Jesseca Ferguson: Inspirations

-Kurt Cole Eidsvig

While Jesseca Ferguson typically finds her inspirations from the work of other artists, or the process she uses to make images, the acclaimed pinhole photographer and creator of photo objects is in the middle of a new project that draws from very different sources. Her art has traveled in exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, and museums like the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France, the Museum of the History of Photography in Krakow, Poland and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston currently hold her pieces in their collections. Most recently, Handmade Pictures by Jesseca Ferguson, a solo show of over 35 of her works, was on exhibit at the Fox Talbot Museum in Wiltshire, England. But in working on an artist’s book for the upcoming exhibition “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here,” the longtime Fort Point resident (Ferguson has lived here since 1987) is finding inspiration in unlikely places—poetry and politics.

Top: Al-Mutanabbi Street after the bomb attack, 5 March 2007. Photo: Khalid Mohammed, AFP/Press Association

Bottom: The Friday book market on Al-Mutanabbi Street, 24 March 2006

The travelling exhibition Ferguson is currently preparing a piece for is a show of 259 artist books made by 259 international artists/artist teams from 24 countries. The books are being made to reflect upon the March 5, 2007 car bomb attack that took place in Al-Mutanabbi Street, the ancient street of booksellers, poets and writers, located at the literary and cultural heart of Baghdad, Iraq. The show is unique in that each artist team will create three versions of their book, with one entire set being donated to the National Library in Baghdad, Iraq. The other two sets will tour on exhibition in various countries starting in mid January and extending for an indefinite period of time. The first scheduled exhibition in the UK will be at the John Rylands Library in Manchester, England.

Image by Jesseca Ferguson, courtesy of museumofmemory.com

“It upset me that someone was so angry that they wanted to eradicate history—their own history,” Ferguson says of her decision to help organize the project and create a book for the travelling exhibition. This decision also led her to return to the writing of Meena Alexander, a poet Jesseca met when they were both in residence at the MacDowell Colony in 1993. The book Jesseca is producing for “Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here,” will incorporate text from Alexander’s poetry combined with visual imagery created through photographic processes.

The decision to use poetry for this work was partially due to the destructive nature of the bombing, and the desire to create new books for the exhibition, but was also motivated directly by Meena Alexander’s poetry. “She talks a lot about her history and family—is always conjuring up India in her memoirs, poetry, and books—and has these exotic locales imploding in New York,” Ferguson says of the poet.

Image by Jesseca Ferguson, courtesy of museumofmemory.com

Considering Ferguson’s career and her drive to preserve antique methods for photography and collage, it is easy to see why the March 5, 2007 bombing would be so emotional for the artist. Not only is pinhole photography a laborious technique which requires hours for a successful exposure, the very use of these methods speaks to holding things from the past as somewhat sacred. “I feel photography is a way of stopping time,” she says. “You have something that only looked that way then.”

But the story behind the project also crosses personal lines. Although the bombing reminded Ferguson of Nazis and book burning, she also explains, “If my husband and I were there [in Iraq] at the time, we would have been on this street.” As Al-Mutanabbi Street, with its shops and books, is a focal point for artists and writers—not to mention those who collect materials and texts for use in their art. Artists like Jesseca Ferguson.

So despite the very different motivation, Ferguson’s current project also combines elements of preserving a moment from the past and making it immediate and lasting—embedded with personal emotional response.

Photo Object by Jesseca Ferguson, courtesy of museumofmemory.com

“Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here” will tour various locations in the US and Europe starting in 2013, and will also include work by Fort Point artists Mary McCarthy and Laura Davidson.

www.MuseumOfMemory.com.

About the Author: Kurt Cole Eidsvig is an artist and poet who lives and works in Fort Point. He maintains a website at www.KurtColeEidsvig.com. Look for Kurt’s Inspiration posts each month on the site.

The ICA's Bridget Hanson recently selected Alys Myers' piece for the 2011 ICA Curators Choice Award in our annual members' Group Show. Each year a representative from the Institute of Contemporary Art's Curatorial Department recognizes one piece from our members' Group Show, in partnership with FPAC's Open Studios.

Hanson was drawn to Heavy, Light, Heavy: "It stood out to me because it seemed to function as both a sculpture and a 2-D work, and the tension created by the mix of the hard metal and soft fabric materials was very interesting."

Alys' piece is the beginning of her collaboration between steel (a previous medium) and textiles (her most recent one) and reflects her current focus on loss, memory and impermanence.

