Today’s entry describes how I transitioned from my electric light studies, and began to consider the horizontal landscape beyond the Belvedere and install panels of various degrees of transparency and opacity to frame, focus, and filter the views surrounding the structure.
As I began to install these panels and cut away openings, which are not unlike windows I guess, the project really began to take shape for me. It also seemed to become more integrated into the site (both the most immediate environment as well as in relation to far off vistas).
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Today's blog installment by Lucas Artists Fellow Justin Lowman further details his creative process and inspiration for Untitled (Belvedere Temple). It also marks the third day in our count-down towards Sunday's event Perceptual (Part Two), which will be the debut of his new work.
With the essential framework for my project set, the next order of business was to start working more directly with lighting conditions and effects. The first image you see here is a detail of the top of the stud walls where my structure meets the Belvedere Temple. To highlight the passage of time I installed pink colored Plexiglas strips that project light and shadow on to the columns. Circulating all the way around the top of my structure, this band of color, with its companion wood slats, produce various patterns on and around the Belvedere Temple that shift throughout the day as the sun changes in position and intensity.
Lucas Artists Fellow Justin Lowman continues his series of daily posts describing the creative evolution of his brand new work Untitled (Belvedere Temple) in advance of its premiere on December 14 at Perceptual (Part Two).
Upon returning to Montalvo at the end of October 2014 with the intention of finally realizing my art project at the Belvedere Temple, my first step was to lay the foundation. This photograph represents the initial phase of developing the work. Utilizing the footprint of the existing columns and the concrete expansion joints of the floor as guidelines and using the underside of the Belvedere Temple to determine the height restriction, I fabricated a wooden framework using 2 x 4 redwood lumber with studs placed 24” apart, in accordance with recognized construction standards. In this way, my project suggests the vernacular of modern construction methods used in modestly-scaled domestic architectures (tree forts, sheds, etc.).
It seems apropos to start with this first image of Montalvo's historic Belvedere because it is one of the first photographs I took during my initial site visit for this project in January 2014. This photograph represents a similar view to the one I experienced when I first encountered the Belvedere Temple in April/May 2012. At that time, I was enjoying my first residency at Montalvo Arts Center. I was returning from a hike, one that started on the trails near the top of the Lucas Artists Residency complex. Having followed some trails to the top, I was descending back down when suddenly I stopped in my tracks, dumbfounded by what I saw. The view was so unexpected, especially as I was deep in thought elsewhere.
At this moment, I had an immersive sense of being lost in a forest. My sense of familiarity with this experience and terrain had allowed my mind to wander (having grown up near a small, wooded area in southern Wisconsin, I formed an intimate relationship with nature, amidst the large deciduous trees, ones whose essential structures were also best seen during these same winter months, although in the case of the Belvedere without all the snow). |