Karen Cleveland
Perfomrance with studio-based drawing, Woods (Rabun, Georiga), 2009
This image captures a performance enacted with studio-based drawing, Woods (Rabun, GA) 2009. The drawing itself is an energetic impression of the woods of Rabun, Georgia, a depiction of how my body remembers a site. When in the woods, I often perform private intimate rituals of embedding my body within the landscape to deepen my physical and sensory connection to the land. My intellect is quieted and my body enters into a silent conversation with the cycles and rhythms of nature.
The act of inserting the body into urban studio-based work recalls the act of merging body with organic landscape yet reflects the urban environment and mediated experience. Markings on my body are made with similar manufactured and industrial materials that were also used in the making of the drawing. The body is a bridge that links studio practice with practices in the remote woods of northern Georgia and accentuates the distinct and different energies of organic and urban environments.
Dear Karen,
I’m interested in knowing where you’re going from here. Do you intend to further camouflage yourself in your work? What have you done since this project to develop your ideas about your relationship with nature.
You seem to have an affinity for Rabun Gap. Have you considered other contexts for the work?
Hi Cathy,
Thanks for your questions. Currently I am experimenting with video and how it captures and communicates my experiences and performances in nature.
This summer, I am traveling to Montana, where I spent my childhood on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation. Throughout my childhood my family and I had a deep connection to the land there. I lived an old canvas wall civil war tent and spent my days outside, pulling fish out of the streams for dinner and developing and intimate relationship with my surroundings. It has been 7 years since I have been there and I am curious and excited to explore how my memory and past connection will affect and inform my current work and experience.
I have also been working on an installation in my studio. I have collected various natural elements such as feathers, sticks and rocks and inserted them into my studio, deepening the dialogue between urban spaces and organic matter. I may end up inserting myself, but not quite sure how that will manifest quite yet. I’ll keep you posted!
Hey K,cant help stablishing a relationship with Ana mendieta
i have always found this type of intervention/performance really problematic.for several reasons, and u do seem to be aware of them when u constantly make it clear that this work is part studio work-part nature dialogue.my main problem: i think we all are now “urban creatures” who long for that constant comunion with nature.But the link ,it seems to me, has been broken,and so most everything we try,seems artificial.And what is more artificial than art?
how would you translate into an art work either your love for the woods,your need for “insertion”? thats what i mean.It seems really difficult.Now u are such a wonderful painter/draftsman that the final result is a beautiful looking painting/object.Crowned by the beauty and purity that comes from you there.one more question: why didnt you paint your head as well?.j