Break Time

Hi All,
 I am going to take a small break from posting on this blog. I began an artist residency at Culture At Work in Sydney on May 1st. As a result, I will be documenting the continuation of Sky Comparison on a new site dedicated solely to that project. Hop on over to www.skycomparison.com to stay involved with my work. See you in a few months.
Cheers,
Carrie

Borrowed Time - Lucas Ilhein's Environmental Audit

Lucas Ihlein, an artist based in New South Wales, AUS, posited environmental questions during the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia's 2010 exhibition In the Balance: Art for a Changing World.
Here he is discussing artistic impact as it relates to the function of art exhibitions. He brings up useful points that artists often don't think about 'in the moment' of exhibition set up.

http://www.environmental-audit.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Lucas_Vent_ABC_national_aks_20101031_1050.mp3

Lucas Ihlein's blog for the environmental audit:
http://www.environmental-audit.net/venting/#more-137

Sky Comparison In Perspective - Mapping the Distance

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=209325754143650405326.0004d9e048079dfc6209d&msa=0&ll=39.529467,-119.814148&spn=0.801818,1.315613

Sky Comparison

Friends and family across North America have taken time out of their days to look at the sky. Reflections were emailed and through me, posted on this blog. In a few weeks time, this project will spread in a new way across Australia, primarily New South Wales. This map shows the current reach of Sky Comparison. I look forward to expanding this project and creating dialogue across continents.

Stay tuned for my work while in residence at Culture At Work in Sydney.

Sky Comparison - Charlottesville, Virginia USA

Charlottesville, Virginia USA

  30 March 2013 - 6:51 AM

Early morning, quiet mind, few thoughts, aware of the stillness and coolness outside, surprised by how light the sky is considering how dark it still seems to be outside.

Sky a much lighter and paler blue than the dark panel.

1:00 AM 1 January 2013 - #2 Day 2 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

30 March 2013 - 1:50 PM

Relieved kids just went down for a nap, but frustrated dog just rolled in poop! Thoughts about beautiful sky and first time I noticed clouds today. Grateful for looking up.

Sky a much softer, lighter blue with fluffy white clouds than the dark panel.

4:00 AM 1 January 2013   - #5 Day 2 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - New York, USA

Queens, New York USA

  26 February 2013 - 10:15 AM

In the garden looking up at the sky before adding birdseed to the feeder.

Sky a little more ultramarine than sample panel.

5:00 PM 1 January 2013 - #18 Day 2 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - Burlington, VT

Burlington, Vermont USA

  26 February 2013 - 3:28 PM

It feels lie spring and I am anxious about making decisions for the next few months.

The color panel feels cold like steel, where as the sky is turning blue after a long week of cold and grey.

9:00 AM 2 January 2013 - #10 Day 3 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Today's Agenda - Exploring Art Month Sydney 2013

There are a lot of exciting things going on in Sydney right now.

http://www.artmonthsydney.com.au/

 One of my former VCFA Artist Teachers, Tega Brain, has a group show opening tonight so I have decided to make a day of it and explore the city. Here is a taste of what I will be doing today.

Senden Blackwood Kaiu at Brenda May Gallery

http://www.brendamaygallery.com.au/

Helen Mueller at Brenda May Gallery

http://www.brendamaygallery.com.au/ 

(B)orders Orders (Dis)orders Group Show at DNA Projects

http://www.dnaprojects.com.au/dna/home.html

Alexander James Weathersounds at James Dorahy Project Space

http://www.jamesdorahy.com.au/artists/alexander-james/weathersounds

Jamie North innerouter at Sarah Cottier Gallery

http://www.sarahcottiergallery.com/exhibition/78/Jamie_North/innerouter.htm#e78

Annie Hsiao-Wen Wang Conversations at Syndicate at Danks

http://syndicateatdanks.com/gallery/annie-hsiao-wen-wang

Tega Brain, Brad Miller and Adam Hinshaw le_temps : explorations in phenology at University of Technology Sydney

http://cfsites1.uts.edu.au/dab/dablab/latest.cfm

Todays walking map:

Sky Comparison - Frankfort, Kentucky

Frankfort, Kentucky USA

  20 February 2012 - 4:34 PM

It's So freaking cold, and the wind is whipping!

The color panel is more of a subdued turquoise blue, where as the sky is a brilliant baby blue.

6:00 AM 2 January 2013 - #7 Day 3 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Vancouver, BC Canada

Vancouver, BC Canada

  20 February 2012 - 1:28 PM

Masterful blueness. Blue theory. Just blue.

My actual view of the sky looks half the darkness of the panel and less green.

As if we added a bunch of white and more blue too. My sky has white wispy clouds.

6:00 PM 2 January 2013 - #19 Day 3 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - Lewiston, Maine

  Lewiston, Maine USA

  20 February 2012 - 8:06 AM

I wonder what the sky looks like in India.

