Abington Art Center

March 13, 2010 Siegel's sculpture, "Scale" at the Abington Art Center


I have visited this site periodically since the sculpture, "Scale" by Steven Siegel was erected in 2002. It has collapsed and decayed a little quicker than expected. This is the remains after seven and a half years in the environment. It was sited in a clearing among tall oak trees.

The eventual collapse and decay of the structure signifies the return of the organic matter within the newspapers to the land. The nutrients would be used in the birth of trees that were cut down for the production of the newspapers. This represents the closing of a regenerative cycle. For reference, I am placing a paper I wrote on Steven Siegel's sculpture, "Scale," on to this blog.

“Scale”
Steven Siegel






By Jaime K. An-Wong
April 24, 2009


Art helps us identify with nature and to connect to it. In contemplating the sculpture, in its naturally sited surroundings, we can better understand our relationship with nature and participate in preserving our common future. With this particular sculpture, the processes involved in the various stages of transformation are observed. This was the promise of Steven Siegel’s sculpture, “Scale,” constructed at the Abington Arts Center in the fall of 2002.
The sculpture was carefully sited in a wooded clearing, surrounded by tall oak trees. At a distance the monument first appears as stone, a gray form with piled strata (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Steven Siegel, “Scale,” 2002
Photo taken March 3, 2004

Upon closer inspection, it is composed of newspaper layered one upon another (Figure 2).

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Figure 2. Steven Siegel, “Scale,” 2002
Photo taken March 4, 2004

It took eight days to erect the sculpture, “Scale.” A wooden frame was constructed, which was anchored by two 18 foot trees. With the help of 50 volunteers, the newspapers were laid, layer upon layer. 20,000 pounds of recycled (locally obtained) newspapers were collected and used. The repetitive act of layering the newspapers is integral to the artistic process, yielding an impressive cumulative monument. People understand the repetitive process. There is meaning in the process and it gets the message out. Community participation in the construction was an important aspect for the impact of this sculpture. As a consumer, my family generates 11 pounds of used newspapers each week. It would take our household approximately 35 years to generate 20,000 pounds of newspaper waste. For Steven Siegel, this is not lost when contemplating the waste this consumer society propagates, when viewing “Scale.” This was the largest sculpture of newspapers for Siegel at the time.
Steven Siegel early in his artistic career had an interest in geology and geologic processes.
How his interest in earth processes could relate to his artwork, becomes evident in his sculpture,
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“Scale.” “Scale” stands 22 feet above the ground. This was not done to defy gravity. In fact, the layering of newspapers was leveled to align itself with the forces of gravity. It was to be a sturdy structure to last a generation. He intended for the sculpture to have the look of stone and to last longer than expected for newspapers. Rocks that form in basins from sediments, carried by flowing water, have the same appearance because of the effects of gravity. The layering of strata is the result of repetitive processes, only over immense geologic time spans. Human activity just shortens the creative process for the artwork. Pressure from overlying earth and heat generated from the center of the earth cement the layers to produce the rock formations. By human activity, the layers are held together by the weight of the newspapers above. The wooden frame and large nails were used to keep the layers of newspapers from shifting. Deterioration of the sculpture and erosion of rock formations are natural processes. Due to tectonic forces, sedimentary rocks may be lifted up, initiating the process of erosion by wind and water. Only after millennia of years, particularly with flowing water, the water would dissolve or wash away the cemented rock particles causing it to erode. The sculpture was constructed above ground, so these same forces immediately go to work to break down the monument’s integrity. Unlike the inorganic rocks, the sculpture is also attacked by microflora and larger biologic agents such as molds, fungi, and insects. The integrity of the newspapers becomes jeopardized. First, small pieces of newspapers fragment, then the fragments are washed away by rain or blown away by wind. Once the framework is compromised then gravity takes over and sections of the sculpture may collapse (Figure 3). Again, after a sufficient time and a slow process of decay, the decayed material becomes a constituent of the soil.