Congratulations to Alys: in addition to the recognition, she gets a one-year membership to the ICA.

The Annual Members Group Show is on exhibit through Friday, October 28th, at The FPAC Gallery at 300 Summer Street.

Thank you to the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, and to Bridget Hanson.

Check out the full interview with "Embroidered" Artists

Studio View - Jodie Baehre

Artist, art enthusiast and art administrator, Jodie Baehre utilizes her studio as not just a work area, but home base for her family.

“My studio is a safe – haven for my work and my ideas, and I have to admit even though my husband lives there too, sometimes I think, “who is this person in my studio looking at my work?” And then he of course asks me to remove my hundreds of tiny canvases off his air hockey table and I think, “oh yes, I know him.” Your Studio just become a place to escape and everything else fades away sometimes” - Jodie

Jodie’s recent body of 100 small works is a collaboration of places she has been, books she has read, architecture and design. Each of the small works has been covered with plastic resin to seal in the moments of thought and provide a smooth, wrapped 4 x 4 or 5 x 5” gift – like box. From the artist studio to your screen, check out her work in person during Fort Point Open Studios, October 14-16. 15 Channel Center Street - #219

Fall Public Art Series: From Conception to Completion Part 2

FPAC's Fall Public Art Series is funded by a grant from The Fund for The Arts, a public program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible by generous support from anonymous donors. Floating art is sponsored by generous support of The Friends of Fort Point Channel. Special thanks to the City of Boston, The Department of Public Works, and The Boston Art Commission for support and assistance.

An Interview with James McLeod & Sylvie Agudelo
"Embroidered"

FPAC: How did you come up with the inspiration for your public art project in Fort Point?

JM & SA: There was a call for temporary public art for open studios and at the time, there had been a number of physical changes in the neighborhood that had become more visible… many of the artists who had been here were gone.

SA: The changes were amplified because I was dealing with the death of a friend. At the time I had discovered some scrap books and quilts that had been contributed by other people and thought it would be interesting to find out how people think of this place (fort point). Many of my art installations incorporate time and collective memory as themes. Lately I have been studying ways to increase participation in public policy decision-making and effective community leadership, so the prospect of implementing a process to reach people who were not living here…was appealing.

FPAC: Was it difficult to choose a location within the area?

JM & SA: The location was chosen by FPAC. The location is difficult because one is working outside in changing weather and the wind really takes its toll on the work that is out there. It is a frequently travelled path and we want to keep the way safe for people and honor the safety features of the fence.

FPAC: Can you talk about your method and materials in constructing your project?

JM & SA: There was a lot of testing of materials prior to beginning. Prototypes have been hanging out my window for a few weeks. We had worked on other outdoor art pieces and had a good sense of how materials interact, but there were a number of new lessons we learned. Tyvek (material) uses up a lot of scissors and doesn't like to be crushed. Tempered glass cannot be cut. The fence is covered with a fine plastic coating and we didn't want to ruin it, so we switched the hanging method. I can tell you a lot about welding aluminum (a method we abandoned for this project), and I can tell you there are a lot of men in the neighborhood who know how to sew on machines. There are a lot of hands - on work in this project, which makes it more interesting, but it takes a lot of time. There is also a challenge of working with a wide range of people who aren't necessarily artists… so that has been interesting to find a common language both literally and visually. We helped in facilitating neighborhood collaboration and sharing different ways of viewing and doing public art.

FPAC: How do you hope your work will connect with the public and community?

SA & JM: People's submissions were surprising and so, so, so much fun to read. Their reactions to the work have been even more rewarding, and for me it has been nice to connect to people more directly. It is interesting to be directed by other people in making work. We took people's submissions and made work from those submissions, and it changed our original proposal a little bit. We hadn't planned for so many flowers, however the Wormwood Park garden was the number one submission. We hope the work cheers people up and gives them another reason to talk with one another.

FPAC: Dialogue, a simple thought to build a community relationship...

The fall public art projects were selected by a jury of artists, arts professionals, and community members:

Ricardo Barreto, Director of the UrbanArts Institute at Mass. College of Art & Design (Floating art only).  Kate Gilbert, Director of Public Programs and Outreach at Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, artist.  Danielle Pillion, Executive Director of Friends of Fort Point Channel.
Karen Stein, previous recipient of FPAC Public Art Series Funding, FPAC Board member, artist/designer of goodgood.  Mary Tinti, NEFA Public Art Fellow, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Koch Curatorial Fellow.  Jane Marsching, Associate Professor at Massachusetts College of Art, artist.

