26.
Ceci Cole McInturff & Antoinette Wysocki
Concerto
Ceci Cole McInturff & Antoinette Wysocki
Concerto
- Materials: 40-60 Southern California palm husks each weighing less than a half pound; tints and inks made in part from native plants and in a palette consistent with the immediate area; 24 gauge steel wire.
- Concerto to comprise two hanging areas within single large tree’s branches:
- Area to left side of tree, as viewed from Lyndhurst driveway: 10-12’H x 15’W x 16-18’ D (D=distance out from tree trunk)
- Area to right side of tree, as viewed from Lyndhurst driveway:12-14’H x 12’W x 18-20’ D (D=distance out from trunk)
- Installation will use 40-60 lightweight palm husks, individually strung along four large low branches of tree. Thin steel wire will be attached to the tip of each husk, and then each husk’s wire will be simply wrapped around the branch spaced at 2’ intervals, allowing husks to twist and sway in breeze. No hardware use.
- Each husk weighs a half-pound or less, so total maximum weight distributed across 18-20’ of tree branches would be approximately 40 pounds. No drilling nor perforation nor impact to bark, branches or tree whatsoever is involved.
- Maintenance: The originally-curvy husks will flatten out to some degree with rain and humidity, and re-curl to some degree in heat and dry weather. The treatment of each husk’s back will resist most moisture; the thin steel wire will lightly rust. The look over time is organic, and a point of the work is for natural materials to age and wear as they return to the earth over time. Helpful to generally monitor the area in case of hurricane/high winds, so to collect and re-hang any husks that detach; this is unlikely under normal cross-seasonal conditions. One of this artist pair lives locally, and would participate in this monitoring.
This proposal is for a site-specific, two-part sculptural installation.
Proposed location is a large wide tree of multiple low branches, visible from Lyndhurst driveway close to / prior to the sharp left turn up toward the Greenhouse.
Along two pairs of branches – two to the left of tree trunk, and two to the right of trunk as tree is viewed from Lyndhurst driveway -approximately 40-60 lightweight palm husks will hang, spaced 2’ apart.
Each husk will be sculpted and waxed, with ink and tints in an original design on each husk’s backside. Husks will open-air hang at heights in relationship, but which vary greatly with the curvature of the tree branches on which they hang. Husks’ movement in breeze will be constant.
No drilling nor perforation nor impact to bark, branches or tree whatsoever is involved; wire to be simply wrapped around these four specific branches at 2’ intervals.
“Concerto: a classical piece of music featuring a soloist at the front of an accompanying orchestra, in multiple movements.”
Hanging area #1 of Concerto treats the tree’s trunk as the main soloist, and the treated palm husks hung along two branches radiating outward on either side as orchestral accompaniment, as they twirl and sway in rhythm with any breeze or wind.
Hanging area #2 treats another two nearly-parallel branches as a treble and bass staff of notes on a sheet of music. Numerous suspended palm husks hung and swaying on the branches can suggest musical notes.
The aesthetic of wabi sabi finds wisdom and beauty in nature just as it is. So, both the right and left hanging areas of Concerto are less about inserting separate art into nature, and more intended to integrate with the art this tree’s branches already present there. Concerto is envisioned then as an offering to this tree.
Sculptor Ceci Cole McInturff works in non-traditional combinations of plant and animal material, using a minimalist aesthetic with intimate handwork, often conveying an introspective quality. Her work is meant to honor things no longer living and suggest wisdom in applying nature’s cyclical lessons to human culture.
Her works expand the definition of beauty, demonstrate interconnectedness and linked well-being between species, and can imply sacred within the natural.
Founder/owner of the former 87FLORIDA non-profit exhibit and performance space and a member of the Otis Street Arts Project – both in Washington D.C. – she holds an MFA in Art and Visual Technology from George Mason University; completed two years of MA/Art and the Book study at the Corcoran College of Art+Design; is a former executive with the CBS Television Network; and the mother of two sons.
She has shown work in U.S. galleries and universities on both coasts, most recently at the NARS Foundation, Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition, the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, and Hudson Valley MoCA.
Memberships: International Sculpture Center, Washington Sculptors Group, Washington Project for the Arts, ArtDC Forum, National Museum for Women in the Arts.
Antoinette Wysocki is a mixed media painter. Inspired by organic imagery, she works to create contemporary abstracted microcosmic narratives behind each brushstroke. Balancing media, she has developed a process combining various materials and works with chance, control and analysis.
Wysocki holds a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute. She has been awarded a Santa Fe Artist Institute grant, nominated as Best Emerging Artist by GLADD in 2009, and was selected for the Chalk Hill Residency to represent SFAI.
She exhibits her paintings internationally with over 50 group shows and 10 + solo exhibitions including: New York, London, Hong Kong, Korea, Dubai, Miami and Los Angeles. Fairs include: The Armory, Context. Scope, Art Hamptons, Kiaf and Works On Paper. Her work is in private collections including Mandarin Oriental, Washington DC City Museum and the former Corcoran Gallery of Art, now part of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Gallery of Art collection.
Wysocki resides in New York with her husband and sons.
Ceci Cole McInturff
87-FLORIDA.clickbooq.com/
Antoinette Wysocki
antoinettewysocki.com