Cierra Site Specific

5/1/2023

So unfortunately all thirty bells were stolen so this work lives on through the previous images posted and the video I am uploading. Unfortunately, we can not control human intervention but luckily my cast bells were spared. 

This piece is entitled Homage to the Idea of Home 

April 23, 2023 

I have been progressively handing more bells on the bridge, testing the waters to see if anyone will have an issue with their placement. So far none of my bells have run away and I captured pictures of the full installation tonight. I have one more bell and a few more things to do but overall I am very thrilled. 

April 17, 2023

I have come to the conclusion that doing my installation around the train track area is important for me. A place that almost every town has but no one really takes notice of. Throughout my childhood, I always lived next to train tracks. It was where my friends and I would gather to play, it was something I had to cross to get to the other side of town. My dad who has always worked in the coal mining industry always told me to listen for the train bells. I don't remember why but it was always a calming thing for me in a childhood that was beyond chaotic. So with that in mind, I would really like to create an installation of bells near the tracks or on the bridge. 

April 10, 2023, 

I am currently collecting bells to do a larger installation. I want to bells either in a place that has a connection to my childhood or in a place where it would have a larger impact on people. I have been in contact with Laura with Laramie Public Art and I'm trying to find a place that would be best because I can not contact anyone about the train bridge. I have found quite a few bells and have also made some of my own. The idea of using found bells also creates a connection to different people and memory. 

April 3, 2023, 

My ideas for this installation have progressed. I feel that the nipples and other ideas need more time to flesh out. The ideas below are ones that I am very excited about. 

This piece would be placed in front of the city hall (maybe). It includes an abstract figure and its shadow. A topic I have previously addressed is the beauty of the lessons we learn from our past. As someone with what you would call a "colorful" past, I still find the good within all of the bad. Our past makes us the people we are today. 

This idea includes a bunch of iris flowers. This idea came from the long and icky winter we have had, we all need some color. Iris is a symbol of hope and courage. This is a flower that can grow and strive even in Wyoming. It is also the only plant aside from grass that grew around my childhood home, these flowers thrived until last year when someone decided they were not beautiful and cut them all down. 

   I can not express how much I love bells. Since I was young I noticed that my family has always had some sort of bell in our homes. They are interactive and engage the viewer in different ways. I wanted to create a bronze bell inspired by the resurrection fern, which is a fern that grows on a host plant like a tree and only unfurls when wet. I have been continuously told throughout my life that rain has healing qualities and washes away negativity in the same way the sound of a bell is supposed to. 

March 20, 2023

Some of the artists I am looking at for this include the following:

Laura Belm's installation A Thousand Bells. I have been very interested in the form, history, and tradition of the bell. This piece would sound absolutely amazing outside and it would interact with the viewers with the sound and the movement. 

Another artist I have been looking at is Pierre Huyghe, especially in the following piece. I love the interaction between the figure and the dog. Their use of the figure is very powerful and especially the relationship they have created with the environment around them. 

The last artist that I am taking inspiration from for some of my ideas is Jenny Holzer. Her work ranges from political statements to uplifting words. I want my work to represent both at the same time. 

 I come bearing more ideas and places. I am really struggling with this project and figuring out what I want to say or do. I have included two more ideas that came to me late last week. I have been really interested in kinetics and bells as they are one of the only family traditions I have memories of. Bells mean a lot to me and I think they would work for an outside installation considering how windy Wyoming is. Some places I Was considering for my installation were Piss Alley (behind Roxies), in front of City Hall, or on the walking bridge over the train tracks. 

I feel really passionately about bells, I would love to create an installation of small bells that populate a public space. I can imagine the sounds and how they would interact with the Laramie wind. 

My other Idea is speaking about bodies and what we are if we remove the political part of the body. This was an oddball idea that I felt I needed to draw and see.  

March19, 2023

I have a few different approaches I want to take with my site-specific installation. To start I have a box of 53 nipples and now four more cast-iron nipples. I would install them in an alley or on the side of a building. This piece would be talking about the gaze and how we approach different body parts with preconceived notions. 

My second idea comes from a place of fear, anger, and utter disgust. As we all know Roe v Wade was overturned, and since then everything has become increasingly scary. I try to stay out of politics as much as possible and I try not to stir the pot or make art regarding politics but not right now. I am Pro-Choice, I believe in medical freedom and access to reproductive healthcare. I want to do something to express this as I am feeling the overwhelming suffocation of not having a choice. So I drew something that I might pursue. It's an egg windchime with metal coathangers as the hanging structure. I can see several of these or one large one.

Jenny Holzer

Pierre Huyghe 

Janine Antoni