The panel is more colorful, more blue and green. The sky is grey with textures of faint blue.

5:00 PM 2 January 2013 - #18 Day 3 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon USA

18 February 2012 - 5:39 PM

I wanted to compare this piece when the sky was at Portland's Cloudy peak, which is gorgeous. Instead I compared it at a boring time of day. I climbed out my bedroom window and my brother and niece caught me and thought it was weird when I made my "I wanted to take a picture of the sky" excuse.

It was misting in the slightest and the bright grey evening sky made the square of deep dark blue look black. It was almost hard to look at. The square brought out the darker shades of grey after my eyes adjusted.

10:00 PM 31 December 2012 - #23 Day 1 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - St. Johnsbury, VT

St. Johnsbury, Vermont USA

18 February 2012 - 1:00 PM

It's usually really cold like this when the sky is blue, but it's not usually this windy.

The sky today is really dark blue, the panel is like a spring late day blue. 

2:00 PM 31 December 2012 - #15 Day 1 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - New Lebanon, NY

New Lebanon, New York, USA

19 February 2012 - 10:20 AM

I can't help but think about the temperature difference between the sky you painted, and the one I am standing underneath; there is a -15 F windchill today

The panel has a greenish-grey tint that is not as clear until it is held up to the crisp deep blues of a New England winter sky.

10:00 AM 2 Janruary 2013 - #11 Day 3 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison: Seattle, Washington

Seattle Washington, USA

19 February 2012 - 9:00 AM

Thinking of blue sky Seattle, so rare this time of year.

Sky so deep, so real; panel reflects, sky absorbs.

11:00 AM 1 Janruary 2013 - #12 Day 2 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - Visual Aid

St. Johnsbury, Vermont USA

Portland, Oregon USA

Upstate South Carolina, USA

Portland, Oregon, USA

Seattle, Washington USA

Sky Comparison: Rutland, VT

Rutland, Vermont USA

15 February 2013 - 1:00 PM 

Upon walking out the door, I was in a rather irritable mood. My father is unable to accept my lack of religious beliefs and tries to get me to come back to the Catholic Church. He may or may not realize it, but he is utilizing guilt-trip tactics. As I compared the sky with your panel, the contrast between to two was noticeable. When looking at the bright blur in the sky, it calmed my irritability and game me a small sense of joy. 

The panel has a flat color blue with a hint of light green. The panel's color gave me a more somber feeling. The actual sky, however, was a bright blue that brought out relief and joy.

6:00 AM 31 December 2012 - #7 Day 1 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison: Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado USA

16 February 2013 - 3:16 PM

The Sky is one place of wonder and expansive awe that is available for everyone on the planet to see (rich/poor, urban/rural, south/north). It is a place that is somewhat under-looked and it is filled with so many things that we don't simple "see." As I did this I was thinking about how there is really a lot of debris flying around in the universe at times and I wonder in actuality how close that debris has come to be dangerous and we didn't even know it. How many close calls have we endured that we don't even know about? This was in partial reference to the meteor hitting Russia yesterday.

My colored square was lighter, more natural, and grayer than the sky above my head which was pure, beautiful, cobalt-like blue with no other colors anywhere to be seen.

8:00 PM 1 January 2013 -  #21 Day 2 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison: Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia USA

11 February 2013 - 10:00 AM

In looking outside today and comparing the sky to the panel, the sky is so gray and it is white. It is foggy and drizzly outside but not too cold. My thoughts are that spring is just around the corner, the redbud and cherry blossom trees are popping out in pink and that I am ready for spring.

8:00 AM 1 January 2013 - #9 Day 2 - South Windsor, New South Wales AUS

Sky Comparison - MFA Exhibition

Vermont College of Fine Arts February 2013 

Exhibition Documentation

As a partial fulfillment of the Master's in Fine Arts Visual Arts program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, I participated in the 2013 Winter Residency Exhibition. If you are new to this blog and would like to find out more about the program, see my post from August 15, 2012 - MFA Update. Since I wrote quite a bit about the program in that post, here I will concentrate on the work.

Sky Comparison

      As most of you know, I moved from the US to Australia about 6 months ago. The move was well thought out and planned. I had decided not to take a break from my MFA studies in order to get acclimated to my new situation. I wanted to push through and continue the program while getting used to new surroundings. My program is made for this type of situation, in fact I was not the only student to move in the middle of a semester. I can think of 5 other people off the top of my head. Prior to moving, I tried to consume as much knowledge about life in Australia as I could find. Despite all the research, the past six months have been mixed with feelings of vulnerability, lacking political and cultural knowledge and of movement backwards. Many of these feelings are parallel to what one feels when learning about environmental issues and the individual's impact on such issues. I know I feel so small when I think about climate change. Often times, my efforts feel useless when I see others not doing anything.

