April 2010 Archives

The Waypoint is pleased to present The Whale, a two-part installation of Person's work The Dying Gaul.

The Dying Gaul will be on view at the Waypoint from May 5th - 9th to coincide with the Marfa Film Festival. This installation is free and open to the public.

For the second part of The Whale, The Dying Gaul will be permanently installed 60 miles southwest of Marfa along the Mexican-American border. Part two of The Whale is scheduled to coincide with Chinati's 2010 open house this October.

The Dying Gaul, vinyl, mixed media, custom electronics, 35' x 10' diameter, 2007

About the work
Pulling from the original title of Mellvile's magnum opus Moby Dick, The Whale will present Person's sculpture Dying Gaul -a life-size, 40 ft inflatable sculpture of a Sperm Whale- in both the context of a town spectacle, and in the vast ocean that is the Chihuahuan desert.


In Person's words:
" The deflating white whale symbolizes a cyclical end to obsession. Much like a beached whale, which dies when it's non-buoyant mass collapses under its own weight, human obsession frequently spirals out of control until its bearer can no longer support its mass. The Dying Gaul is intended to be abandoned in the desert, far from an ocean. Once there, it inflates until full, and then slowly deflates, collapsing inward on itself. Fully deflated, and without witness, the cycle begins anew. The viewer is comforted by the uncertain knowledge, and faith, that the cycle of obsession has once again met its end."

PLAND announced their inaugural residency this month, with an open call for application until May 2010.




The PLAND residency promises an immersive opportunity for spirited, gritty, and very real daily existence.  Situated on a tiny parcel of land near Taos, New Mexico, this residency offers the direct experience of living off-the-grid, and will invite new ways of thinking, making, seeing and collaborating.
 

Please take some time to review the residency  overview and application and consider applying to the program. The application deadline is May 10th and due via email.  

Please circulate this, visit the project site ,  join the PLAND email list, follow their blog, and friend PLAND on Facebook. 


What is PLAND? It's an exciting new site-driven project started by Erin Elder, Nina Elder, and Nancy Zastudil. In their own words:

PLAND, Practice Liberating Art through Necessary Dislocation, is an off-the-grid residency program that supports the development of experimental and research-based projects in the context of the Taos mesa.

PLAND finds its inspiration in a legacy of pioneers, entrepreneurs, homesteaders, artists, and other counterculturalists who - through both radical and mundane activities - reclaim and reframe a land-based notion of the American Dream. While producing open-ended experimental projects that facilitate collaboration and hyper-local engagement, PLAND is a constantly evolving artists outpost in the New Mexican high desert. Through project-based residencies and work parties, artists are encouraged to marry survival-based goals with big ideas and experimental methods. Without expectations about prescribed outcomes, PLAND privileges process over product. Artists can do amazing things when supported and encouraged in new contexts and there is no context like that of the Taos mesa. Part alternative school, part laboratory, part homestead, part art studio, PLAND is an active solution for merging art into life.

 

I am pleased to announce that the Dying Gaul will appear this May at Waypoint: Marfa.
The piece will be displayed from May 5th-May 9th during the Marfa Film Festival.