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]