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Figure 3. Steven Siegel, “Scale,” 2002
Photo taken October 2006 (1)



Figure 4. Steven Siegel, “Scale,” 2002
Photo taken April 9, 2009

Early on, the geologic processes and formations stimulated the imagination for Siegel.
The transformation of the rock formations were changing the landscape over a grand geologic
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scale of time. Sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, he was able make his pilgrimage to Scotland in 1983. Siccar Point in Scotland was where James Hutton made his observations about the sedimentary rocks, the processes involved in changing the landscape, and the immense geologic time span it took. In 1785, Dr. James Hutton wrote “Theory of the Earth.” He challenged the conventional thinking that the age of the earth was only 5,000 to 6,000 years old. Here he proposed that understanding the ground we stand on holds the key to imagining what the past landscape looked like. He maintained that the geologic processes at work in the present were the same as those at work in our geologic past. Coupled with the immense geologic time span, this became known as uniformitarianism.(2) More and more, we are recognizing that nature’s well being is connected to human activity. The dynamic earth is not unchangeable, and now we know that humans are the principle agents of change in this era. Humans and the environment are interconnected, we can not continue taking from the earth, at some point we must give back to mother earth. It questions the previously held myth that humans can do anything with impunity, without any consequences to the environment. More than likely, the solution will require community participation and an interdisciplinary approach.
In stacking newspapers within a given framework, Siegel could construct a sculpture that had the appearance of a rock formation. The sculpture would have weight and the solidness of a rock monument. The layering of newspapers could give the formation, a sedimentary rock look. How much time would it take to breakdown the structure? Nature’s eroding processes may take millions of years to breakdown the rock formations seen in Scotland. An earlier sculpture with stacking of newspaper, “New Geology #2”, was constructed in 1990. After 13 years, the monument was still intact and the newsprint was still able to be read. (3) But, one mitigating
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circumstance for “New Geology #2” was, that it was not as exposed to the elements of
weathering. It was sighted in the woods near his home in Milan, New York. The structure was allowed to integrate into the environment, so the surfaces became over-grown with vegetation (Figure 5). This is much like the natural landscape of earth with vegetation of the surface growing above the underlying soil.



Figure 5. Steven Siegel, “New Geology #2,” 1990
Photo taken 1992, flora, newspaper, stone, 5 x 11 x 11 feet (4)

“Scale” was constructed in the fall of 2002. I first visited the Abington Art Center in February 2004, and there was very little decay evident. The guide remarked that the monument was anticipated to stand about 15 years. But, this spring a notice was posted that “Scale” was deteriorating more quickly than anticipated. It had collapsed in approximately 6 1/2 years. Was the shorter life span a result of design or greater than anticipated eroding and decaying forces? I visited “Scale” in March 2009, when there was a slight snow cover (Figure 6).


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Figure 6. Steven Siegel, “Scale,” 2002
Photo taken March 3, 2009

