Pause

A project that asks a simple question: Can a gesture that takes time, stop time?

This one-week performance installation at the Harwood Center for the Arts in Albuquerque, NM, was part of a land art series. Upon arriving in New Mexico, the artists began gluing and tying fallen leaves back onto a tree in front of the center. While care was taken not to harm the tree or leave lasting litter, the work was ethically dubious by design.

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Though the central question guided the piece, a secondary concern was the intersection of collaboration and control—so often a hallmark of land art. By working small and using craft methods, the artists subverted the traditionally masculine tendencies of the medium. The absurdist nature of the act pushed this boundary further.

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This piece was never meant to last. Like the time it sought to pause, it was ephemeral, ultimately dissolving back into nature. All land art shares this fate, but ours just returned a little faster.

With Chris Robbins.