Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Land Markers Marked

I have decided to change my approach to the project in Ludlow, Mass from "art project" to "history project"--for the moment. It occurred to me that while I was making paintings and drawings about my experience of the place, the history of the location had simply become background. This was unacceptable to me, so I picked up the book, Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick and also I went to see a series of shortfilms by Thomas Comerford at Woodland Patterns Bookstore/gallery/experimental film venue in Milwaukee. I thought that Comerford's most recent film "Land Marked/Marquette" was particularly insightful in how to layer historical information encapsulated in the city of Chicago's monuments to Pere Marquette alongside contemporary environmental issues. Here is a link to his website: http://www.thomascomerford.net/film.html