"Linda Weintraub is a curator, educator, artist, and author of several popular books about contemporary art. She has earned her reputation by making the outposts of vanguard art accessible to broad audiences. The current vanguard, she believes, is propelled by environmental consciousness that is not only the defining characteristic of contemporary manufacturing, architecture, science, ethics, politics, and philosophy, it is delineating contemporary art. // lindaweintraub.com"
On Wednesday April 18th, I attended Linda Weintraub's
Welcome to My Woods art exhibit, hosted in the UCLA Art|Sci Gallery. Linda Weintraub lives in rural upstate New York. She brought out this relatively remote perspective in her workshop: before opening the door, she gathered everyone outside for a short introduction. She asked participants what percent of their life we thought we spent on ground that was not flat or man-made, and how much time we spent holding objects that were of nature and not manufactured or man-made. Answers were generally very low. She cited an example of a class of students in an urban area who went on a field trip to the beach, which soon had to be called off since many of the students did not know how to deal with the beach and sandy ground.
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| The Wild Walk, Upstate New York |
A primary theme of the workshop was neo-materialism, referring to materialism in contemporary years. Since smart phones have been in use for around a decade now, essentially everyone in urban societies has completely adjusted to a screen being at quick grasp which can mentally dislocate them from their current area or action. As Weintraub pointed out, most of these people never interact with natural material: even the plants at UCLA are very likely carefully placed and procured. Her workshop was to create a small haven sectioned off from industrial construction with plants and other objects from her home. The workshop consisted of 5 sections. Each section focused on a different sense, such as sight, smell, or touch. The center space had attendees take off their shoes and walk over different textures that can be found in the forest, such as dirt or pine needles. Some stations had students write about what they thought the evolutionary purpose of different parts of a plant was. The Flavor and Aroma section had participants smell different items from the forest and use unique adjectives to describe their impression. Many students wrote in negative adjectives: this is possibly due to the fact that these smells are not normally present in our day-to-day lives and are therefore somewhat shocking or unpleasant.
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| Photo of self & exhibit poster |
The experience was overall refreshing, since I have not had much opportunity with the workload of school to visit nature. I enjoy backpacking, bouldering, etc, but I am from and currently live in industrial cities which require an effort to reach nature.
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