For Immediate Release
Press Release dated 10/10/2007
WHO: Artist, Nicole Kistler
WHAT: A temporary art installation on Arizona State University’s Gammage Lawn
WHEN: Opening Friday, October 12th at 5:30 pm
WHERE: The corner of Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard in the fine City of Tempe
WHAT: A temporary art installation on Arizona State University’s Gammage Lawn
WHEN: Opening Friday, October 12th at 5:30 pm
WHERE: The corner of Mill Avenue and Apache Boulevard in the fine City of Tempe
At 5:30 pm on Friday, October 12th, Artist Nicole Kistler will launch her much anticipated temporary art installation, Mighty Manimal March, on ASU’s Gammage Lawn. Kistler’s piece will be the second installation of the Shared Terrain art program in front of Gammage, co-sponsored by the City of Tempe and Arizona State University.
On Thursday, October 11th, Mrs. Kistler will begin installing over one hundred and sixty commercially produced plastic, latex and fiberglass animal lawn ornaments on the Gammage Lawn. The menagerie includes 64 flamingoes, 30 penguins, 5 pelicans, 7 iguanas and lizards, 2 pythons, 10 chicks, a baby elephant named “Bessie,” 11 wild boar, 20 rabbits, and 4 squirrels, 6 reindeer, and 3 bears. She intends to arrange this river of animals so that they appear to be on a protest march or leaving class together and chatting about the course material.
Kistler says about the piece:
“I find lawn ornaments to be a paradox, in occupying and altering the terrain where we build our cities, our homes and our schools, we inevitably evict many of it’s former inhabitants, animals and plants that get pushed aside. Then, we come along and plant new plants to our liking, and install artificial animals, lawn ornaments, that remind us of the relationship we might have once had with something wild. We are happy to have plastic deer, but don’t want live deer eating our flowers.
What if these plastic animals rebelled? What if they got together to find their flesh and blood kin? What if they went to school to get educated, so they might earn higher standing in our communities? I wonder if there were a whole group of animals waiting patiently to cross the road together if drivers would stop for them, instead of making them road kill. Maybe, in making animals more human, in using lawn ornaments as familiar stand-ins for the real thing, we can begin to reconstruct our relationship with nature, even in the middle of the city.”
Shared Terrain provides a fun opportunity to use humor to engage people in a dialogue about our fragile desert landscape. Nicole says, “It’s ridiculous! I’ve had these animals in the back of my truck, and everywhere I go people smile and laugh. You can’t see them and not wonder what I’m up to.”
The piece will be up through December, and the animals will be formally up for adoption to the general public on a first come first serve basis when the piece comes down (date to be announced.)
This project will be a homecoming for Nicole, who grew up in Tempe and finished her bachelor’s degree at ASU. Currently living in Seattle, and reportedly missing the sun.
Mighty Manimal March