Ellie Irons

Drawing at Trade School

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:35:31 +0100

Dan took some lovely pics while we were holding our workshop last night. It was a good experience, and gave me some food for thought in terms of future workshops and exercises.

This looks fascinating:

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:16:40 +0100

(via Dan) Jason Kottke points to a recent study on morphological changes in North American birds. Apparently wing shapes are beginning to change in response to changing habitats, specifically deforestation. I’ve yet to read the original post, which links to the original article, but I’m looking forward (with some trepidation) to following that trail. I would imagine that over the span of my life time we’ll see more and more evidence of this kind of direct connection between human activity and ecological change.

Drawing for Pleasure and Relaxation

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:12:05 +0100

I’m teaching a drawing workshop with Andrea Jenkins next Tuesday night at Trade School. The class has filled up (yay!) but we’re considering looking for other locations to teach it, probably around Bushwick. The workshop centers around the idea that reconnecting the hand, eye, and mind through drawing can start with exercises that relieve tension and build comfort levels. Learning a new skill inevitably involves hard work and degrees of frustration, but the initial steps of learning to draw (getting comfortable with the movement of your hand on paper) and can be soothing and enjoyable. I’ll post some of the exercises and approaches here next week, once we’ve completed the first workshop.

Image: Andrea Jenkins, Chair Tents Plants, watercolor, graphite and carbon transfer on paper 2008

Out of school...

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:17:11 +0100

Sort of! I’ve finished my masters, but continue to go to school, because of all this fun alternative/free school stuff that is going on in NYC of late. I particularly enjoyed some classes at the temporary Trade School (Grand Opening) over the past week. There are still a few weeks remaining to get yourself some education for barter. Dan is teaching on February 12!

(Image ripped from the OurGoods website)

Watershed Closes Tomorrow

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:33:00 +0100

My MFA is almost complete! Tomorrow, January 18th, from 6-8, we have a closing reception in the gallery. Our thesis exhibition was written about favorably by James Wagner of Art Cat in a recent blog post. I like what he had to say about my work, especially his notion that it “addresses our ‘attachment’ to our environment, both the gifted and the corrupted”. Details about the final events of the show here.

Image:

Tributary Study: Calamity Brook/Henderson Lake (detail), 2009
18 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches
graphite on paper

Disparate Landscapes: Charles Burchfield and New Topograhics

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:22:00 +0100

I spent yesterday driving around Los Angeles with Dan, his sister Jen, and her boyfriend Jonathan. We were out to catch the final day of two exhibitions: Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield, at the Hammer, and New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, at LACMA. We weren’t intending to see two landscape-based shows back to back, but I’m glad we did. Although the two exhibitions approach landscape from highly divergent perspectives, I found echoes of my own landscape investigations in each.

The Burchfield show, curated by Robert Gober, is romantic, expressive, and full of color. It includes a recreation of Burchfield’s 1930 exhibition at New York’s MoMA, the first solo show put on by the fledgling museum. It also follows Burchfield through his years working as a wallpaper designer, and his rise as part of American Scene Painting. For me, the most exciting part of the exhibition is the final room. Sparely hung, it is devoted to the large-scale watercolors Burchfield made in the final decades of his life. During these years (the 1950s and 60s) Burchfield broke his ties with American Scene Painting and returned to his youthful search for a romantic, direct connection with nature and his own experiences in it.

The paintings in this room radiate an exalted, ecstatic calm but also suggest a man deeply engaged in the world around him. They are both mundanely detailed and somehow sublime- we see cicada husks, dirt, river rocks, trees, flowers; but also calligraphic arcs of sound and shimmering forms suggesting light and energy. Entering this room I couldn’t help but think of the final segment of the recent Turner exhibition at the Met. Both artists seemed to find a sudden and extreme freedom in their later years, expanding upon a lifetime of painting with new passion and certainty. As Dan and I begin this new year (approaching our thirties and looking forward to a lifetime of creating) evidence of such long-lasting creative output is inspiring indeed.

