public display entitled "Weather or Not?' It was based on NCECA's annual theme, this one entitled: "On the Edge."

The installation brought together 'contrasting elements of the industrial cityscape and organic nature' and focused on the environmental impacts and issues of sustainability.

"The relationship between the clay and refuse from which the effigies are constructed and their industrial counterpart, mankind, becomes apparent through the degradation by the erosive weathering processes of nature. Through erosion, the structural framework of the installation is revealed to create subtle tension between mediums. Raw clay bodies show the fragility and vulnerability of species under the pressure of mankind; rigid sub-structures that supported the species also allude to a darker corner of human bi-products' impact. In this way the effigies stand in a gesture of submission to the surrounding metropolis."

An excerpt from Karl's proposal explaining the intricate details of the process

Interview with Karl Schwiesow

Tell us about the installation.

It was a collaborative project, ‘Weather or Not’ was the title of the show. We extrapolated a formula to create these figures that would deteriorate over time. So we put together a proposal and we sent it off and got it accepted . . . and we were like ‘great,' it’s actually going to happen, so let's do it. Basically we came up with a list of endangered species indigenous to the area, we used those as our statement through the weathering and deterioration of these sculptures. The sculptures were unfired clay that we had sourced locally, and the deterioration symbolized the impact of humans on that specific species. On our trip up we sourced many materials locally and assembled them inside the large cityscape. It was a cool contrast and unique to see when they weathered. When we got there and installed, it sat there for the week of the conference. Then we took it down when we left.

Photo by Karl Schwiesow

Elaborate on the locally sourced materials

Well, we searched on these fire roads and we found a spot that was off the road aways; next to this refuse heap of yard waste we found hypodermic needles and stuff in this one corner. Then we had to hike through the blackberry bushes and up this bog, then up a slope and collected buckets of clay and took them back to the truck. Afterwords, we loaded them into burlap bags.

Photo by Karl Schwiesow

Photo by Karl Schwiesow

We also took fallen trees and other kind of elements

When we built these figures, we wrapped them with chicken wire and stuffed them full of trash. We covered them with clay and formed them into these sculptures of endangered species.

Q: What did spectators think of the installation?

Many people were walking by and they were like, “What the hell are you doing?”

Q: What was going on at the conference?

NCECA is a big meeting place for clay nerds. Basically, we had a booth and met people that were walking around and talked to them about our programs. It is an annual nation wide conference, any school can come and represent themselves. Various east coast schools to Kansas to New York to Florida, Michigan, Texas, California were represented. There were several practicing professional artists and professors. It’s pretty cool to meet all of those people outside of the studio, and just be like, ‘oh they're just real people’ and go and tap them on the shoulder.

Photo by Karl Schwiesow

Q: How was the food and weather at the conference?

There was a burrito window that was good. We had great weather setting up. The weather was nice, it was too not hot and the sun was out. If it was raining or windy, everything would’ve fallen apart.

Interview by Chelsea Christoph & Rachael Robertson

Visiting Artists: Bill Gilbert Response

Two weeks ago, the Visiting Artists class went down to the lake to do individual site-specific nature installations as a response to Bill Gilbert's lecture. They were then asked to write up a paragraph to explain their process in making these installations. Though I'm not technically a member of the class, I went along as the interpreter and was kindly allowed to participate. Below are all the responses I have received so far; I will update this post periodically as more are sent in.

Karl Schwiesow:

Karl: "SO...I wasn't sure how inspired I would be first arriving on the site. After screwing around for about half an hour positioning buckets on and old snag I decide to lock in and commit to something cool. Literally, in the shade and cool. I used contrasting elements, stone and wood, but both of the earth. I formed a vertical row of twigs wedged perpendicular to the horizontal cranny that occurred between the boulder and the ground. Though the process of repetition and measurement a walled in space was created...a home, a vessel. The twigs and stone were a unique contrast when removed from their natural state of rest. I had conceived the idea thinking that it might represent a model of a contemporary living space in Tahoe. Really living in nature. Though the piece turned into a unique technical juxtaposition I still felt there were undercurrents of home, place, and, of course, the natural environment being augmented. Construction, The hand of man, and Nature combine."

Lexy Eich

Lexy: "I don't work much with nature in my art, but my music box fit well inside a tiny rock cave. I used to music box to be the voice of the message [the moss] in the bottle. I had never realized how the most simple organic objects could interact so well with the current concept I'm working on."

Hailey Kries

Hailey: "My piece was about a temporarty balanced structure, where at any moment it could change. Pieces of it could fall, all of it could crumble or it could last longer than I ever thought possible. It related to me in a way of life, that I dont know how long something is going to last or what is going to knock me down, I dont know how long its going to take to rebuild something if it falls but its all about the process and journey."

Evan Cook

Evan: "The driftwood found hiding deep within the rocks has been liberated. Amongst the naturally shaped wood lies a naturally shaped piece of Styrofoam. The Styrofoam just like the wood resembles the rough journey of society. Through what remains, we deduce stress, age, hardship and heritage; though the same cannot be said about the Styrofoam. It may appear to be weathered but we cannot tell what its previous shape was. Although there is some scaring and marking on the surface, they don’t tell much about the life it has lived. We do know that this manmade object was shaped naturally; this is commonly the opposite of art. Most art is created by taking natural material and shaping it by manmade force. Here we see art as an emotional concept created by nature."

Heath Pierson:

Heath: "I picked my sight based on a passed experience and memory of another place that I have been. I was thinking of the small cliff dwellings in Utah and how they were hidden from site high up on the sides of cliffs. I built a small hut out of pine needles where would be able to imagine myself living."

Jessica Hayworth

Jessica: "I've been trying to address a problem with over-thinking my work, and so I tried to let this piece happen more by instinct than by thought. Of course, that didn't happen until the last minute. At first I was spending time looking at the materials - I was using a dead branch (not pictured), leaves in various states of decay, the cigar box, and a found piece of glass, trying to compare/contrast them. At the last moment I put the glass shard in the box, shut it, and piled the rocks on top to act as a sort of lock. The viewer would have to essentially destroy the piece to fully interact with it, which I thought was interesting."

Though I'm still waiting on some more responses from the class, here are a few pictures I snagged myself.

Crystal Phan:


Bianca del Cioppo:


Matt Mattson:

Driftwood Lamp

Continuing in the tradition of installing artwork in the stairwells and hallways of the art building, Karl Schwiesow has decked out the lower landing of the back stairwell with a real beauty of an installation. He's calling it, if I'm remembering correctly, "Hunting and Gathering." Here are a few snaps, but by all means check it out in person (don't forget to click on the light):