      I found myself retreating to meditative and repetitive activities such as making paint, knitting, sewing, etc. in an effort to get away from these feelings. Once again, I know all too well how hard it is to constantly think about one's environmental impact. It is hard to change a life long habit. The conscious daily efforts to change take their toll psychologically as well as physically on the body. 

     My exhibition stems from all of these ideas. The sky is something we all take for granted as an ever-present, stable entity. The illusion exists that the sky here is the same as the sky there. Often times, it is only directly perceived at times of heightened activity, say at sunset or during a tumultuous storm. Thus making it the ideal subject. As a result, I decided to impose a schematized practice on myself. I painted the sky in Australia once every hour for 3 days. I was concerned with charting the major color changes in the sky. My intention was to bring the resultant 72 paintings to Vermont and comparing the differences and/or similarities. 

Photo of the sky during 72 hours of painting. 

Photo of the sky during 72 hours of painting. 

72 Hours of painting in progress. 

After the panels were finished, I brought them to Vermont to exhibit. I presented a temporal piece, meaning it evolved and changed over the course of the 10 days. The installation began with all of the panels on the left wall. They were magnetic and thus easily movable. I arranged them in the order in which they were painted. The first day is the innermost circle, the second day is the middle circle and the final is the outermost. 

Day 1: Exhibition at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, February 2013.

I began painting these panels at 12:00 AM on December 31, 2012 and commenced on January 2, 2013. In an effort to digest the differences between the Vermont and Australian sky, I devised a plan that I would follow for three days. Beginning at 12:00 AM on Sunday January 27, 2013, I picked a panel that I thought matched the sky at that time. Every hour, I picked a new panel, each time placing said panel outside to hang over a walkway for that hour. The experiment went as follows:

12:00 AM 27 January 2013: Picked a matching panel. Hung it outside.

1:00 AM 27 January 2013: Picked a new panel that matched the sky at this time. Hung it outside. Brought the 12:00 AM panel inside and hung it on the right wall in the corresponding time slot.

2:00 AM 27 January 2013: Picked a new panel that matched the sky at this time. Hung it outside. Brought the 12:00 AM panel inside and hung it on the right wall in the corresponding time slot.

Etc. for 72 hours.

Here I am comparing two panels to the sky outside trying to decide which one matches.

Then I tweeted about what I was thinking as well as what colors I would use to paint the panel if I were creating a new one for that time in Vermont.

Here is a screen shot of a few of the tweets.

Placing the panel outside.

Here it is hanging.

Bringing in the previous hours panel and putting it in a corresponding time slot on the right hand wall. 

Here is a close-up of the book. I added to it every few hours documenting my tweets.

This photo was taken in the middle of Day 1.

This photo was taken near after the last day. 

I chose not to schedule a performance time for this exhibition. I was very keen not to demand the attention of my audience. With that in mind, I was aware that many viewers would only experience this piece once, and thus miss it's evolution entirely. As a result, I decided to keep a written log of my thoughts for each time I looked at the sky. This took two forms. I wrote these thoughts on a handmade book at the foot of the exhibition walls noting the time, date and place of each log. Additionally, I decided to post the notes on Twitter and Facebook for two reasons. One of which being that a lot of things are experienced through mediated forms of technology. Thus someone could have a completely different understanding of the piece having only been able to view it online. I also did not give any explanation of this project nor did I supply photos until after it ended. The purpose was to invoke confusion and allow my audience to explore for themselves what my intentions may have been. Hopefully, in the end, arriving at a personal meditation of the sky in their area. 

Here are some more photos from the exhibition that I found interesting:

In Progress

Here are some photos of the installation of the exhibit. I put four magnets on each panel. On the wall, I installed galvanized steel nails, which are magnetic. The nails were placed in both walls in precisely such that a panel would line up exactly. To do this, I had to draw out a diagram directly on the walls and use a spare panel that had four holes cut out for where the nails needed to go. After I finished, I painted the walls and nails white and began hanging all 72 panels. 

A note to those who want to do something similar. Drill pilot holes! It will make the nailing go so much faster and with less harm to your hand/arm. I had a slow moment and only began doing this halfway through the installation. Oops.

Also, I do not have photos of the back of the panels or the 'template' panel that helped me tremendously when placing the nails. I will get those soon and post them. 

I decided to post about the exhibition process, because a lot of people were interested in it at the show. I think that hanging tactics are guarded and kept secret. This does not interest me. I am incredibly interested in what other artists consider when hanging an exhibition and how they pull off their ideas. If I can help you achieve your optimal exhibiting experience, then I have succeeded in continuing the dispersion of artistic ideas out into the world, which is the ultimate goal. 

If you have any questions or are interested in hearing more about the exhibition, feel free to email me.