urbane ceramic

Inspired by the previous post on this blog, about ceramics in an urban context,
I would like to share an interesting exhibition experience from the opposite realm 
of public space: the rural context. From November 2009 through March 2010 I’ve
been participating in Field Work, a project which aims to present site-specific art
installations in a field near Perth, Ontario, (Canada) for passers-by to stumble upon,
discover, journey to, and explore.

freedom to roam
(Allemansrätt / All man’s right)
wood, fence wire, ceramics
100 x 3 meters
2009

Freedom to roam is a comment on land rights and the use of land. In Nordic countries the freedom to roam is written in the constitution and an unspoken knowledge that people are brought up with. Humbleness and respect is woven into the concept: leave a site untouched, in the state that you found it.
Use, but don’t exhaust. Nature belongs to everybody – and nobody. In North America there is a lot of private land and restricted areas. No trespassing signs are common things for those who live here, but a strange concept to a visitor. The ownership of land raises a lot of questions: what is public, what is private? What is public space? Who controls it? Who has the right to use public space and to act there? What gives some people the right to deny others trespassing? Those questions inevitably lead to another major theme that inspired Freedom to Roam: conflicts, war and migration. Nations, borders and crossings. The barbed wire fence in this context represents the ambiguity and arbitrariness in the way that decision makers in states with more power control people coming in or running away from the less powerful nations.
Who is granted access and who is not?

Additional information and updates about the project, including photo documentation, can be found by visiting www.hennylinn.se

www.hennylinn.se
info@hennylinn.se

Author's web site: http://www.europeanceramiccontext.com

Show all post by: susanne

Tags: Land Art, urbane ceramic

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 11:45 pm and is filed under urbane ceramic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.