In a very different vein, the photographers included in New Topographics attempt to approach landscape with an objective, impersonal eye. The LACMA exhibition is actually a “restaging” of the 1975 exhibition held at the International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House. It includes now well-known topographic greats like Bernd and Hilla Becher, Robert Adams and Stephen Shore, who participated in the 1975 exhibition, as well as additions like Robert Smithson and Dan Graham. The curators also commissioned a video installation from the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), whose contribution is the only contemporary work included.

As expected, the work in this exhibition takes a cool, analytic approach to landscape. Despite the emphasis on objectivity (and perhaps due to the lingering influence of Burchfield, which we saw first) I felt the sublime creep into this exhibition as well. In the work of Adams especially, I found an almost clinical sublime. He isolates and analyzes the landscapes he documents, but the images still retain a sense of the wild and the raw. In the case of CLUI, I see a combination of Burchfield and Adams. This sounds a bit illogical, but experiencing CLUI’s massive double video projection, drifting slowly over bleak scenes of oil fields in California and Texas, I felt a distinct sense of subjective passion infusing this objective “interpretation” of 21st Century Landscape.

update: another blog post/review of the show here.

Images:

Charles E. Burchfield, September Wind and Rain, 1949

Bernd and Hilla Becher, Loomis Coal Breaker/Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, 1974

Upcoming...

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:11:50 +0100

The results of my stick/branch/twig gathering habits of the past year or so are going to be on view soon as part of my thesis exhibition. Dan and I are also at work on a web component for the show, which will live here eventually.

Autumn Colors

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:05:07 +0100

We took an amazing trip to upstate New York this past week. Most of the trip was concentrated near the heart of the Adirondack Park in the Huntington Wildlife Forest, but we also stopped through Albany on our rainy trip home, where I gathered a spectacular mix of sugar maple, norway maple, red oak and liquid amber leaves. More about the trip to come!

Precipitation

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:55:59 +0200

It’s raining today in NYC. I’m sitting on the couch in the soft light of late afternoon, listening to the drizzle. I’ve been thinking a lot about water since I came back to this city about a month ago. Canals, storm drains, decommissioned water towers- infrastructure for controlling water surrounds us in urban environments. And here in New York, we also sit at the apex of many rivers- the Hudson being the most remarkable and well-known of them. A few weeks ago, I googled “Hudson River Watershed” and came up with this image:

I love how the watershed (the area of land drained by the Hudson and its tributaries) has little regard for city limits or state lines. It’s an ancient and ever-changing structure that as humans we participate in, but do not control. This image grabbed me in such a way that I started researching the watershed. I quickly stumbled into a complex web of issues (political, environmental, aesthetic, historical) that are tied to the Hudson, and I was hooked. I’m working on my masters thesis right now, and everything I’ve made so far (drawings, sculptures, sketches) relates to the concept of the watershed and our relationship to it as New Yorkers and city dwellers.

Below: me looking down on the Hudson and the town of Cold Spring. Much more “research” of this kind to follow! (thanks Dan)

Flyway is launched!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0200

Dan helped me document my Schiermonnikoog Project. He did a wonderful job:

www.ellieirons.com/flyway

Gathering & Building...

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:48:00 +0200

This month has been extremely satisfying. I often spend early mornings out in the dewy forests and meadows of this island, gathering project materials (mostly dead sticks & branches). It’s very quiet, contemplative work, except for the moments when I startle a wild creature, or one startles me (generally a large Dutch hare or a panicked pheasant- they come bursting out of the brush as I move along).

When I have what I need for the day, plus maybe a cup of blackberries for breakfast, I bundle the sticks together and cycle back to camp.

There, in the afternoon, I build…also quiet, contemplative work, punctuated by the occasional difficulty (the sudden snap of a branch that breaks in my face with a loud crack), or the arrival of a curious visitor or a noisy tractor (see below!). All in all, things are very peaceful in my make-shift outdoor studio. At this point, I have just one week to go- by next Saturday everything will complete, and I’ll have to head back to NYC and get my city life on again. Sigh!

A small death.