In 2004, the only deterioration visible was the discoloration of the newspaper (Figure 2). Microflora was growing on the newspaper causing the discoloration. The erosion and the decaying process continued until the wooden framework weakened and the structure began to collapse in October 2006 (Figure 3). By this spring (2009) very little of the original erect form remained (Figure 4). I have been fortunate to have observed the effects of natural forces and processes on this monument. These forces are the same as the ones that Dr. James Hutton and Steven Siegel observed in Scotland. Only those formations took an immense geologic time span to produce. Art as a human activity brings human dimensions to contemplate. We do not need to wait a millennium to observe the deterioration of a stone-like monument. We can see it in our lifetime. What we contemplate then has a more direct effect. Seeing the results makes it more powerful. The concept of what we take from the land, when we harvest trees for paper, can be
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returned to the land, when the newspapers decay into the soil was heart warming to the guide at the Art Center. This was an act which was responsible ecologically.
By looking at the processes at work, we can gain a better understanding of the systems around us. Then, we can make better choices. Steven Siegel’s first attempt at these structures was for the Snug Harbor Sculpture Festival on Staten Island. Although he felt that his first attempt at these structures was not successful, he noticed that the largest landfill in the United States was located on Staten Island. At the Fresh Kills Landfill, garbage is buried under mounds of earth. Newspapers will remain intact and readable for longer periods of time, when buried compared to exposed structures, such as “Scales.” Here, Steven Siegel contemplated that with buried human waste we are creating a “new geology.” (5) This would be a geology that has the stamp of human activity and culture. Thus, his first attempts in this kind of sculpture were titled “New Geology #1” and “New Geology #2.” Since “New Geology #2” was over-grown with vegetation, it did not erode and decay as quickly as the structures that were more exposed, such as “Scales.” The difference in erosion and decay is one of processes and the rate at which the processes work. “Scale” is just one phase in a cycle that the viewer contemplates. There are both natural processes and processes related to human activity that is going on. We can begin with the natural processes of tree growth sustained by the nutrients from the earth. But, it is human activity which cuts down the trees and where paper is made from the wood pulp. Our culture is expressed in newsprint that is printed on the paper. The newspaper is read and hopefully, recycled. Finally, the last act of human culture, the monument of newspaper is erected, represented by “Scale.” Nature now has its way, physical processes of erosion immediately go to work, and the structure inevitably starts to erode. Since the structure has
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organic content, biologic systems erupt in the structure to begin decay. Finally, the structure
meets its ultimate destiny being incorporated back into the earth to form soil, the nutrient for the living plants. This seems to be a sustainable cycle surrounding Steven Siegel’s “Scale.” It works because we understand the processes, and instead of working against nature, we are working with it.
We want to make human activity and human life sustainable for the future. Because we are all in it together, this will take a community effort. For Steven Siegel, the newspaper reflects our culture. As illustrated here, the production of newspapers consumes almost an unimaginable number of trees. But, “Scales” allows us to grasp the amount in real terms. For my family, it represents about 35 years of accumulated use of newspapers and the number of trees needed to produce that amount of paper. We are a consumer society, and the sculpture reminds us of this. But, we are consumers of information and the newspapers are one of our principle sources of it. The collapse of “Scale” questions whether this activity is sustainable. It doesn’t demand that “recycling” newspaper is the “ultimate” solution, but challenges us to propose better solutions or use alternate methods to disseminate information. So, art may cause us to contemplate what we are doing, where we are going, and what effects we are having on the environment. We can see that the solutions are likely to require community participation. Here, art is a likely candidate to rally the community and engage each individual. Art may engage individuals from a variety of backgrounds, such as geology, literature, politics, engineering, concern for the environment, etc. And, hopefully art can get them to work together. For sure, it is best understood with an interdisciplinary approach. For Steven Siegel, his interest in geology and concern for the environment brought a different perspective for the viewer to contemplate. The result hopefully
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would be to bring a community together, to ask important questions, to seek out possible solutions, and to energize the community to take an active part. We can become hopeful once more, with community participation and this kind of interdisciplinary thinking.



















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Notes:
(1)Abington Art Center, website http://abingtonartcenter.org/on-view/archive/
(2)McPhee, John, “Basin and Range” (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 1980) 95-104
ISBN 0-374-10914-1
(3)Abington Art Center, “Scale”, 2002
(4)Bolender, Karin, “Into the Holocene: The Art of Steven Siegel”, Dutchess Magazine,
February 2000
(5)Bolender, Karin, “Into the Holocene: The Art of Steven Siegel”, Dutchess Magazine,
February 2000













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References:
-Abington Art Center, “Scale”, 2002
-Abington Art Center, website http://abingtonartcenter.org/on-view/archive/
-Bolender, Karin, “Into the Holocene: The Art of Steven Siegel”, Dutchess Magazine,
February 2000
-McPhee, John, “Basin and Range” (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, New York, 1980)
ISBN 0-374-10914-1
-Phillips, Patricia C., “Wandering Through Time: The Sculpture of Steven Siegel”, Sculpture,
October 2003
-Siegel, Steven. 2003. http://stevensiegel.net/












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Korean Art Show and The Armory Show 2010

March 6, 2010 The Armory Show

This year I visited The Armory Show 2010 with some of my ideas for my BFA thesis in mind.


I quickly reviewed the Modern art in Pier 92, but I was more interested in the contemporary art in Pier 94.

At the Galleria Rafaella Cortese from Milan, Italy, a composite photograph by Anna Maria Maiolino was exhibited. This composite of photographs shows bare feet walking on ground that have eggs laid out. The image for me has to do with the quote "walking on eggs (or egg shells)" where one must tread carefully on the ground that one is walking on.

In relation to my artwork, I refer to an image of walking on grass without really knowing what is beneath the ground cover. More and more, the ground on which we walk upon is created by human activity. In a previous period, the land my have been a landfill but now it is a park with grass cover. We often assume while walking on grass in a park that the normal natural structures, such as bedrock and soil are under our feet. Nowadays, we also worry about the environment and we must be careful how we treat it. If we do not carefully consider the consequences of our actions, we can made the earth uninhabitable.

March 6, 2010 Korean Art Show

This is the first time the Korean International Art Fair partnered with The Armory Show. It was interesting for me to see what Korean contemporary artists are producing. Twenty-five Korean Galleries came to exhibit at the Korean Art Show at la venue.

