Art Lies, Volume 46, Spring 2005 Page: 95
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: ArtLies and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
AUSTIN VIEW
Terrestrial Arcs
Plan B Gallery
Laura A. Lindenberger
Though it begins with a seemingly solid frame-
worl<, Terrestrial Arcs misses an opportunity to
examine how four individual artists marl< and
define landscape, especially since their marks
question existing land-arts discourse in novel
ways. Elizabeth Hunt, Ryan Thompson, Gabriel
Romero and Ledia Carroll are all alumni of the
Land Arts of the American West, a semester long
program cosponsored by The University of New
Mexico and The University of Texas at Austin.
Spearheaded by Bill Gilbert, Professor of Art at
The University of New Mexico, and Chris Taylor,
Assistant Professor of Design at The University
of Texas at Austin, this interdisciplinary program
is essentially an immersive road trip with stops
at sites like Roden Crater, Sun Tunnels, Lightning
Field and Spiral Jetty. Students then make art in
response to this experience.
Taylor and Gilbert, also the show's curators,
do include noteworthy work. However, the pre-
sentation establishes little or no connection with
previously defined land art, despite purporting to
address enduring issues of site/nonsite, reality/per-
ception, interior/exterior and object/experience.
While the artists in Terrestrial Arcs forge new
ground by juxtaposing artificial objects with the
natural landscape, the presentation as a whole
fails to make this connection explicit.
The site, Plan B Gallery, is a tucked-away gem
in the midst of Austin's independent art spaces.
Behind owner J.D. DiFabbio's home is a large yard
and building with a gallery, office, balcony and
exterior wall perfect for video projections. Inside
the house, Elizabeth Hunt's Some See Fluorescent
Fish As Neon Signs of Trouble (2005) fills one
room. White, battery-operated creatures made
from discarded objects shake and jostle in a sand-
box, drawing intricate trails as they jitter back and
forth. Hunt's playful objects are fun and vaguely
menacing--eerily colorless yet anthropomorphic
machines that blindly run into one another. As
sculptures, they seem to have jumped off their
pedestals and come alive--that is, until their
batteries die, leaving them once again inanimate.
Through the piece's performative nature, Hunt
negotiates a distinction between the mechanical
and the organic, technology and nature, animal life
and human detritus.
Drawing more directly informs Ryan Thompson's
Trails (2002)-photographs that collapse contrailsinto stick scratchings in red dirt. His drawings
mimic contrails in both shape and apparent dimen-
sion, combining the enormous expanse of blue skyt:,
.1
r '% I
..
i,. r
L'
i.
' I/ C 45 ~7~ :
c ,~
,n
'"" t;'
.- r, ;-.''=F -i
"' ~t.
- ~~~
F' . ,
.c. r ,r ~ . . 7 -'
i. -r
e
~i :i -
~c ,. ,~.- c -- -
-:, 6"
, r - ~ / ST C i - --C
" ~h ,
r .fY 94
.. ,
Y'i'
,
~
I~c ~i-~ TI ~
'
;I- i .- ., r
Pc ~~-c - c
-6 ~52 - - I: --
rr
i- O
~
--S -- ~-~ *
% t a-; ~~ ,g
' r. R- r.
n~ - p- , ~ ,
-~ :. c _..~~7_ ~t:
r. .
;Z
~ C i.
~~5 k;:41
~h'~~L ~p~ .nC
-- - ~
irz'~.Yi t~v~,~.i~ i" ~C e;
Ryan Thompson, Tiails, 2002
Photogvaphs, 5 x 9 inches
Image courtesy the avtist and Bolm StudiosGabriel Romero, L'il Bunny Krunk, 2004
Digital video projection
Dimensions variable
Image courtesy the artist and Bolm Studios
with a small space on the ground. In document-
ing these different processes of marl<k making,
Thompson acknowledges the distance between the
realms of air and earth, as well as their potential
as a continuous surface when paired.
Screened during the show's opening, Gabriel
Romero's L'il Bunny Krunk (2004) functions as
the documentation of an art action rather than a
project set in the landscape. As L'il Bunny Krunk,
Romero dons a garish pink bunny suit and hops
into various spaces. Like Hunt, Romero mocksLedia Carroll, 6 Lenses, 2005
Site-specific installation
conventions of the art world, allowing humor to
act as critic in a community that often forgets to
laugh at itself. He remakes the social environment
of specific sites, using absurdity to challenge exis-
ing relationships between individuals and places,
yet he does little to address any physicality other
than his own.
Finally, for 6 Lenses (2005), Ledia Carroll
projected light from Plan B's second-floor balcony
and traced it on the ground. The term "lenses"
acts in two distinct ways here: it is an optical term
referencing Carroll's process and a landscaping
term that refers to berms-mounds built to slow
runoff and raise the water table in dry regions.
Carroll built up each lens with gravel, filling in
the path of projected light with actual matter.
Carving into and out of the earth, she combines
precise measurements, a thoughtful concept and
the acceptance of ephemerality while marking dif-
ferences in perception based on location: the work
changes shape as the viewer moves.
Attaching a conceptual framework to a group
show is rarely a smooth process. With the excep-
tion of Carroll, there is little to connect these
artists other than their participation in the Land
Arts program itself. This does a disservice to each
project, which in varying degrees revises land arts'
potential via artificial constructs. Robots, batteries,
contrails, bunny suits and berms all seem-perhaps
deceptively so-to be removed from nature. Each
artist's concern with temporality, marl<k making
and documentation is undermined by the show's
somewhat scattered presentation and skimpy wall
texts. In the end-perhaps unfairly-Terrestrial
Arcs comes across as a group's collective reminis-
cence of a really great road trip.
ARTL!ES Spring 2005 95
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Bryant, John & Gupta, Anjali. Art Lies, Volume 46, Spring 2005, periodical, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228011/m1/97/: accessed April 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .