2008 Art Installations

The two dolls are my ideas for additions to the American Girl doll collection. Both dolls and related items are made from recycled materials. Needle Girl is an approximately 16″ tall cloth based doll, decorated with beads and perched on a barstool. I’ve made a six-book set of her stories, which I wrote. A laminated identification sheet similar to those in the American Girl catalogue will be attached to her pedestal. Babe E. Doll is a work in progress. She was the last doll I owned as a child. I’m also making a bicycle to go with her. She will be in a plexi-glass topped plywood pedestal and a laminated identification sheet will also be attached to the pedestal. I plan to add an attached submission box, pad of paper and pen to let BM participants write the 6 stories for Babe E. Doll. After the event I’ll create her six-set book.

“Arson” is a set of three steel firebugs, each 14″ long, 10” wide, and 10” tall. At night, a flame shoots out 4-6 inches from each bug’s eyes. The bug is a steel encasing that houses a small propane BBQ canister in its belly. This propane fuels the fire effect, which lasts an hour or so before needing replacement. The flame from Arson’s eyes can be either a tight pencil flame or a more broad and diffuse flame. The original firebug was designed as a stage prop and fire tool lighting device for Controlled Burn, Reno’s fire performance group that builds the Shiva Vista stage and staffs the Fire Conclave. Two more bugs were built for the Cafι display.

The Blue Room is a beach of sorts with a seating area that views an blue sky clouds and sun. The sun is backlit at night with orange yellow lights, simple and soothing. At the back of the triangle is a 3d wave that comes out 3 feet or so at the angle of the tent with room for storm movement of the tent. There will be green string lights that go around the outline of the rectangle that come back to the setting area. Coming toward you when seated, the walls will be white silk of sorts with cool blue soft light cast down the silk. Large glitter flowers hold the silk in place.

Stereoscopic 3-D slides from 10 years of Burning Man, plus a few 3-D computer graphic fantasy images. Visible in daytime by natural sunlight backlight, and at night by the invented bulb. There may be shredded US currency and a new computer graphics 3D image of Burning Man falling into liquid gold.

The concept behind this art goes back to my childhood. During the summer while out of school, my aunts and grandmother would insist I learn “ladylike” skills, such as embroidery. Pillowcases and hankies were the usual fare. The idea of doing hand needle work today has lost most of its popularity as a pastime. I’m self-supporting and work full time. The little free time I have is usually filled with other activities. Embroidering linens and hankies is a luxury. I barely have time to make art these days. My American Dream would allow me to have that luxury, to not have to work so hard and long to survive.

“California Dreamer” invites the viewer to explore what it means to have free will and what a dream really is, all from the viewpoint of a Californian. The piece is a 2 x 4 x 8 ft glass fiber cross-section of a person’s head. The cut runs vertically down the length of the nose, some 4ft in diameter, and is positioned at about head height. You view the head sides through a lexan sheet to see, essentially, the inner workings of a person’s mind. Inside the head are 3 creatures, each about a foot long, with articulated limbs controlled by a combination of pushrods, a crank turned by the viewer, and servos controlled by a microcontroller. The viewer turns the crank to move the creatures’ eyelids and mouth, but they don’t quite move in the expected way, and each time you cycle through the movements, the creatures move differently. Therefore, the creatures are the controllers of the person’s mind. All the inner working is exposed to the viewer, so it should be fascinating for younger mechanical people as well as older computer people. Inside us are seemingly mechanical cause-and-effect reactions to the world around us (hardwired) but also irrational, unpredictable, unexplainable random effects (softwired); these are exposed by dreams and by this art piece.

A rendition of The Man costumed as Captain America astride the globe. Two sculptures were cast in aluminum, also possibly welded, bolted or otherwise assembled. It has EL wire or similar trim for night lighting and stands on a pedestal base about 3-4 feet tall. The figures appear to be on an inverted aluminum bowl wired with the outlines of continents, to convey the feeling of the Man astride the world, which seems appropriate for the American Dream, or Captain America’s Dream.

“The Curmudgeon” is a 30′ tall arched tripod frame with red, orange and yellow stretched fabric wrapped around it. Together, these colors wave in the air and create a beautiful sunburst motif. This fabric hangs below the steel structure, about 15′ to 22′ off the ground, creating a giant, kinetic lantern shapes. The center of the mobile is composed of a tubular steel pyramid wrapped in red stretch fabric. The main frame of the structure is made of welded tubular steel trusses configured into a distinctive twisted shape which gives them great strength and interesting lines. These trusses are bolted together into a grand arching tripod that is screwed into the ground. Smaller outrigger trusses form triangles that provide more hanging points and legs for the mobile. Off each point of the pyramid hangs red fabric swatches which can move up to 45 degrees relative to each other, creating an undulating ceiling of red, 30′ in diameter. Between the center pyramid and the outer panels are brilliant wedges of stretchy yellow fabric that hint of a giant sunburst. Hanging freely on either side of these wedges are bold orange fabric triangles that further the sunburst motif and break the colors into even more triangular forms. Hanging above the red panels, another mobile steel framework is wrapped in orange fabric and juts out to create more triangular forms and fill out the ceiling of the structure.

I often think of my paintings as dreamscapes already, as they are created in a layered, organic, and somewhat subconscious way, often incorporating imagery from dreams. They also reflect my “dream” of a magical landscape with abundant living things.

This is a thick mass of artificial flowers, nuts and seeds strung to make a thick curtain which would hang in the allotted space. It would be beautiful and textural. Picture a beaded curtain with many layers of beads behind the first layer. Change the beads to flowers and you have a thick curtain of loveliness.

In their essence, Todji Kurtzman’s sculptures are archetypal fertility goddesses and gods in contemporary form. They summon the ancient mystery described by Joseph Campbell as aesthetic arrest through the living object. Todji is the first sculptor in history to apply a signature forced perspective style to the age-old tradition of figurative sculpture, resulting in a radical and unique contemporary sculpture. Todji sculpts in clay and casts in bronze because he believes that his sculptures will stand the test of time, will translate well to large scale, and the permanence of bronze is an antithesis to our culture of the disposable.

Since 1999, the No Borders Burners Bookstore has been gifting BRC with literature old and new, famous and obscure. Come get a book, find a shadow and a seat, see how the City looks a few hours hence.

Oh, Ranger! is a tribute to all the hard work that the volunteer Black Rock Rangers do every year to keep our City safe. I’ve been photographing Rangers for 2 years, and those pictures are being Decopauged onto a 6ft mannequin body, who will also sport ranger attire. The Ranger mannequin will serve as a sign of appreciation for their many years of service, and to inspire others to join their community.
URL: www.claudiarose.net/ohranger.html

A whimsical, interactive piece involving bicycle wheels and bottle caps. It is a field of spinning bottle cap wheel flowers, i.e. recycled bicycle wheels mounted on metal stems that are adorned with bottle caps attached to the spokes. People can spin the wheels and see the patterns that the colors of the bottle caps create as well as feel satisfaction in the clickety-clack noises that the caps make while spinning. It is an off-shoot of my bottle cap tree that was a part of the man grove at Burning Man 2007. This is also how my playa bike is decorated. Riding around with bottle caps spinning on my wheels is a super fun experience. I’m happy that I can bring that experience to people with this piece.

My project’s theme is surveillance in America and the general suspicion that our government and some of its citizens have of the public at large. I want to ask questions like: Why are we being filmed on a daily basis? What benefits are there to cameras at every intersection? Who is watching all of this film that really shows nothing? What part does voyeurism play in cameras that we don’t know are there? I am working with a friend who is gathering quotes from elected officials, news companies, and thinkers on the topic of surveillance to line the outside of the painting. My palette will probably be contained to 3 colors — red, black and white — giving the piece a very graphic/comic style. I am metal fabricator (as well as a painter) and plan to fabricate fake cameras with red LED lights to place around the mural space to add the effect of invasiveness on the viewer.

“Wake Up Call” is a political piece that educates the public as to the impending destruction of our country through the totally corrupted and criminal political syndicate that now occupies our government. It utilizes both humor and REAL FACTS to “WAKE UP” those that continue to be asleep. “Wake Up Call” is split into two art projects. The main piece is a modified toilet with a sign attached to it, as well as two small rotating signs. The toilet is representative of the Electronic Voting Machines manufactured by Diebold and will have sound and lighting effects. Sound is low key as is the illumination. The piece will have an interactive part but is mostly visual. Burners will be able to cast their votes through the toilet handle. Project two is simply a STOP Sign with graffiti from the founding fathers on one side and a message for everyone on the other side. The STOP sign is 30 inches wide and attached to a post that stands about 8 feet tall.

Why do you do what you do? A collection of photographs depicting approximately 325 people from the past two years, with their answers to what may seem a simple question. For those who wish to contribute in writing a book is positioned with the installation to write their own answers to WDYDWYD. Ongoing project.