An artist with eco-vision

I stumbled across Kim Holleman's work at the Black and White gallery during a lovely walk through Williamsburg on Memorial Day weekend. A few weeks later, I sent her an email and almost immediately I got a phone call from her. And we talked for about an hour. About everything from permaculture to anti-toxic waste mycelium to ecotopic literature, like the book Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach.

One of Kim's pieces, which was parked outside Black and White, is TRAILER PARK, seen above. I quote from her website: "Trailer Park...examines the paradox of inner/outer space by sheltering the completely functional 'real' park from environmental damage by placing the park inside a mobile Coachmen Travel Trailer." I saw it as a playful reimagining of a space that is traditionally seen through a class lens and a suggestion that any space can be converted into a personal-sized oasis. A resizing of the public beauty ideal.

Kim also showed in the back yard of the gallery her FUTURE MOUNTAIN installation, which is entirely made of un-recyclable plastic bags. It's uncannily beautiful. Again, it's a re-contextualizing of cultural ideals. Plastic bags shouldn't be beautiful, and yet they're everywhere and we can't get rid of them. Maybe we should learn to live with them.

This is what I like about Kim's work. Though I do infer a social judgment from some of her work, what I mainly get from it is the idea that we should accept on some level what our landscape is actually made of and adjust our Arcadian ideals to that reality. Perhaps we can have new Arcadian ideals?

Out west

While in New Mexico volunteering for the Obama campaign, I'm going to make my way down to Truth or Consequences to visit Jehanara Wendy Tremayne, who does a lot of cool things like Swap-o-Rama-Rama.

But what I want to see is this off-grid B&B she's creating in T'rC with her boyfriend, Mike Sklar. I think it's a bit off-topic for me, but I figured I'd film something while I was out here.

I also would love to see this place, Arcosanti:















but it's all the way out in Arizona, so that won't be happpening on this trip. Here's a quick description of Arcosanti, though:

In 1970, the Cosanti Foundation began building Arcosanti, an experimental town in the high desert of Arizona, 70 miles north of metropolitan Phoenix. When complete, Arcosanti will house 5000 people, demonstrating ways to improve urban conditions and lessen our destructive impact on the earth. Its large, compact structures and large-scale solar greenhouses will occupy only 25 acres of a 4060 acre land preserve, keeping the natural countryside in close proximity to urban dwellers.

Arcosanti is designed according to the concept of arcology (architecture + ecology), developed by Italian architect Paolo Soleri. In an arcology, the built and the living interact as organs would in a highly evolved being. This means many systems work together, with efficient circulation of people and resources, multi-use buildings, and solar orientation for lighting, heating and cooling.