Clean Sweep

Judith writes: 

WEAD, (Women Eco Artists Dialog) and Yolo ARTS set my Clean Sweep into motion. For an artist, the greatest reward is to have an idea, then have the opportunity to realize it. On March 10, I was rewarded in spades brooms at the Barn Gallery, located at the Gibson House and Property in Woodland, CA .

In Women Eco Artists Dialog: The Legacy of Jo Hanson, I join forces with my WEAD colleagues continuing the work that Jo Hanson inspired. Exhibition Guide.

For years, Jo has been an abiding inspiration for my “planetary housekeeping” efforts. The iconic image of her "clean sweep" of the sidewalk in front of her San Francisco home prompted my Clean Sweep an arrangement of brooms and a colorful mess of polypropylene, nylon, braided and twisted fishing ropes collected from Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. 

Jo Hanson was buried March 17, 2007 at the Mary Magdelena Catholic Cemetery in Bolinas (formerly Briones Graveyard established in 1853). Old tombstones dating back to the late 1800’s grace the bucolic churchyard. In the Druid section of the historic cemetery, under the enormous stretch of a vast eucalyptus tree, in a plot she had selected, she was laid to rest.

It was a scene right out of “Crab Orchard Cemetery,” the unprecedented installation she first exhibited in 1974 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Jo Hanson was a mother, an art mother and an earth mother. In her life she showed the way to a sustainable art practice, to a definition of eco-art.

Her daily sweep of the block outside her San Francisco home and her catalog of findings is an extraordinary accumulation of trash as art and social documentary.  In 1990 at the SF City Dump (now Recology) she established an artist-in-residency program that continues today. In 1996 with Susan Liebowitz Steinmen she was a co-founder and co-producer of WEAD that lives on as an online resource and offers exhibition opportunites.

Jo has had a simple yet profound influence on my life and my thoughts about death.

In life her daily sidewalk sweep as an example of — do something everyday — in the small accumulation of actions, one can make a difference — do it right where you are — you don’t have to boil the ocean or to go to the ends of the earth: the sidewalk, the gutter, anyplace can be a site of attention.

In her death, she showed the way to a new kind of burial: direct, in the earth. So eloquent, so effortless.

Her small body wrapped in a cotton shroud laid on a plain board. There was no casket, no elaborations. After family, friends, and fans spoke about her exemplary life and her message of love, she was gently lowered into the dirt grave. Everyone helped with the burial, adding handfuls and shovelfuls of dirt.

Jo Hanson — an exemplar in her death as she was in life. Thank you, Jo!

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UPDATE APRIL 14, 2020

The exhibition is temporarily closed and hopes to reopen as soon as COVID restrictions are lifted. The exhibit is extended until August 22. The reception and the workshops will be rescheduled.

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UPDATE MAY 13, 2020

It was an incredible honor to be asked to present a Knowledge@Noon for Yolo Arts in conjunction with the WEAD exhibit The Legacy of Jo Hanson. Preparing for the talk took me on an incredible journey: retrieving photographs of her funeral from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, visiting the Briones Graveyard in Bolinas where Jo is buried, reconnecting with Deborah Munk, director of the Recology Artist in Residence Program and getting permission from Jamil Hellu to use his photographs of Jo’s notebooks and from David Rozelle at SFMOMA to use the photograph There are Many Manshions.

PLUS, PLUS, PLUS, it gave me the opportunity to express my appreciation for Jo’s abiding influence.

Castaways: Art from the Material World

Judith writes:

Castaways: Art from the Material World  at the Bateman Foundation Centre in Victoria BC, in the historic Steamship Terminal, March 6- June 5, will cast into the forefront, issues about the fashion industry and its environmental impact on oceans and climate change. The Centre houses the definitive collection of Bateman's works, and has a dynamic program of public events to encourage dialogue about humanity's relationship to the natural world. Bateman uses the sale of his artwork and limited edition prints to fund many naturalist and conservation causes. 

Many thanks to Vivienne Challendes for having the big vision of the concept and for curating this exhibit that features twenty women textile artists from Canada and the Americas. Many thanks to the staff and team at the Bateman who provided the gallery space and helped to facilitate the many details such a complex endeavor entails.  

It was such an honor to be invited to participate in this timely exhibition — a grand way to celebrate International Women's Day. For my Google photo album.

“Vale of Tears" is composed of hundreds of "castaways" of translucent and transparent plastic wrappers: shimmering pieces of plastic that catch the eye when tangled in the drift of seaweed are hung in the windows overlooking Victoria Harbor. The diaphanous scrim is the backdrop for my wedding dress "Forever" that is made entirely from recycled materials: white shopping bags for the dress, translucent dry cleaner bags for the shawl, pieces of white beach plastic on the trim of the skirt, tiny swirls of pink plastic bags for roses on the tiara and bouquet.​​ Mounted on a 6' pole it stands as a towering presence with my shawl spread as wings. Where the edge of the skirt circles on the floor, the 12’ diameter area has the look of seafoam that was washed ashore. My ensemble expresses the "forever" of my enduring love for my husband and the unfortunate "forever" of plastic.​

"No Room for Sand" is the title of the print of hundreds of nurdles magnified hundreds of times. Nurdles are pre-production plastic pellets. They are almost impossible to see until one learns how to differentiate them from a grain of sand or a fish egg. Once they are known, one sees numbers of them scattered across the sand. Nurdles are the raw plastic material that is shipped to manufacturers of bottles, car parts, toys, almost anything made of plastic.​​ Nurdles replace the diamonds in these two gold wedding rings along with a scatter of nurdles presented like rare jewels. Lest we forget: Like diamonds, plastic is forever.​​

To celebrate the frenzy and grace of the last planetary dance Mylar balloons are scattered across the floor. Although faded and torn, the inscriptions of “congratulations” and “good wishes” are still discernible announcing “it’s party time!!!” Balloons may seem fun as they billow across the sky but when they wash ashore, they are not fun to wildlife. Hey, balloons,“the party’s really over.”​​

It was my good luck that I found my person (champion husband Richard), my place (Kehoe Beach) and this rare jewel of a planet (Earth).  

My bouquet of red and pink plastic roses is tossed to you; to everyone; with the wish that you/they find true love that includes a person, a place and this plane​​t. 

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UPDATE APRIL 6, 2020

As the COVID-19 bad news has unfolded with social distancing, avoiding large groups and travel restrictions put into place, I was not surprised that, in the interest of public safety, the Bateman Centre, Victoria, BC closed. Needless to say, it was a big disappointment that just days after Castaways:Art from the Material World  opened, it had to close. But thanks to the team at the Bateman, there is now a 3-D virtual tour. https://batemanfoundation.org/exhibits/castaways-art-from-the-material-world/

Although the 3-D virtual can never replace the value of an in-person encounter with a work of art, it offers an exciting way to enlarge the reach and influence of the exhibition and a way that Castaways can live on, long past its scheduled time in the gallery space.

At first it is a bit tricky to navigate but once you get the hang of it you will be able to walk through and find my "Forever” wedding dress installation that is in the back on the right side.

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UPDATE August 22, 2020