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Monday, November 14, 2016
"Totems" Project
This collaboration with Thor Sigstedt and Nate Metheny is a
sort-of follow-up on the “Nichos” Project from the last show; in that we will
be using the top of the same tree trunk that “Nichos” came from and using it, a
very different and more dynamic and sculptural piece, which looks a little like
a rustic musical conductor and has branch-arms and a natural top. The concept is “Totem” and will be based on
‘totems’ of all sorts that will be dynamically projected back onto the trunk
and will include, also, figures, such as a woodpecker that pops out in 3D. There will be other affects that reinforce
the dynamic of a totem pole, but will be more modern and include 3D mapping of
the tree, digital projection of totemic elements back onto the surface of the
actual trunk and also include solid sculptures of ‘totemic’ figures as well as
abstract moving design and special lighting and sound effects. It might be nice
to have an interactive aspect that allows the viewer to ‘select’ their personal
totems and have them arranged on the ‘pole’.
Special care will be taken to not engage in cultural thuggery of any
sort and not over-borrow from Native American cultural sensitivities. The piece
will take care not to be cutesy and mundane, but meditative, transcendental and
modern/abstract, engaging the emotions rather than avoiding them. The idea comes from the artist’s life-long
interest and desire to express their own totem images as serious personal
explorations and giving others the permission and challenge to think about
their stories and what they mean and this is all designed to have the viewers connect,
once again, with the natural world.
"Totems" Project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeztUIBJZ44 (an example of the type of digital projecting/mapping proposed for the "Totems" Project).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCuvJhOo920 ( the "Totems" 'tree' being explored by a cat, suggesting the dynamics we are going for)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhSm72mxxdM (tree of Liberty in San Francisco)
https://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/projection-mapping#$g_5eef128e_78e9_4aa6_be14_5eb37a235157;4;6 Sentosa Resort 40th birthday video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCuvJhOo920 ( the "Totems" 'tree' being explored by a cat, suggesting the dynamics we are going for)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhSm72mxxdM (tree of Liberty in San Francisco)
https://www.christiedigital.com/en-us/projection-mapping#$g_5eef128e_78e9_4aa6_be14_5eb37a235157;4;6 Sentosa Resort 40th birthday video
Top of "Nichos" trunk from original aspen tree and proposed sculptural base for digital projecting and other features projected and associated with this object for the new 2017 "Totems" Project by Thor Sigstedt and Nate Metheny.
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This is a recently written piece that becomes the mental model that leads to the "Totems" Project:
Totems and Why,
Eventually, All Subjects In Our Family Lead to Talk of Okra and/or Rattlesnakes.
-by Thor Sigstedt 2016
-by Thor Sigstedt 2016
If I were to manifest…. a ‘totem’ pole for me and my
family/clan (I have thought about creating since I was a boy, but not clearly
incorporating, oddly, my own personal natural symbols), then I am thinking it
would include some pretty interesting natural forces, many of which I have
sculpted and photographed over the years and which would include…a toad,
dancers, an elk, a golden eagle, an indian paintbrush, grapes, currants,
meteorites, a raven (of course), a donkey (of course), a sort-of Quetzalcoatl (which is a feathered
serpent) and/or rattlesnake, a tortoise
and….an ent (not an ant, but an e-n-t).
Bull Elk
Golden Eagle by Thor
Tortoise in San Miguel de Allende
But first, let me
backtrack and tell a little story: I was
on Sibley (road) a year or two ago, Sibley being the basically infamous
confederate commander of the Texas Volunteers who lost the ‘Gettysburg of the
West’ battle of Glorietta; Sibley himself drinking the time away in ‘Burque and
Santa (Fe), then chased all the way back down the Rio Grande to Texas and
disgraced; well, it is an unfortunate name for a beautiful road on the east
side of a grand chain of red, then whitish rock outcrops forming a sort of ‘hogback’,
as my grandmother described such a thing.
I was on Sibley Road building a stone wall for a long-time friend there,
working hard and suddenly a small snake leapt out of the cracks of the stones
or rubble where I was and I, taken off-guard emotionally, sort-of instinctively
and out-of-character for me, really….summarily killed, by shovel, the poor
little thing, vaguely suspicious that this was a rattler…. on the spot. A newly acquired friend, an other neighbor,
just happened to drive by, then stop, soon after this and I confessed to him my
odd deed, despite my knowledge that this fellow, the man, was a
conservationist/naturalist sort of guy and, sure enough, he was ‘not amused’ by
what I did and said as much and then, later, with his grandson, ‘planted’ a few
little rubber snakes in same-said wall, perhaps as a way of moderating and
remembering his condemnation into a sort of prank.
The irony is that, having lived in these parts for nearly 40
years, since I was a young whelp of sorts; I had summarily executed quite a few
rattlers, as we all did back in those days, what with a culture that dictated
it and young children around, etc. (I do, though, remember chastising a young
man in Yosemite who had just killed one on the trail…thinking, even back then,
that the snakes were entitled to safe passage in wilderness areas). Then, as the years crawled, perhaps
slithered, by, I became aware, somewhere deep inside me, that I did not really
want to do this anymore and, with the help of a gentle giant man who was in
recovery from ‘Sibley’s disease’ and working for me and living here, I stopped
killing them. We encountered one under
my dump truck and I asked if he knew a way to catch them (somehow he looked
like he would) and he, on the spot, made a stick and small rope ‘noose’ (drill
two holes in the end of the wood and laced the thick twine through them) which
we caught it with and perhaps a dozen or two over the years (I did, though,
lengthen the stick, as a further precaution!...being basically afraid of snakes,
myself) and thus became known for catching them in the neighborhood and got
calls to ‘help’ and I would release them when I found the time; to other
locations which will remain anonymous, but I did, the first time; call the
animal control people up in Espanola, I think, and they said some people let em
go at Cochiti Pueblo. That gave me ‘a
good idea’ and I did let a few go near an un-named golf course in a fancy part
of town.
I had noticed that, in all the times that I caught them
(prairie rattlers); I was never struck at by them even once. I learned that they were not mean (but very
scary) in any way that I could see and they were mostly anxious to be at peace,
despite the rattling, which I took as a warning that this was not a situation
to be toyed with; danger rang out!...a boundary was on the verge of being
crossed. I have since paid attention to
who gets injured by them in this country and the statistics show that many of bite
incidents are in the company of drunk men mussing around with them! (approximately 40 percent of all
snakebites occur in people who are handling or playing with snakes, and 40
percent of all people bitten had a blood alcohol level of greater than 0.1
percent).
Being loosely associated with a serpent is a way of saying,
“Don’t Tread On Me”, ‘keep good boundaries’ and ‘do not belittle what I am or
think you can get wasted and toy with me or pretend I am not powerful or think
you can hurt or ‘kill’ me because you think I am lowly’; because I am a
beautiful, impressive, valuable, sober, surviving, indigenous, sometimes
frightened, important creature that is well suited to the area. I can bite and look ferocious; I am nobody’s
‘pet coon’; maybe not the best friend to a casual observer, but pretty
interesting to be around. In a way, let’s
say, my warning creates, paradoxically….safety for all of us.
I want to add that I think we all can have our personal
totems and thus we find a way to let others know who we are or how we want to
be considered, lest others mistake them for something they are not. Please let
me know yours….
As a footnote, I will add that I no longer make a point of
catching and relocating rattlers, but will simply walk around them and enjoy
them from a suitable distance and try to teach others to do the same………and more
on Okra…..later..(don’t get her started)!
Ent by Thor
Quetzalcoatl: means beautiful (feathered) serpent/snake
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