Thomas, Italy - 1945

In the summer of 2014 I traveled to Italy for the first time.  During this time I followed part of my father's footsteps from his tour during World War II.  Earlier, I researched his regiment's path northward and found that he was part of the movement that liberated the city of Volterra.  He began in Naples and moved north all the way to Milan where in the end he guarded the street where Mussolini hung.

In homage I created copies of a contraband photo of my father taken on the front lines, making the copy slightly larger, a degree from the original.  This image was considered illegal contraband at the time so seeing it as a child was always a source of mystery and intrigue.  When removing the photo (made directly from the negative and edge-torn from a contact sheet) from the old family photo album I found writing on the back, written by my father at a much later date, so as not to forget the event of the photo.  On the back of my copies I forged the same words in my father's then hand writing.  I placed 5 of the 6 copies at various landmarks across northern Italy, in a similar way one places icons on sacred ground in memorium.  I used the sixth photo to show the people I met during the intervention, as I explained my father's experience in Italy from 1943 to 1945.  I also recorded the sounds around me during the search for the various sites.

Photo Documentation of Thomas, Italy - 1945, 2014

Photo Documentation of Thomas, Italy - 1945, 2014

 I documented the photo copies on the tile floor at the door of our little balcony in Volterra.

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Once Was

A mock-up including the craft learned from previous re-placements of stone cairns, collected sounds, and environmental installation and intervention

Brad Birchett, Once Was, (mock-up) found objects, docu-photograph from intervention, and sound art, 2013


Once Was from Brad Birchett on Vimeo.

Brad Birchett, Once Was, 3:56 clip, part of above installation - One Was.   Click on the arrow then scroll back up to the visual image for the full effect of almost being there but not quite.

Once Was - Sight Point, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

(click on images for larger views)

Once Was is a series of environmental interventions consisting of installations in repeating forms, objects - mid-century working class white cotton dresses - left at borders and cultural crossroads spanning North America.  The series continues to grow and at each site the locale informs the context, the diversity of the history and people are congruous with the placement of the pieces.  Each site was once a space where cultures came together, to collaborate, to integrate, and at times to conflict with one another.  

Cape Breton - the northeastern island-point of Nova Scotia, Canada - is a locale that is packed with cultural diversity and history and is unique in that much of the cultural ritual and rites are practiced today - passed down through the last 2 and a half centuries.  The local residents are mainly Acadian consisting of ancestors of the French pioneers from the mid 18th century - the ones left that were not forced out during England's rule and some that returned after that rule ended; and the Scottish, who came in the later part of the 18th century and make up the largest percentage of Nova Scotia peoples.  All along the coasts of this island (Cape Breton) you will see Acadian flags and Gaelic flags.  Sons and daughters stay and work in the area - close to home, and there are no road-side billboards, and I didn't see a single McDonald's the whole time there, though the name MacDonald was so popular I found it many times among the grave stones (even Ronald!). 

It was at Sight Point, just south along the MacKinnon's Brook trail from Inverness that this segment of the environmental art series was installed.  After hiking up and down along the ridge that overlooked the Gulf of Saint Lawrence the trail slowly morphed to nothing as the heavy flowers and underbrush took over.  Just at this point, adjacent the trail, was a flat area with a tall, old stand of fir trees and in this mini-forest was an old stone fence, a relic of Scottish pioneers.  The sun spotted into and through the tall trees and reflected off the stones and off the dry gray and brittle branches and trunks of the old trees creating a good place for the installation - a nice, large, and peaceful grotto.

The Gulf of Saint Lawrence from Finley Point, just north of Inverness, Cape Breton Nova Scotia.

Acadian flag on Chéticamp Island - Across the Bay from the town of Chéticamp - the center of Francophone Acadia in Nova Scotia.

Mabou  Pioneer Cemetery, South of Inverness - "Erected by Ronald MacDonald In Memory of Mary Beaton His Wife & Native of Mabou Who Departed This Life Sept 20th 1841 Aged 19 years"

MacKinnon's Brook Trail South of Inverness, Cape Breton - Flowers and undergrowth siege the trail. 

Sight Point from the MacKinnon's Brook trail - The stand of tall fir, looking southeast.

Sight Point - Girl and dog assist at edge of rock wall.

Sight Point - Art aligns with pioneer wall.

Sight Point Installation - In the midst of the tall fir trees.

Sight Point Installation - At the edge of the pioneer ruins. 

Sight Point Installation - Light coming through the firs creates a coolish aura on a hot, sunny day.

The dress began to replicate the forest. 

Lines and forms in nature are also in cotton, and mid-century embroidery.  

The artwork begins to replicate formal elements.

By living within the locale, even for a week, you begin to learn about their history, their past and their presence.  You become inquisitive in a friendly way, knowing that you are just passing through but sincere about your inquiries you touch on what they feel and felt - the art-making process continues ... 

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]

Urban Renewal II

Urban Renewal - 01/09 - Now the piece or project has grown to about 53 parts - 5x7" paintings inspired by formal elements of nature but also by the ritualistic and rythmic act of walking the grid of alleyways of my neighborhood ... and of course, with my rescue shepherd Luka. See the first Urban Renewal entry below for more info and images of the first pieces. Above is a grid of 24. The piece continues to grow over time ... created from a piece of history - damaged paintings on paper from the Shockoe Bottom Studio Fire of 1997 (wow, 12 years ago!). These pieces were cut from the saved yet un-restorable paintings on paper left from the fire - re-painted with new and current ideas, formal elements, repetitive motion, and with an overall sense of social equality. See below for a few more details ...

(See the Vanderbilt University show for other ritual-egalite-grid pieces)

Ritual Function: Earth and Time

A little video I made in homage to Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty movie - Earth & Time: Stone Cairn.  The audio is the same audio piece that plays from the bottom of the cairn ... Please excuse the pixel-noise.

Thanks to Kelly and Woodberry Forest (see "News")....
And the Orange (VA) County Review ...

Urban Renewal

A grid of small paintings, each 7" x 5", hung together to form a multiple ...

Urban Renewal is a series of painting-pieces on mounted paper hung together to form one art-piece, created from discarded paintings, paintings in a state of decay, paintings saved from a fire ... The work is a continuum of my series entitled Ritual Function, after a theory by Walter Benjamin:

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 Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”

Brad T. Birchett, Urban Renewal, mixed media on mounted paper - grid, 2008

Urban Renewal: A re-accountment of the visual and physical experience of walking, within a grid of formal-expressionist painting parts. Here are a few details ...

This multiple-piece will be hung, in its present state, mirrored to another piece, Action to Object, in the Other exhibition curated by Rob Tarbell at The Piedmont Virginia Community College Gallery in Charlottesville, opening April 25th ... See the review of the OTHER exhibition at PVCC in The Hook, by Laura Parsons ...

Brad Thomas Birchett, Action to Object, installation with bench, stone cairn, and audio, 2006

For more DECAY - RENEWAL - RITUAL - ENTROPIC behavior see the Transformation work that was up at Vanderbilt University last year: HERE ....

Transformation: Testimony of Existence in Time and Space

Site-Seer Installation Video

Site Seer from Brad Birchett on Vimeo.

Site Seer Images - Black and White Silver Prints, 8 x 12

Site 01

Site 02

Site 03