April 19 to August 30, 2014                               an outdoor, trailside public art installation

The Hudson Highlands Nature Museum Outdoor Discovery Center  100 Muser Dr  off Angola Rd   Cornwall, NY

Curator's Notes  6.24.14                                                     The Artists and the Work

 

Art In The Wild  is a dozen artists' responses to nature, to the CYCLES in nature. The works vary in scale, complexity and interactivity.  What’s unusual about this is that it is outside, in nature. It is not protected.  Each of these responses will change --decay perhaps-- during the time of the exhibit.  At each visit, Art In The Wild is a little bit different from what it was or will be.  It is meant to provoke "nature-thinking" or "organic-thinking", where the boundaries between man and nature are blurred; where things are a bit out of control; where people can be safely curious about the ambiguity found in Nature.

 

The other special feature of this event is its wide range of scale--from a larger-than-life bee or wand to a small stone salamander to hidden deerheads and bird baths.  It invites every visitor into a Hunt, a Discovery, a series of Surprises about nature and art. About 15,000 people in the New York Metropolitan Area are estimated to see the exhibit during its four-month run.

This project is generously inspired by a similar one, now in its second year, at Wildwood Park in Harrisburg, PA .  Daniel Mack is involved in both projects.

Curator's Statements:

Nature is the great leveler. Everybody has primary experience with nature. They feel alive
in nature. To show “art” in such an environment returns the art-making process to where
it began: as the way Humans recognize, respond , respect the awesome forces of nature.
Art “disciplines” and styles are arbitrary and artificial. The artistic response is more subtle and

chaotic that a category can allow.  And every human has an artistic relationship with nature.

 

“An art exhibit, outdoors at a Nature Center, is that magic combination of the man-made object in contact

with the relentless forces of weather, light, rain, animals.  It takes art from the confines of the gallery and

plunges it into the turmoil of everyday life. The exhibit is never the same from visit to visit.”

Our life -- and the life the entire world around us -- is based in Cycles:   We all understand beginnings, middles, ends and starting again… Cycles can be usual and regular, like breathing, the seasons and the days, but even those have surprises, accidents and coincidences that make each cycle a little different.

 

MID-JUNE REPORT
It's been about seven weeks since you all installed your work at the Nature Museum. Here’s a report as the fields, trees, shrubs are growing in and recasting the work in dreamy ways:

 
The Sundial is as accessible and interesting as ever. It still keeps very good time
The Field of Flags has become flickers of white porcelain in a field of knapweed. The plastic anchoring tubes weathered and bent in the elements and the flags are all tipped to the ground.
The Green Preying Mantis is healthy and alert; The Emperor Bee sits with wings broken by the gusty winds across that field
The five Harrow-Disc birdbaths are struggling to keep above the late spring foliage
The 17 papier-mache deer heads are now peering (leering?) out from foliage; their stanchions are pretty well hidden that it’s just the heads. The materials are weathering very well!
The Wands hanging in the birch tree are now really hiding in the birch tree.
That Copper Hawk has oxidized and now lurks in the foliage; the carved salamander is as visible as ever
The Learning Circle has aged; the wetness has come to dominate the installation… more to look at than participate with
The Plaid Path is still a plan,  maybe in July
As the pond edge has changed, The Understory figures have become casualties on the shoreline. As one visitor said with me the other day: “Don’t come out of the Water!”  see photo
Finally, the three Spirals are stable and stately on the berm of the Goose Pond, alerting and inviting people to Art in the Wild.
 
July 13               Activities to JOIN! during the Mid-Event Celebration:

10:30 and 12:30      Dancer Julie Lyon Rose: movement in nature “responses” to the Installations. A professional dancer, choreographer and vocalist, She has a private practice in Accord, NY, offering  homeopathic consultation, body-centered  psychotherapy and play therapy.

 

11:30 and 1:30       Artist Riva Weinstein create and lead spontaneous works around the Pond Trail
    (Linda Byrne’s schedule now prevents her from participating.)

 

Press:      Canvas 4/14    Cornwall Local 4/25

 

Events/Activities/Openings

April 19       2 pm    The Stick Lopping (ribbon-cutting?)    Najim Chechen, Amy Lewis, Tim Gallagher, Cary Baker,     

                                      Charnan Lewis, Riva Weinstein, Linda Byrne and Jean-Marc Superville-Sovak were there.                                       

                                      Julie Medwin and Philip Monteleoni were there in the morning having followed Dan's incorrect

                                      times notices perfectly).

                   3 pm    Riva Weinstein and Linda Byrne led a quiet walking

                                      meditation: Walking In Circles of Art/Life/Nature 

                                      celebrating connections between art, life and nature  

 

April 26       10-3      Hildreth Potts, Najim Chechen, Caroline Schultz, Amy Lewis,

                                      Tim Gallagher, Philip Monteleoni and Friends of Dirt were

                                      there.        Daniel Mack  guided Tours at 9, 11, 1:30.

                             Najim Chechen had a small visitor ride on his Emperor Bee

 

 

The Orange County Artists Open Studio Tour is scheduled around this time and we may keep the work here another week or so...

 

Exhibit Fades Out Monday Aug 25    Start Artwork Removal
Saturday, August 31    Artwork removal deadline