Scan It

Just Scan it.

Claudia & Michael - A Duet

Claudia Ravaschiere and Michael Moss, part of FPAC's 2011 Fall Public Art Series, also have collaborated on sound installation art. Their piece, Musical Chairs, is in the permanent collection of the Boston Children's Museum. Precious, first created for Fort Point Open Studios, has been exhibited in Boston City Hall, and was the subject of a profile on National Public Radio.

Fall Public Art Series from Conception to Completion Part 1

FPAC's Fall Public Art Series is funded by a grant from The Fund for The Arts, a public program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible by generous support from anonymous donors. Floating art is sponsored by generous support of The Friends of Fort Point Channel. Special thanks to the City of Boston, The Department of Public Works, and The Boston Art Commission for support and assistance.

An interview with Michael Moss and Claudia Ravaschiere

"Street Cathedral"

Fall Public Art Series in Fort Point

FPAC: How did you come up with the inspiration for your public art project in Fort Point?

CR & MM: We first worked with these materials in 2006 when we were part of the public art project sponsored by the FPCC utilizing repurposed windows from buildings in Fort Point that were being renovated. There was an installation along the post office fence on A Street. Each artist was given a window to transform. We created a piece entitled ”Candy Glass”. The piece was in the office at the Midway Artists’ Studios until a few years ago.

“Street Cathedral” uses these similar materials. The piece is made to create areas of discovery, manipulate the light and evoke both reverence and whimsy. We wanted to do a piece that would celebrate Fort Point as a special place full of possibilities, and a place to gather, as it has always been for artists.

One quality that was important for us to evoke, was the nature of the glass that is in the warehouse buildings’ windows. Having been in these buildings for many years, the original glass in the windows create amazing effects when the sunlight streams through the panes of glass. Though they are clear, the original glass in these windows causes the light to shimmer like water, and even take on a prismatic quality. Sadly as these buildings are renovated and these windows replaced, this will be lost. It has always been something that we loved about the buildings in Fort Point.

It was equally important for us to place “Street Cathedral” squarely within a contemporary sensibility. So we designed these pieces to possess a scientific quality, mathematical and physical. In this way they are very much in the present day and evoke the future as well as the past.

FPAC: Was it difficult to choose a location within the area?

CR & MM: No, we knew that we wanted to place the piece where people could stand and see several at the same time, much the way one would if they were in a sacred place with stained glass windows. At first we thought that the street signs would be a problem, but because it is public art and meant to be integrated into the urbanscape, we were ultimately happy with the way the installation appeared from different positions from the street signs which are so very much a part of any urban street. Again, it adds to the sense of discovery. Gabrielle Schaffner, Karin Goodfellow, Caitlin Greely, Commissioner Joanne Massaro and Anne McNeil at Public Works were all very helpful in helping obtain the permits for this project.

FPAC: Can you talk about your method and materials in constructing your project?

CR & MM: We consulted with a number of chemical engineers and plastics fabricators to ensure that the construction would be sound. We subjected the pieces to water, weight, pressure, heat, and cold. As we mentioned, we hope that the method in which they are constructed will evoke a shimmering quality to the light in addition to manipulation of natural light into color.

With public art, because it is in the truest sense, naked to the world, you have to ask yourself, “Will this work?” You toss and turn at night, but after a certain point in the project, you have to grab the wheel and as they say; “Drive like you stole it” and just get it out there and put the work forth. At a certain point it becomes more about what you are offering to people with a random spirit and complete faith beyond whatever you originally intended.

FPAC: How do you hope your work will connect with the public and community?

We hope that as people walk through Fort Point that these pieces will bring them a sense discovery and joy. To illustrate that Fort Point is a special place, full of history, creativity and constantly evolving, much like the light that changes throughout the day. Here one can find innovation inspired by something ancient like the stained glass of sacred places.

The fall public art projects were selected by a jury of artists, arts professionals, and community members:

Ricardo Barreto, Director of the UrbanArts Institute at Mass. College of Art & Design (Floating art only).

Kate Gilbert, Director of Public Programs and Outreach at Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, artist.

Danielle Pillion, Executive Director of Friends of Fort Point Channel.

Karen Stein, previous recipient of FPAC Public Art Series Funding, FPAC Board member, artist/designer of goodgood.

Mary Tinti, NEFA Public Art Fellow, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum Koch Curatorial Fellow.

Jane Marsching, Associate Professor at Massachusetts College of Art, artist.