Deep Craft – Page 60 – Ethos of Making

Oakland Installation Dispatch

Iâ€™m falling in love with Oakland all over again.
Ene and I moved here from the East Coast in 1991 after a formative time living in West Africa, followed by meandering road trips cross-country, capped off with a season of commercial fishing on a salmon seiner in Alaskaâ€™s Alexander Archipelago. We spent our â€˜crew shareâ€™ earned on the boat traipsing down the coast to visit friends who had migrated West from New York during the recession of the late eighties, obliquely seeking a home place along the way. We shared the dual mindset of wanting to stay in one place after over a year of travel, but still maintain the perspective of living by oneâ€™s wits we had cultivated along the way. Seattle, Portland and San Francisco were OK, but the flatlands of North Oakland where we eventually settled, bought a house and raised our daughter, appealed more viscerally. Oakland’s flatland neighborhoods felt like a cross between a West African village, a small Southern town and the best of the kind of suburban â€˜craftsmanâ€™ vernacular I had only ever thought possible in theory. We fit right in, stayed for over fifteen years, shifting our global travel modality to the simple, domestic scale of the day- meals shared, childcare and getting to know the neighborhood.

Ene and my art/design collaborative Wowhaus grew naturally from our newfound domestic modality. We thrived in the Bay Areaâ€™s receptive climate, and slowly developed a market for projects that were very much an extension of our daily lives. As our projects grew in scale, we were faced with the dilemma of space; our rented warehouse and woodshop were being sold to developers, and our interests were shifting towards self-sufficiency. So we sold the house before the market tumbled and bought a small rural compound near the coast in West Sonoma County, where we can grow food, be close to nature and have plenty of room for all of our projects. Fortuitously, some of these projects have brought us back to Oakland, and my current â€˜residencyâ€™ near Jack London Square lends me new perspective on my adopted Home Town after three years spent settling in up the coast. This new perspective is the subject of this dispatch, despite the biographical digression.

Lake Merritt, looking East

After a long day on site working in the sun, I’ve been winding down by riding my Dahon folding bike around Lake Merritt, just following my nose. I had only ever approached the Lake by car, usually from the North, and found the experience disorienting to the extent that we avoided the area as much as possible when we lived in the Temescal neighborhood. Approaching the lake from The Waterfront has been revelatory. Originally a salt marsh estuary, Lake Merritt is still connected tidally to the Bay, its waters flowing under roadways. On my bike, I’ve been able to intuit which roads connect to the lake, and have deciphered a new pattern to the inner logic of the City based on its relationship to the Bay, to sea level. This has been especially enlightening as we begin research on a new commission to design a system of Watershed Markers for the City of Oakland.

Ene joined me on site for a day this week as we raised the first steel substrate panels for Oakland Fusion. She loved working on the scissor lift, despite her aversion to heights.

We sneaked a peak at a heroic bronze sculpture just in front of our mural project, apparently of the father of Ron Dellums, Oakland’s current Mayor.Â The sculpture is housed in a protective crate, and is currently coated with construction dust from a small opening in the crate.

The first ten foot by ten foot panel is up, ready for tiles!

Oakland Installation Dispatch

Despite ongoing gentrification, the warehouse district surrounding Oaklandâ€™s Jack London Square remains a muscular commercial hub. Nestled between a major highway and the bustling Port of Oakland, the waterfront district is a town within a town, an island of urban opportunity appealing to anyone who values the authentic remnants of a working city- barges and trains unloading containers of goods, carried by trucks to be packed and stored and distributed. The working day begins before dawn, modulated by train whistles, clanging bells and the rumble of trucks. The streets empty of laborers late in the afternoon, replaced by walkers of tiny dogs and the myriad ghosts of John Muir, bearded, back-packed and weather beaten.