Through the Chosun Art Gallery, Sung Hee Cho exhibited an artwork that was textured by recycled newspapers. The color and texture from the newspapers were done primarily for its decorative effects. There was very little environmental dialog with this piece.

Overall, I could see with the Korean Art Show the oriental touches in contemporary art. It is something that I could relate to, and I hope to see more of it in the future.

Progress on Thesis Artwork

2/26/2010 Progress on thesis Artwork


After constructing the glass vessel, I began layering in the contents. Multiple layers of newspapers were laid in a horizontal fashion a sheet at a time. This would be similar to the mountain streams carrying sediments downstream from the peaks to the spring pond.


On the sloping beds of the pond the sediments settle. When the pond dries during the summer the dried sediments will form a new layer, to be covered by the next years spring thaw of mountain snow.

Some years there are greater snow accumulation of winter snow and more sediments are laid down in the dried up pond. After millions of years and thousands of feet of sediments accumulating, the heat and pressure of the earth above and below compress the sediments into

sedimentary rocks. The layering effects of seasonal accumulation of sediments will remain in the sedimentary rocks. Only in the superficial layers will there be loose soil to trap the organic matter and be able to support surface vegetation.

We hope to have grass grow on top to represent the meadow that has arisen from the dried out pond.

2/19/2010 Critique Group 2A

The critique was held at the Livingston Art Building. This was done for the benefit of the sculpture students, including me. From the previous critique I concentrated on this one artwork first. The layering of the newspapers was started. I thought that the addition of dirt interlaced between multiple layers of newspaper made a clearer statement of the effect I wanted. The group agreed. We will need to see if the grass will grow on the surface.

I am thinking of creating another piece to complement the one that I am currently working on. Several ideas were discussed with the group. I could make a similar container or I could make something quite different but with a consistent message.

First Week Group 2A Critique

Group 2A Critique

January 29, 2010

I have been thinking about my thesis since last summer. I have since then been collecting newspapers and soda cans to recycle for the basis of my work. From our first group meeting I had gotten a lot of positive feedback on the idea for my recycled newspaper project. The concepts of earth, tree growth, newspaper production, communication, and change were well received. However, there was much discussion about the project of recycled soda cans. I believe further needs to be given to it before I can formalized a well defined project.

Victor suggested concentrating on one aspect of my thesis at a time. He recommended on focusing on the newspaper portion of the project. He feels that the newspaper project is interesting and he would like to see more works done with newspapers.

I am very excited to work on my thesis "the good earth" which incorporates artworks using newspapers as its founddation.

1-30-2010 Arthur Ross Gallery

Miler Lagos at the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania




This is part of Philagrafika 2010. Philagrafika 2010 is Philadelphia's international festival celebrating print in contemporary art. Its mission is to promote and sustain printmaking as a vital and valued art form. Many local institutions are planning and implementing a wide range of exhibitions, public programs and events, resulting in a citywide collective effort to promote printmaking. this reflects the collaborative nature of printmaking itself.





I visited the Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania, which presents a site-specific installation by artist-in-residence, Miler Lagos. Miler Lagos is a renowned Columbian contemporary artist. In order to achieve specific aesthetic and expressive goals, contemporary artists, like Miler Lagos, have drawn from inherent characteristics of the print. Concepts of imprinting, multiplicity, reproduction, and seriality, as well as physically printed forms are frequently used by artists who do not think of themselves as printmakers. In the most simple sense, here Miler Lagos is turning paper back into a tree. He has taken a ton of regional newspapers and rolled them, one page at a time, into what seems to be a large section of a tree. This repetitive action of rolling 58 kilometers of recycled newspaper establishes for me the cycle of seasonal rings one sees on cross-sections of the tree trunk. So, this sculpture looks like a few hundred year old tree to me.

Just as the rings of a tree trunk comprise as environmental record, the rings of this paper tree are made of thousands of daily stories, compressed into newsprint.

The Columbian artist calls the sculpture Silence Dogood, the pen name used by Benjamin Franklin when he was a teenager. Benjamin Franklin is also one of the founders of the University of Pennsylvania and he was also a printer. Here at the University of Pennsylvania, the sculpture sits at the site of the college founded by the originator of the name, Silence Dogood.