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:53:14 +0200

There are swallows everywhere on this island. They swoop and flit from the early morning to past sunset (10:00 pm, currently). There are very few cars on the island but this little fellow managed to collide with one of them, just as I was passing on my bicycle. A friend picked him up and handed him to me. I’ve never held a wild creature so recently deceased. The tiny body was amazingly soft, warm and light; the fragile neck was utterly limp, and I felt I had to support the head with my fingertips to keep it in one piece. Sad, but also terribly beautiful.

Oh languishing blog!

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 20:04:33 +0200

I haven’t forgotten you! I just finished a really amazing week teaching acrylic painting and stick sculpture to an inspired bunch of 10-17 year olds at summer camp. Plus, I got to sleep in a tent under the pines, and saw the best milky way I’ve seen in years. Here’s a shot of some of the paintings the kids came up with…I was trying to teach them about abstraction & alternative painting techniques, and for the most part, they did pretty well with it!

Plus, some images from my little corner of the arts classroom:

The longest day of the year...

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:00:00 +0200

Summer is really here now- today
(in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway) is the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year! I’ll be spending this day of extended sunshine in a land of overwhelming verdure and humidity (I’m visiting a friend in eastern Tennessee, the land of kudzu). I hope to have some decent kudzu photographs later on, but for now, here is my solstice image: the sun overhead, breaking through forest branches to illuminate one of my mass sculptures.

Sebastião Salgado's Genesis Project

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:06:00 +0200

I couldn’t help but feel quite skeptical when I first heard about photo-journalist Sebastião Salgado’s current project. This article, recently published in the New York Times, has piqued my interest a bit. Known for sociopolitically themed photography that chronicles the plight of the world’s poor and impoverished populations (and often criticized for romanticizing that plight), Salgado has now moved on to landscape.

The 67 year old photographer is midway through an epic 8 year quest to document the most pristine and “natural” landscapes the world has left to offer. The project, dramatically titled “Genesis”, is touted as an exploration of the effects of modern industrial development on the environment. But rather than go the well-known route of Edward Burtynksy and others, Salgado has chosen to document those places he believes have somehow “escaped or recovered from” such effects- this allows him to seek out nature in its most “natural” form. In the four years the project has been underway, he has visited more than 20 locations across 5 continents, including the Galapagos, the remote mountains of Ethiopia, and soon the far reaches of Alaska.

As the Times article describes, “Genesis” is a “grand, romantic back-to-nature project, combining elements of both the literary pastoral and the sublime.” It sounds as though the resulting photographs fall into a lineage carved out by Ansel Adams rather than Robert Capa or Cartier-Bresson. Adams to was an environmentalist at heart, and used his work to promoted his cause, but his dedication to beauty has lead to the cherishing of his work as poster and calendar art. Salgado’s work has always had a haunting beauty, but that beauty is held in check by his frequent portrayal of human suffering. In stepping away from portraying the negative influences of industrialization, Salgado still retains an ambitious attitude and devotion to his cause:

I’m 100 percent sure that alone my photographs would not do anything. But as part of a larger movement, I hope to make a difference. It isn’t true that the planet is lost. We must work hard to preserve it.

Maybe this spirit can push the resulting photographs beyond the romantic or picturesque to a place where they can speak eloquently and effectively about the losses we face if we carry on at our current pace of industrialization.

Salgado’s final goal for “Genesis” is to create 32 visual essays, which would be displayed in major public parks and museums starting in 2012. Here, now is an aspect that particularly intrigues me: It’s my dream to show the work in Central Park, not in some building but outside among the trees. So then would this display be totally public? And what would the effect be? Yes, now my curiosity is piqued, and I’ll be waiting to hear more as 2012 approaches.

