Once Was: Lama Mountain, Taos, NM

Once Was is a land art project, a sequence of events that is in continuum.  It begins with movements within a place, a place of art action and invitation, and the visual goal is the placement of a simple environmental installation made with a white "farmer's wife" dress from the mid 20th century.  The series began (Site-Seer: Transformation) in 2004 with the placement of these installations at various places along the east coast derived from storytelling by my mom and her sister ... 

Thanks to the generosity of the directors of Herekeke (an incredible artists' retreat on Lama Mountain NM), Liliana and Peggy, for inviting me and allowing me to transform while investigating the beauty and magic of Lama Mountain.  Lama Mountain is in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, at the southern base of the Rockies.

Sacred Mountain, Taos Pueblo

Pueblo Horses

Lama Mountain is just north of the Taos Pueblo, outside of Taos NM.

The work begins with the best and hardest part ... finding the site for the installation.

This is where the searching, hiking, scrambling, and at times danger begins ... 

It is good to have good friends ...

Relic and ritual are part of the process, content and context ... 

The sites are usually on borders - in the Taos mountains land and water rites are one in the same, fiercely guarded and shared.

This place centered around an old cistern, no longer in use, but the relics of the community defined its purpose and importance ... 

This was where the site was meant to be ... and so the dress was installed ... 

Brad Birchett, Once Was:  Lama Mountain New Mexico, 2011

[period objects installed within specific places - ongoing]

Earth and Time Video

One month after the installation, snow is gone, but in Tulsa the wind is ever-present ....

Earth and Time

Earth and Time -- intermedia exhibition by Brad Birchett, Myers Gallery, Living Arts of Tulsa, Tulsa OK -- February 2011

Opening Reception Feburary 11, 5-9pm -- Brady Street Art District

Brad Birchett, Once Was:  Stove Pipe Hill, Tulsa OK, 2011
[Land art project for Earth and Time exhibition]

"It is significant that the existence of the work of art with reference to its aura is never entirely separated from its ritual function."

Walter Benjamin 

                                                     


The process and the work become the same ... in the end we are left with the physical heap, or the outcome of the art making process.

--  Thanks to Steve Liggett at Living Arts for a wonderful experience in art and SURVIVAL (Largest Blizzard/Snowfall in History of Tulsa!) -- We hiked through drifts and mounds of snow to make art happen & the whole experience was incredible! -- for MORE INFO click here:   http://www.livingarts.org/myers.htm 

See also the article in Urban Tulsa Weekly ...

New Works

Interval 01, intermedia - mixed media, 2009-

(click on image for enlargement)

Here I use a rhythm of layerings - photo images from previous projects, mixed media on wallboard, paint, paper, oil, tape, vinyl lettering, etc ... the pieces are removed from the wall and mounted on panels ...

(This installation is presently in the Studio Montclair Departures exhibition)

Interval 03, intermedia - mixed media, 2009

Interval 02 - (01 detail) ....

Interval 04 - (03 detail) ...

Inteval 05, intemedia - mixed media, 2009

Ritual Function - Installation View

This is a collection of stones from various rivers and waters in Rappahannock County, Virginia. The stones are eventually returned to their original sources ... and the collection is done again, repeating the physical and ritual movement. The piece was recentlyin an exhibition titled The Object at Univeristy of Mary Washington, Ridderhof Gallery, curator: Laura Tenakjian ... (click on the selection below to hear the accompanying sound art piece from the installation)

Ritual Function: Time & Space from Brad Birchett on Vimeo.

Ritual Function: Time and Space / Earth and Time, video of installation with sound art piece (in homage to Robert Smithson's video The Spiral Jetty, taken from a helecopter with commentary).

Entropy, found objects

Everyday Existence, docu-photography of 1 year event

Alley Sites, docu-photography of an art-walk mapping alleyways

Formation, found objects and bailing wire from - Italy, 1945 - a series of environmental installations, interventions, and documentation.

Urban Renewal I, formal-narrative paintings in multiples, one of a two part grid-series

Urban Renewal, detail

Urban Renewal, detail

Urban Renewal, detail

Sound Art

Once Was (originally "Event: Earth and Time") from Brad Birchett on Vimeo.
This piece is presently installed at Morehead State University, Claypool-Young Gallery in an exhibition titled No New Tale To Tell ...
Once Was is a clip from a sound art piece that was originially documentation for an interventive installation placed at various sites along the east coast ... The series continues to change over time ...

2009 Painting

Click on image for larger view ....

Brad T. Birchett, Tableu Circle, mixed media on canvas, 48x45", 2009

Brad T. Birchett, Dolmen Libra, mixed media on canvas, 48x41", 2009

Brad T. Birchett, Urban Renewal, mixed media on mounted rag papers, 31x35", 2009 -- multiple

For more artwork see my full blog site at: http://www.bradbirchettart.blogspot.com/

Gehäuse Untergeschoss (part II)

Gehäuse Untergeschoss

March 7 - March 29

2009

What an incredible experience I had in Dusseldorf. The privaledge was to exhibit with these 4 incredible Künstlers (artists) ... Thanks to Kai, Pirko, Thomas, and Evangelos ...

The opening for the show was great - many collectors and art reps were there, along with family, friends, and many, many, incredible artists like my new freund Lutz Fritsch. See a walk-through of the exhibit below ...

Gehäuse Untergeschoss

Brad Birchett, Site Seer, Entropy, and Existence, 2009

Thomas May, Installation and Docu-Photography, 2009

Evangelos Papadopoulos, Funnel For Your Souls, 2009

Pirko Schroder, Industrial Vent: Light Box, 2009

Kai Richter, Material-Site Installation, 2009

See below for more info on the show, the artists, and the exhibition.