11/21/09 Guggenheim Museum

Kandinsky at the Guggenheim:

I visited the Guggenheim Museum. There were long lines to get tickets for the Kandinsky Exhibit. Although the museum was crowded the exhibit was easily viewed. The Frank Lloyd Wright design allowed for adequate spacing of the art works in a way that it could accommodate large crowds. The spiral design was basically a long corridor which wound itself to the top. The viewers proceeded in an orderly fashion in one of two directions, bottom-up or top-down. The flow of viewers did not have to fight for optimal viewing position since each individual saw the art works in the same way. I found this to be less tiring.

Kandinsky was forced to move around to many places because of political and economic reasons. But, he never came to America, although he was invited to come, 'home' was always in Europe. Because of his 'inner need' to express himself through art, he never finished his university studies in law and economics. He believed that art should express the innermost feelings of the artist, a new spiritual reality. A vocabulary needed to be developed to allow for this kind of expression. Much of his inspiration came from the his association with Arnold Schoenberg, an innovator of contemporary music. As much as the twelve-tone system of Schoenberg was used to break away from traditional conventions, Kandinsky also wanted to break away from representational art and become more abstract. His first truly non-objective painting was "Black Lines" done in 1913:

His color palette was changing from vibrant primary colors to subtle pastel hues. This conveyed to me a truer sense of spiritual regeneration. A later work, Movement I (1935) demonstrates a sophisticated vocabulary:

In this colorful galaxy, ribbons of color float amid complex geometric structures against a backdrop of circles large and small. Their edges are irregular. By now Kandinsky has stopped using the compass to draw his favorite motif, he wants to achieve the evocative powers of the circle:

1) the circle is the most modest form, but it asserts itself unconditionally.

2) it is precise but an inexhaustible variable.

3) simultaneously, it is stable and it is unstable.

4) simultaneously, it is loud and it is soft.
5) the circle is a single tension that carries countless tensions within it.

--indeed, the circle is the ideal symbol for this image which suggests infinity.

"Yellow-Red-Blue" is an important painting of the Bauhaus era.

While teaching at the Bauhaus, he collected images of embryology, zoology, and botany. He used these images for his lectures and re-formulated them into his abstract vocabulary. Blending the natural sciences with formal abstraction and Surrealist elements, Kandinsky worked in a free-flowing style. A style in which I can appreciate freedom of form while retaining the motif of opposing forces that has always been pervasive in his work. I can feel how he is creating tension in his works and then finds resolution of this tension. So, it is free of conventions, a more personal style which is internally liberating and self-motivating. Kandinsky's view was that the "inner necessity" of artists could be translated into universally accepted statements that could offer a regenerative vision of the future.

November 13, 2009 MFA Show

MFA Show

Installation of show in the gallery space:

I think the overall installation of the art works was done well. The space was used wisely. Since there was a pre-dominance of art work on the walls additional partitions made sense, by increasing the amount of wall space where art works could be hung. This was done in such a way that the largest hanging piece had an unobstructed view from a distance.

The walls allowed light pieces to be hung. They were not solid enough to have heavier pieces of art to be hung on them. The mobility was important since the location of the art piece needed to be illuminated in the proper perspective. The light could cast a shadow from the piece making it very interesting.

I am interested in land forms. The black and white photos and videos of Megan Flaherty dealt with those land forms in a wonderful way. For me, there was a feeling of sentimentality similar to "film noir" only in photo style. The photos had low-key lighting creating a chiaroscuro effect. I love this effect since it accentuates the contours of the landscape and trees. The video that was presented did not achieve the same effect, but it did provide movement of the scenery to the landscape. Importantly, the arrangement of the three unframed photos on one wall with the video on the opposite wall worked well with the longer wall with the six framed photos in between. I like the balance on this side of the room, compared to the crowded opposite side of the same room.

Christopher's Guerra's pieces of 'Spaghetti' and 'Life forms' had a lighter feeling and playfulness about it. I loved the colors, especially the intense primary colors used on the objects suspended from the ceiling. He invited me to his studio to see how he made the pieces. The processes to breakdown the newspapers to be applied to the chicken wire seems ingenious. But, what was exciting was how he built up his canvas with the processed newspaper before applying the paint. He threw the processed newspaper on to the canvas. The two of us were excited that we were both using recycled newspapers for similar environmental reasons for our art works. Actually, we came up with some ideas that may be useful to me in the future.

Overall, most of the art works were interesting. I am very optimistic about the graduate students and their abilities. They have a fertile imagination. But, some of the pieces seem to be unfinished.