Thorn Forest by the Black Sea

Fri, 22 May 2009 19:22:38 +0200

Following is one of the stranger highlights from our Romania trip. At the end of the Sulina arm of the Danube River Delta, where it meets the Black Sea, we came across a spectacularly forlorn forest of scrubby thorn trees and river-worn garbage:

While the initial impression of the place was one of desolation and waste, this marginal-looking environment was actually humming with life. The trees were festooned with scraps of plastic and tangled cloth and thread, and the ground was littered with mangled plastic bottles, but we saw more wildlife here in a few hours than in much of the rest of the trip. We startled feral wild horses with young colts, and snakes, lizards, turtles and frogs slipped away from us as we walked . We watched a muskrat swimming in the river, an ermine peered at us from the brush, and we heard the incessant buzz of birds and insects. Raptors and crows were dueling in the air overhead, and bee eaters and wagtails were plentiful. The images below were taken by Dan:

The Delta, and a new exhibition

Sat, 16 May 2009 09:37:00 +0200

We are just back from a really special vacation/research trip to the Danube Delta in Romania. More pictures and thoughts from the trip to come! In the meantime, I’m immersed in installing my show here at DeFKa in Assen, the Netherlands. It opens tomorrow! Here is a bit of a preview, of the installation process:

Elspeth Diederix

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:29:00 +0200

I’m currently a little bit transfixed by the photography of Kenyan born Dutch artist Elspeth Diederix. A friend at Frank Mohr jotted her name down on a piece of scrap paper for me, telling me that her images were curious, a little strange, that I might like them. And indeed I do. She seems to be documenting through photography some of the phenomena I’m attempting to capture by building objects. She has a show up this month at Museum Jan Cunen, in the south of the Netherlands. I wish I could see it, but it’s a long journey (for Holland, anyway) and I’m short on time as my visit here winds down. Below are a few of my favorite images, ripped from her site. They display a mix of ecological detail and ever-present human influence blended with suggestions of the supernatural. This combination intrigues me.

below are: verdwaalde lente, buttercups, azalea, agrifolio, holly

herman de vries

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:18:00 +0200

My work has been changing since I’ve been here in the Netherlands, and as a result, my professors and friends have been mentioning artists that are new to me. One recent discovery is Dutch artist herman de vries (b. 1931), pictured here with his piece from earth (2007, earth rubbings on paper).

I recently had the chance to see this piece and others at the Kroller Mueller Museum (an amazing place, located in the Hoge Veluwe National Park- more pics on my flickr)

I feel particularly lucky to have stumbled across de vries’ work in the context of the Kroller Mueller. The exhibition, titled “unity”, is a tight little retrospective that groups de vries’ work thematically. It is spread over four rooms, and each room takes a theme: “Researcher and artist”, “Accident and Perspective”, “Travel and nature”, and “Western and Eastern Philosophy”. De vries’ has a strong streak of the romantic, but it is a tempered one (perhaps hermetic-romantic-conceptualist could descibe him?). Viewing his work in the midst of this strangely utopic museum, situated within a huge sculpture garden in the center of a sprawling national park, felt just right. De vries has, to me, a startling ability to isolate seemingly mundane bits of nature and invest them with visual potency- the work can be lyrical and beautiful, but it is also rigorous and carefully executed. While often cryptic, it feels purposeful. Perhaps this rigor comes from the artist’s former life as a botanist, a career he carries on to some degree in his art, much of which involves preserving and presenting botanical specimens. Below are:

petasites hybridus, 22.05.02
64 x daucus carota, 2001 (detail)
148 x salix elaeagnos, 1993

(ripped from woolgathersome)

From the exhibiton catalogue by Daniel van der Poel:

“Although de vries derives his methods from science, he is averse to its conventions. A great deal of knowledge is lost, he believes, because of science’s strict, selective way of working. For this reason he focuses on collecting and preserving knowledge (particularly in the area of plants) that is at risk of being lost.”

It seems that in all disciplines and walks of life there is a place for those who seek to record and remember knowledge that is being rapidly lost in our ever-changing world. Art can be one compelling way to pass that knowledge along.

Masses from the Beach

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:08:00 +0200

The island of Schiermonnikoog is mostly national park, surrounded by mudflats sloping slowly into the North Sea. Buried in the soft sand along the beach, there are masses of organic material (seaweed, fish bones, shells) bound together with the plastic fibers from fishing nets and ropes. These lumps/knots roll around in the sea, gathering bits and pieces, until they wash up on the shore, where I discover them and haul them home to the studio. They can be quite beautiful: