in praise of fails: Weatherworks - land art installations by K.I.A.

TL; DR: 30-foot art done-30° (“The Window” winterlude)

On Horizons

The newly frozen bay, somewhat snow white, sounds out as it warps — ringing, and singing, like an ice siren, alarm and allure. I jump, stomp, and kick down while walking onto this winter canvas. I’m holding a broom sideways — if I fall through, maybe it’ll save me. Should I be wearing a life jacket?

F1: Cities in Dust

Every December I make enormous weatherworks. The process is physically demanding — a duel, a sport, a dance — due to the difficult conditions (which are different every year). This art is always in cooperation with acquiescent to nature; i.e. this year, for the first time in ten, there is no ice. So “going-with-the-no-floe”, I shifted my colordrifts and glyphs to nearby snowy fields and frozen flora. But because the art is not at the time-honoured site, and I can only work at a much smaller size… all attempts are fails. (F1-F4):

F2: Color…Elide

Every December I make enormous weatherworks. The process is physically demanding — a duel, a sport, a dance — due to the difficult conditions (which are different every year). This art is always in cooperation with acquiescent to nature; i.e. this year, for the first time…

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earthwork art installation by K.I.A.

Every year for the last decade I’ve done large outdoor art installations (earthworks, or “weatherworks”) on a frozen lake. Here’s the 2023 edition. (See some earlier ones at my Substack HERE. Editioned prints available: contact.).

They are usually done in very cold weather (-20). They take anywhere from 10-25 hours to make and document. They usually last for about 30 minutes after completion—I work as long a I can in the daylight hours until the sun starts to set before I have to photograph them. They never last overnight because snow, wind, rain, etc destroys them.

Except this time.

It didin’t snow overnight, and the weather warmed up the next day, melting the snow, which allowed the colors to mix together, and the textures I’d created to morph. The work went from matte to gloss, and some parts showed became translucent, adding visual depth. This was perfect, because chance, change, and ephemerality are major themes in my work.

I photograph the work in ways that obscure scale and perspective. The images could be taken from a sattelite over Jupiter, a drone over a coral system, a closeup of moss in some exotic rainforest, an electron microscope examining microorganisms.

The works are physically arduous — squatting, leaning, extending, but also frozen fingers and numb fingers. But it puts you in tune with the environment, because you have to watch the clouds coming in, pay attention to the light, feel the direction and strength of the wind, place your feet right on the ice. This year the ice was really noisy, weird and very loud warping sounds (like a whale call? or giant steel rubber band?) that would sound out, and at least a couple times let to audible and visible cracks.

Genetically Modified Found Wind (Acquired)

This work is from the ongoing CRISPR series. They are GMAs (gen mod art), with their visual DNA — taken from multiple paintings — sliced and spliced together to create new works. They are also digital/analog hybrids, in that each of the 1000s of spliced elements are discrete, like a pixel, but they are analog (exist IRL, cut from paper). The component pieces are meticulously placed together to create a cohesive abstract with a complex and optically-shifting surface with a type of retinal rhyme scheme.

This particular work is actually made from found wind from various geographical locations; that is, the wind (mountains, a lake, a prairie, etc) was used to drift the paint on various flat substrates, which were then chopped up and intermixed.

(Acquired recently by Canadian art collector).

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A recent work in the series CRISPR BLU (50 x 40 x 3”) , acrylic on archival paper. Thousands of hand-cut units of paper, each entirely unique. This particular work presents hyper-blue from the front (with silver edging), but at oblique angles multiple colors are subtly revealed (magentas, purples, oranges, reds).

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Another Land Aura

Another weatherwork for the season (see previous post.) Prints from the seriesavailable. More HERE

(earthwork: 22 x 28’, mixed media on snow -K.I.A. 2022. Prints, varous sizes)