Oaklandâ€™s waterfront is how I imagine old San Francisco must have been, a dizzy blend of optimism and uncertainty, attractive to risk takers and pioneers. All of the signs are in place for Oakland to finally come into its own and I can imagine the Waterfront becoming the Cityâ€™s crown jewel in the near future. I feel honored to contribute to its visual texture, and am grateful for the high visibility of our Fusion mural, conspicuously sited across the plaza from the train station.

Preparing to install the first batch of panels for Oakland Fusion

I arrived Sunday night and spent my first two days on site getting organized and preparing to hang the first batch of steel panels to support the ceramic tile mural. Everything is falling into place without hitch, and Iâ€™m nicely settled into my loft space across the street. The first night I cooked a large batch of chicken curry from ingredients culled around the neighborhood as I biked its contours after a long chilly day on site. This will serve as my readymade lunches for the next week:

INSTALLATION CURRY
In a large skillet, brown 6-8 breasts of boneless, skinless chicken in olive oil over medium high heat, and remove to a dish. De-glaze the pan with a splash of white wine, add more oil if necessary, reduce the heat and add chopped red onion (about one cup), 5-6 cloves chopped garlic, 8-10 fingerling potatoes, halved or quartered. Stir the vegetables around until nicely glazed, then add your favorite blend of curry powders- I prefer more cumin and chili. Return the chicken to the pan, and add about 3/4 cup of coconut or soy milk (I used soy because I could not find coconut, and actually prefer it- lighter, cleaner). Add crowns and leaves of fresh broccoli, reduce heat and simmer until everything blends and the vegetables are just tender.

‘Oakland Fusion’ Installation Commences

Over the next three weeks I will be installing our Oakland FusionÂ project at Jack London Square in downtown Oakland, CA. The project consists ofÂ four consecutive 10′ x 10′ lenticular murals, comprised of over 45oo hand painted tiles, mounted to a custom-manufactured, corrugated steel substrate. Each mural functions like a two-cell animation; the image morphs as the viewer changes position. The eight images are based upon the textile patterns of Oakland’s major ethnic demographics. Mounted to the exterior wall of a new parking garage immediately opposite Oakland’s main train station, the murals are intended to viscerally orient new arrivals to Oakland’s cultural geography.

The project was commissionedÂ by Ellis Partners, who have played a major role in developing Jack London Square as a robust residential/commercial hub, kind of an alternative/future downtown. We worked closely with Winifred Day of Fine Art By Day to develop the project, and have spent the past eight months transferring images and glazing tiles at the Wowhaus compound, with occasional help from friends and from community members at the Jack London Square Farmer’s Market.

Oakland residents glazing tiles at the Farmer’s Market

Ene and I developed this technique over six years ago, when we wrapped two buildings in lenticular murals in Stockton, CA, for a project called Calaveras Murals, where we hand-glazed over 14,000 tiles. We’ve since streamlined the technique and made improvements in image quality. The major challenge at Jack London Square will be working off the ground in a scissor lift, the murals starting at about an 8′ elevation.

Svea Linn Vezzone, Swarm Gallery, Oakland, CA

To my extreme good fortune, I happened into a dream living arrangement during my three week installation. Through a fledgling artists residency program organized jointly by the nearby Swarm Gallery and Metrovation, I’ve been offered temporary housing in a new, unsold live/work space literally across the street from my site. The space is ample, modern and efficient, at street level and with an enormous glass curtain wall facing West. In a way, I’ll use my time during the installation to prototype how the space functions when visiting artists use it for site-generated projects.

Swarm Gallery Project Space/Residency at 200 2nd Street, Oakland

John’s Elm

The text and images on this post were sent by my friend John Miya, who lives near Chicago, IL. I look forward to posting more tree images and related stories sent by readers as I build an Archive of Old Trees:

“This is an old elm in my back yard. Its mentioned on a landscaping blueprint from 1917 as being 2′, which I assume was diameter.Â I’ll try to scan the original blue print and forward it.Â I think its safe to assume the tree is over 100 years old (house built 1897). Its been well trimmed over the years and is very healthy, although it is surrounded by paving in the middle of a driveway, with a 4 foot deep skirt of vinca and bittersweet. Lately we have taken the precaution to have it inoculated against Dutch Elm disease. Many of the features of the 1917 diagram still exist, although only a few trees from the orchard part of the yard which were removed by previous owners as apparently they were a “bee nuisance”.Â Half of the original yard is now occupied by 3 houses built in the 1970s. Sorry I am too technicallyÂ unskilled to make it your required dpi and size. Crop as you will. Just don’t cut it down.Â I think old trees in the middle of long developed land is a testament to the patient stewardship of landscape architecture. The view at ground level includes the basketball hoop (not on the tree, next to the tree on wheels) and a variety of balls, skateboards and other yard paraphernalia. happy spring.” jm

Grove of Old Trees

I’ve always been drawn to old trees. We live on the edge of a redwood forest (Sequoia sempervirens), an ancient species that still dominates the coast of Northern California, despite relentless logging over the past 150 years. We have about 60 second growth redwood trees on our property, some already reaching a height exceeding 200 feet. Most of the trees around us are second growth, but I’ve heard of a few stands of old growth trees still in tact. The majority of these are inaccessible to the public, part of the exclusive Bohemian Grove in nearby Monte Rio. Rumors of their being recently logged have been confirmed in a recent expose by Alex Shoumatoff in Vanity Fair (May 2009).

charred hollow

I recently discovered the Grove of Old Trees, a serene stand of old growth Coast Redwood within biking distance of our compound. The Grove is open to the public, under the diligent stewardship of the non-profit group LandPaths, and has become one of my favorite destinations for a rejuvenating day trip.

I’d like to make a catalog of Old Trees on these pages, and invite readers to send images of any beauties in your neck of the woods. Over the coming months, I will build a database to upload and access images and information on the PARTICIPATE page of this site. Meanwhile, if you send images (saved at 72 dpi, 500 x 375 pixels) and related information to me at scott@deepcraft.org, I will post them on my weblog. Please include species, location and any relevant narrative. Thanks!

E LA VA TIWO

This site is an experiment in creating an almanac of contemporary craft practice, and I’m pleased to find a network of like-minded folks who share an interest in reclaiming ‘craft’ beyond its niche as the lesser cousin of art and design. My hope is that this site will grow as a common repository for makers who share common goals regardless of the medium, audience or venue, leading to the kind of dialogue and insight essential to make visible what often happens in isolation. My recent contact with Christopher Robbins confirms my desire to revisit time spent living in a ‘traditional society’ in West Africa, and I find myself looking anew at treasures and discoveries culled from this formative time.

During the relative chill of the Harmattan season in Togo, I commissioned a village tailor to make me a jacket from a wax-died cotton pagne then common in markets throughout the country. The tailor copied a James Dean-style zipper/collar design I bought at a thrift store in the US, but the pagne adds a new layer:

E LA VA TIWOÂ is an Ewe expression recalling the universal fable of the tortoise and the hare. I’ve heard it variously translated as ‘they will become tired..’ or,Â ‘let them speak.. (laissez les dire)’. Fables and parables are still in use enough in West Africa to allow anyone to fill in the blanks when reminded, and pagnes often function as external indicators of an internal state. Regardless of its precise translation, E LA VA TIWO connotes the perennial wisdom of the tortoise, who stays on track despite the apparent obstacles, unlike the capricious and often fool-hardy hare.

Interview with Christopher Robbins

I’m continuing to feature an ongoing series of interviews and studio visits with other makers/artisans/crafters. If you would like to introduce yourself and your work to a growing Deep Craft network, I invite you to visit the PARTICIPATE page of this site. Meanwhile, allow me to introduce you to artist Christopher Robbins.

DC: Describe what you do as a maker/artisan.

CR: I like to make things that work against themselves, to sidle objects, or crafts, or tools with dreams that arenâ€™t good for them – or me – and then try to realize those dreams for them. Really try.

http://www.christopher-robbins.com
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