* PARADISE FOR SALE *
> ruth wallen >
* Paradise For Sale *
This
installation would use material from a variety of projects that I have created
about the construction and marketing of southern California real estate over
the last fifteen years. I have tried to make all of these works interactive,
using artist books, post card racks, key chain views, etc. so that the viewer
can interact with the work. For this installation I would set up some kind of
display modeled after the gift shop or new home center display, where the viewer
could explore various materials.
The installation would draw from the following projects: "I Love Del Mar,"
about North City West, know more affectionately by developers as Del Mar Highlands,
or Carmel Del Mar, deals with the relationship of the personal and the political--the
myopia, narcissism and lack of boundaries evidenced in the marketing of new
homes. "Legends," named after an actual development, interrogates
the developer's marketing strategy that quotes from European mythology while
ignoring local historical and biological legacies. "Greetings from San
Diego," which included Pet Rocks, T shirts, and post cards and was installed
in the form of a gift shop in Sushi Gallery as part of Street Sites. This project
is closest in form to the proposed installation. A current project, "Preserving
Paradise," looks at the disputes about zoning and land use in the Carmel
Valley area of San Diego. A part of the work looks at the effect of the multiple
species preservation act and chronicles the success of citizens and ecological
groups in preserving most of the last coastal scrub mesa in southern California.
I envision the form of this installation as being similar to the vending carts found at shopping malls. Assuming that there is no budget, I will have to keep construction to a minimum, and would center my display around a table or two which I hope that you could provide (if not will see what it available in thrift shops) Some wall space for hanging displays might be nice, but assuming that that isn't available, I could try to construct a free standing display that would fit on a table. I do have one free standing post card rack and a number of display cubes that I could also provide. Items displayed would include post cards, artist books, key chain viewers, maps, pet rocks etc.
* If Frogs Sicken and Die, What Will Happen to the Princes? *
Recently ecologists have discovered that frogs are disappearing at an alarming rate in many parts of the world and may be an indicator of environmental malaise. Throughout human history, frogs have held an important place in myth, religion, science and popular culture, serving as both symbol and experimental subject through which to explore the human relationship to nature. This extensive project of digital montages of frog imagery asks what the current plight of frogs tells us about the nature of the human relationship to the natural world. If frogs and toads disappear, what else will die with them?
This project has been developed in a variety of formats including an extensive installation, web site and a series of nineteen interior bus posters. I assume that for this venue, the posters, which are laminated and quite durable would be the most appropriate. Each poster is 11"x28" so I would need some type of wall space to hand them on.
> bio>
Ruth Wallen is an artist whose work is dedicated to encouraging dialogue about ecological and social issues. Her multilayered installations, performances and artists books have been widely exhibited including solo exhibitions at Franklin Furnace, New York, New Langton Arts and the Exploratorium, San Francisco, Sushi Gallery, San Diego and CEPA, Buffalo. Public installations include two interactive "nature walks" at the San Bernardino Children's Forest and Tijuana River Estuary. In the last year or so she has appeared in group shows ranging from Pusan, Korea to the Atheneaum in San Diego. A recent project, "If Frogs Sicken and Die, What Will Happen to the Princes?" explores the frog as an indicator of human interaction with the environment. It was exhibited in fall 2002 at the Steppling Gallery, SDSU Imperial Valley Campus, and has been shown in public displays as bus posters and slides in movie theaters. Currently she is working on a web page and artist book documenting Palestinian Jewish dialogue and another project, Preserving Paraside, documenting the issues surrounding land use in north coastal San Diego. Critical writings about contemporary art, particularly issues of race and gender, have been published in LEONARDO, The Communication Review, Exposure, High Performance, TIKKUN, Women's Studies, and With Other Eyes: Race, Gender, and Visual Culture.
Ruth Wallen is core faculty in the MFA program in interdisciplinary arts at Goddard College and a lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. In 1995-1996 she was a Fulbright lecturer at the Autonomous University of Baja California, Tijuana. She currently serves as the vice-president for the Binational Association of Schools of Communication, promoting educational exchanges in the Californias.
@ links @
http://communication.ucsd.edu/rwallen
http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/site/exhibitions/frogs/pages
http://cepa.buffnet.net/exhibits/EXHIBIT.19992000/wallen/index.html