one more to add to the family

of plastic debris hanging out and around my backyard...tucked between a rock and a tuft of green grass was a small bit of blue plastic. seeing this reminded me of the site-specific installation i did last october for an outdoor sculpture show that took place in a park out in baltimore. dubbed "the body dumping ground," this park was really nice to see in the fall since it reminded me of the places i used to run in when i lived in ithaca, ny.

originally i planned to execute a large-scale installation of a piece that involves multiple plastic forks. after touring the park, i changed my mind about what to do; the whole time i was walking through the place, the curator kept talking on and on about past sculptures made for the show. i must have heard andy goldsworthy's name invoked about twenty times. she (the curator) seemed really bent on getting people to do works just like his. having met goldsworthy back in the late nineties when he did some projects in ithaca's gorges at cornell university, i never did get a satisfactory answer about how he views his work in relationship to contemporary ecological issues, and how his work participates in (what i dubbed) "the aesthetics of conservation."

i kept noticing all of the unnatural bits of blue sticking out from the green of the park. after four hours and three bags full, i collected enough blue trash to do the following piece:


Baggage (for Goldsworthy), 2004
Kathryn Cornelius
found trash
(detail)

thinking about it now, i realize the piece i did was in some ways re-examining the idea of the "plastic tactics" group show in baltimore's artscape (for which i did a performance piece). writing this, i am sitting at a coffee table, one that is similar in style to those sold at crate and barrel, the store that sells you not just the table, but also the book to go on it. one of your choices? a nice collection of goldsworthy's ephemeral land art installations, ready-made for your coffee table (another object to move when dusting).