art and artists, Volume 6 number 3, March 2004 Fire and Ice The starting line of the Yukon Quest 2004 had a welcome addition this year. A number of local artists added to the celebratory ethos of the moment with the placement of six firesleds on the Chena River. “The firesleds were a collaborative effort,” said Mark Fejes. “It seemed like a good idea and we just had to do it.” Those involved with sled fabrication included Donna, Darcy, Alex, and Ian Olsen; Michael Croskrey, Michael Williams, Mike Little, Roy Wilbur, Patty Peirsol, and George Gifford. The materials used and style of each of the sleds were unique. Some were created from old water pipe from the F.E. Company used on the Davidson Ditch. There was an aluminum firesled fashioned with a cooking platform and boxes on the sides for storing firewood. Sleds were mounted on various types of skis, including one on an old pair of Rosignol downhills. Inviting bonfires blazed within each sled, providing Quest onlookers with a place to gather, warming bodies and hands and lifting spirits. The firesled installation was the brainchild of Marco Casagrande, a Finnish artist and architect working in conjunction with FLOW, a project initiated by artist Mark Fejes’ Well and Good Gallery. As Fejes explains, “FLOW is just a title with some very compelling and interesting meanings. It means to move along in a stream, to circulate as the blood, to proceed continuously and smoothly. FLOW may overflow or abound with something or it may rise and advance as the tide.” Mark goes on to say, “We like FLOW as a project name as it describes a very positive, universal, and somehow elemental group effort. FLOW is perfect.” Last fall a FLOW open forum initiated by Patty Kastelic, Susan McInnis, Donna Olsen, Ron Short, and Mark Fejes revolved around how to get more art displayed in public places. “We will talk, think, envision, suggest, and plan.” One outcome of this forum and other meetings was Marco Casagrande’s visit to Fairbanks February 4 through 10 and his presentation at Schaible Auditorium reviewing the work that he and his architectural firm have been involved in since 1998. Here are some of the many art installations Marco Casagrande created which he reviewed during his address to the community. The first installation, created in 1999, entailed three abandoned barn-like houses that were mounted on wooden shanks at a height of about forty feet in order to give them the appearance of a slow, majestic walk. In Finland the powerful people are moving to the city, and thus this installation placed these barns on tall poles so that they too may metaphorically move and leave the countryside. Six thousand people gathered as each of these barns was torched and burnt to the ground. In 2000 a 50-meter long barge was planted as an archaic oak park in Venice. The park is planted on sixty minutes’ worth of composted human waste from the city of Venice. Another installation completed in 2000, not too far from Helsinki, consisted of one thousand white flags made of sheets from mental hospitals hanging from nine-foot iron bars displayed on a downhill-ski slope in Koli National Park. This installation celebrated the madness of the businessmen who cut down the ancient forest in this most beautiful of Finland’s areas for purposes of recreational development. In the past five years Casagrande and his partners have collaborated on exhibits at the Havana and Venice Biennales, and have displayed works in Canada, Puerto Rico, Japan, Norway, and Finland. In 2003, assisted by a group of University of Alaska Anchorage sculpture students, Casagrande completed a rather massive installation that was displayed for two months in downtown Anchorage. Fuel tanks were used to build a temple-like structure with a fire pit at one end. In recognition of Alaska’s dependence on oil the artists sprinkled thousands of oyster shells, which produce natural oil, on the structure’s floor. Some Anchorage residents interpreted the installation as a criticism of Alaska’s dependence on oil revenues. During his presentation Casagrande explained that this installation was not meant to offend. “As we always do, we were merely using those materials which were available,” he stated. Considering the chief goal of his many installations, Casagrande said, “Fire attracts people regardless of their culture.” A key element in the planning of an installation is to invite some sort of interaction from the viewer, in the hope that people will see elements of their environment in a novel way. Casagrande uses materials that are local and, when possible, free. Installations are temporary structures that will only be experienced by others briefly and then disassembled. Indeed, the process of these creations is as important as the installation itself. To his liking, at least fifty percent of his installation work involves teaching. Casagrande is interested in working with children in Fairbanks. “Like the river ice, their minds are not corrupted,” he said with a sparkle in his eyes. One of his child-centered installations was created in a postindustrial town in northern Japan. The city had been overdeveloped and was visually uninspiring, consisting of large unidentifiable concrete structures. The city council invited Casagrande to work with its citizens to help develop a sense of community. Casagrande designed a workshop for families. His project provided each family with large pieces of cardboard and paint. The parents’ tasks were to follow their children’s directions in creating a new town. The only rule was that each building had to be constructed so that the children could wear the building. The culminating activity was a children’s parade. Casagrande relays a favorite memory of noticing that the parade was going awry, and how closer inspection of the situation revealed that the shopping center was engaged in conversation with the church. Casagrande has presented his work to Fairbanks mayor Steve Thompson and borough mayor Jim Whitaker’s staff. Both mayors seemed very receptive to the concept of installations on the Chena River. If all goes as planned, we can look forward to another visit from Marco Casagrande next year. FLOW 2005 is envisioned as artists, art students, engineers, architects, and the community working together to create a learning festival on the Chena River in downtown Fairbanks. Its precise content is yet to be determined but the intent is a Fairbanks winter celebration. Mark Fejes has assured FLOW participants that “whatever happens in 2005 we are sure that the firesleds will be a part of it.” FLOW’s website is www.flow05.org. More about future public art projects in Fairbanks can be found at www.wagart.org. Terry Glendinning is a member of the Visual Arts Committee of the Fairbanks Arts Association.
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