Rhetorical Galleries Presents “Of A Place” at the Shipping Containers at 408 E. Roosevelt St, Phoenix, opening on Third Friday, August 21st with a closing reception scheduled for First Friday, September 4th, 2015. “Of A Place” features the work of three local artists who respond to their place from distinct and varied methods to create unique statements of transplantation, environmental stewardship, and borders. Artists include: Molly Koehn, William Legoullon and Estrella Payton.
Molly Koehn’s installation “Desolation” speaks of invasive plants and their place in the valley. Koehn writes: “In its earliest being, the Earth was a perfect ecosystem. Everything was exactly where it needed to be, and everything functioned in perfect harmony. However, as the human race grew and began to move from a role of caretaker into a role of dominance, the ecosystem began to adjust to how man treated it. Man began to alter the land to fit his needs.
In “Desolation”, I am examining humans’ effect on the Earth, specifically through the introduction of eucalyptus trees to the United States. Eucalyptuses, native to Australia, were brought to California in the late 1800s, and they flourished, growing 40 feet in just three years. They were seen as a wonder tree. Now, eucalyptuses encompass much of California and are even making their way into the valley along freeways and roads and in yards of businesses and homes.”
William Legoullon presents his participatory experience “Pull!”. He writes: “A bright orange bird made of resin and limestone flies across the sky only to be obliterated in an instant by the pull of a trigger. The joy of removing the clay pigeon from its trajectory, stunning its travel mid-flight, and sending countless shards into all directions, is a strange sensation of delightful destruction. But what happens when you miss? The clay continues onward, unaffected by your pellets, only to eventually drop to the ground and be left behind. Endless fragments litter much of the landscapes I explore. By lucky chance, however, some survive the impact and retain their shape and form. Others simply never got aimed at and are left placed on hillside backstops.
I’ve collected these surviving targets to be re-used in a responsible and unique way. To allow the same gratifying yet bizarre experience of wreckage, participants are asked to operate a skeet thrower, hurling their clay pigeons airborne to be broken against gallery walls. The beautiful black and orange remnants will then be collected and re-used in future art making. While the public is not actually taking aim at the discs using a firearm, they are, however, forced to launch their projectile at an illustration of a saguaro cactus framed within a traditional target pattern. This unnerving reminder is an attempt to consider the narrative that leads to this experience and to our connection with landscapes being affected by these potentially harmful yet enjoyable activities.”
Estrella Payton brings us “Lejos del Mar (Far From the Sea)”, an exploration of the shipping container as a representation of power and commodity, access and limitation, mobility and place-centering. The shipping container is far from its intended use, and is likely here because of one-way economic mobility by sea. The U.S. receives goods by this invisible global shipping network, but we do not send much away. I am inspired by the notion that the sea is a place of invisible histories - of economy, discovery, colonization, and border crossing. The indication of these histories is found in people and what is left behind on land.
Molly Koehn’s installation “Desolation” speaks of invasive plants and their place in the valley. Koehn writes: “In its earliest being, the Earth was a perfect ecosystem. Everything was exactly where it needed to be, and everything functioned in perfect harmony. However, as the human race grew and began to move from a role of caretaker into a role of dominance, the ecosystem began to adjust to how man treated it. Man began to alter the land to fit his needs.
In “Desolation”, I am examining humans’ effect on the Earth, specifically through the introduction of eucalyptus trees to the United States. Eucalyptuses, native to Australia, were brought to California in the late 1800s, and they flourished, growing 40 feet in just three years. They were seen as a wonder tree. Now, eucalyptuses encompass much of California and are even making their way into the valley along freeways and roads and in yards of businesses and homes.”
William Legoullon presents his participatory experience “Pull!”. He writes: “A bright orange bird made of resin and limestone flies across the sky only to be obliterated in an instant by the pull of a trigger. The joy of removing the clay pigeon from its trajectory, stunning its travel mid-flight, and sending countless shards into all directions, is a strange sensation of delightful destruction. But what happens when you miss? The clay continues onward, unaffected by your pellets, only to eventually drop to the ground and be left behind. Endless fragments litter much of the landscapes I explore. By lucky chance, however, some survive the impact and retain their shape and form. Others simply never got aimed at and are left placed on hillside backstops.
I’ve collected these surviving targets to be re-used in a responsible and unique way. To allow the same gratifying yet bizarre experience of wreckage, participants are asked to operate a skeet thrower, hurling their clay pigeons airborne to be broken against gallery walls. The beautiful black and orange remnants will then be collected and re-used in future art making. While the public is not actually taking aim at the discs using a firearm, they are, however, forced to launch their projectile at an illustration of a saguaro cactus framed within a traditional target pattern. This unnerving reminder is an attempt to consider the narrative that leads to this experience and to our connection with landscapes being affected by these potentially harmful yet enjoyable activities.”
Estrella Payton brings us “Lejos del Mar (Far From the Sea)”, an exploration of the shipping container as a representation of power and commodity, access and limitation, mobility and place-centering. The shipping container is far from its intended use, and is likely here because of one-way economic mobility by sea. The U.S. receives goods by this invisible global shipping network, but we do not send much away. I am inspired by the notion that the sea is a place of invisible histories - of economy, discovery, colonization, and border crossing. The indication of these histories is found in people and what is left behind on land.