Installation Performance Collaboration

1-2 of 2

Starting in undergraduate school at Florida International University around 1974-75, I took a course that explored the role of myth as a form of storytelling across different cultures. A discussion of the loss of myth in Western metaphysics prompted speculation about the role of art in the rejuvenation of myth at this historical moment. Or something like that! I was also being influenced by Mark Lynch, a Miami artist whose sculpture practice was confrontational. My first off-the-easel project was conceived as a photographic documentation titled Animate Myth. I designed a painting 4' x 25' on muslin, covered in wide stripes that changed direction and color the length of the fabric. The painting reflected the codification of contemporary life as materialistic, embracing an economic engine that denied nature as a presence to be considered over growth and gain, setting up the dichotomy of culture vs nature. The painting was activated in natural spaces around the city, and with drama students in a performance in the Student Union in 1974. A slideshow of 200 images was staged in a hallway at the Miami Art Center during an invitational exhibition.

Sea Sail (1975)

Animate Myth (1974)