the paradox of place emerges when artists from elsewhere show in New England by Joyce Audy Zarins excerpted from Art New England “The dialectic between place and change is the creative crossroads. Even when nationalism has dissolved, place persists, in the back of the mind, in the weight of the step.” This thought from Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America by Lucy Lippard refers to outsider artists, but in the case of any artist traveling thousands of miles to New England to work, this relationship between home and the exotic, both from the artist’s and the viewer’s perspective, also exists. The art that happens here in this way has its own particular form of resonance, its energy sparked by the dichotomy between disassociation and recognition. In the summer of 2001 artists journeyed...from Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Nigeria, Hawaii and the American West to work on outdoor, site-specific sculpture installations at the Andres Institute’s International Bridges Symposium in Brookline, NH. The works were installed here, becoming permanently available. In what ways do the migratory nature of this art affect the artists personally and professionally and how does this reflect on our local audience? The emotional experience the shift in work environment has on the artist can be dramatic, both personally and in relation to the work. For the past several summers the Andres Institute, founded by Paul Andres, has invited sculptors from outside New England to participate in their International Bridges symposium under the direction of sculptor John Weidman. The artists are given two- to three-week residencies, including a stipend. The 2001 symposium theme was “We Are Here.” Anita Sulimanovic, had exhibited in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland and France, but her journey from her native Croatia to America was her first. The change of environment for her was startling. “Houses, people, cars, landscape, plants, even the animals and insects which were surrounding me while I was working at my site” — were so different from those of Eastern Europe. Sited on 140 acres of second growth mixed woodland, fields and an old granite quarry, the landscape surrounding the sculpture workshop has the typical raw quality of American forests and hills. Brookline itself, though rapidly growing, has a population of only 4,181 and is zoned primarily agricultural/residential. For the duration of the symposium, Sulimanovic, like all of the International Bridges artists, stayed with an American family. Area businesses made dinners and other benefits available. Once in the workshop, the global artists worked elbow to elbow, language differences aside. Tomas Kus of the Czech Republic did not speak much English, though his expressive skills and body language bridged most gaps. There were two artists from Ukraine, one from Nigeria. Most spoke at least some English. Sulimanovic did not feel significant differences between herself and the other artists, in spite of language or cultural obstacles because “I think we were all preoccupied with similar themes in art and life.” The advantages of the facility, as well as the format and goals of the program have bearing on the outcome. The workshop building with its high ceiling and cement floors has equipment for working in both metal and stone, a track crane and access to landscape and quarry. Local contractors volunteer time and heavy machinery to help with installations. Possible sites for sculpture include wooded and open sites and a small pond, remaining from past quarrying activities. Space and raw materials are readily available. The Institute’s mission is to provide education, training and support for artists and to enhance the integration of art and technology. The primary limiting factor is time—the typical two to three week duration is tight for realizing sculpture from conception through construction. For Sulimanovic, the work executed during the symposium differed from what she would do in her own studio, in part because the process of site specific installation work, which she referred to as “land art” was itself a departure. This is a sculpture park in process, where sculptures are sited in raw copses, on and under boulders or outcrops, or perched among recently cleared fields dotted with tree stumps. Sulimanovic settled on a granite boulder only partly visible above the forest floor, a subterranean berg of rock, and adhered modular tiles in a repeating pattern over part of the surface. Her previous works have been stone, clay or mixed media, sometimes including modular elements similar to the shapes she used in New Hampshire. ... Her transformed boulder, embedded as it is, represents a visual gesture that is now a component of our own landscape. Do these artists reflect their own culture in the works they do here? Society is inextricable from any artists’ vision, a shadow of experience, however symposium participants as transplanted visionaries contribute not in relation to where they are from, but in sharing their process as artist citizens of the world. The Ukrainian Yevgeniy Prokopov’s cast bronze, glass and crystal work executed at his own studio has a figurative, exotic sensibility, religious content, or fluid abstraction relying on patinas and curvilinear form. Here in New England he did something completely different. A look through two catalogs of his work and his promotional materials reveals only one larger-than-man sized steel sculpture painted a solid color, only one that uses industrial metal waste in a reincarnation of form. It was the sculpture he fabricated at the Andres Institute. In Sulimanovic’s case the format of her work here was different, but there was an echo of form. Prokopov chose a completely new direction from what he had been doing. This was partly due to the environment at the Institute, where there is no bronze foundry. Instead he had access to scrap steel and welding equipment. These works are permanently installed and now part of the fabric of New England. Just as the artists experienced the hospitality of the people and environment of Brookline, NH, the host families, construction volunteers and visitors to the sculpture park came away with an enhanced perspective. Viewers watch the artists’ processes, touch the sculptures, and build relationships with them over time. With 140 acres, the Andres sculpture park in Brookline, New Hampshire is the largest in New England. The Institute is open every day, all year to the walking public, dawn to dusk. There is no charge for admission. Contact John Weidman, Sculptor and Director Andres Institute of Art 603 673-8441. Back