15DOI 10.2441 2/2713-184X-2023-2-44-47
BIVOUAC: A SITE-SPECIFIC INSTALLATION
SUSAN TEARE
is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in Educational Studies at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She has a BA in Art History from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, and an MFA in photography and media studies from Maine Media College in Rockport, ME. She is the Creative and Education Advisor for the Yellow Tulip Project. The organization is a youth-driven movement working to smash the stigma around mental health and bring communities together to foster hope.
I did commercial architectural photography for images of water, sky, and fire. Again, the photoover twenty years and longed for a more embodied graphs returned to a computer screen, and my experience in making art. I was always looking frustration remained. I started printing on fabric at my photographs on a computer screen which to see how a new material would change the pro-felt increasingly empty as time passed. I needed cess and experience. I soon discovered a soft silk the freedom to work more intuitively and awaken to print on that brought the imagery back to life. my senses to my surroundings. I began to make The silk swayed in the wind like ripples of water.
Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice. 2023, Volume 4, № 2. ISSN 2713-1831
© Ecopoiesis, 2023
They moved when I moved. The silk changed in the light, therefore, changing the image. I started swimming with the silk and photographing it underwater. The process became a physical undertaking that felt like I was an active participant and part of nature. My artwork was coming alive, and so was I.
My questions persisted about printed images eventually returning to paper, becoming two-dimensional, still, and-in my opinion-lifeless. I decided they should return to where they were made; they belonged back in the landscape to breathe and live. Close friends in my town in Vermont had some land where a microburst had come through, downing close to sixty trees in the forest behind their house. The surviving trees provided a structure similar to a house's
framing, giving me a framework. Over the next six months, the owners and I cleaned up the area to make it walkable and open. I sketched out possibilities of how to hang the silk pieces and spent many hours getting to know the land. I felt peaceful there and noticed a sense of belonging. I printed small and large sections of silk, had them sewn, and then hung them on wires between trees. The installation was completed in December 2018 in time for a winter solstice celebration. I put lights under the hanging silk, made a hundred ice votives, and built two bonfires. The moon provided light as well. Over ninety people made their way through a path in the woods lit with candles in ice to the opening where the illuminated silk was gently moving in the evening wind. The solstice was a pivotal point in my artmaking because my work was not on paper
© Ecopoiesis, 2023
Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice. 2023, Volume 4, № 2. ISSN 2713-184X
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hanging inside on a wall but integrated into the landscape where people could experience art and nature together.
I spent the next year at the site installation. Sometimes, I pitched a tent and slept beneath the trees and swaying fabric. I tended to the silk pieces, watched their interaction with the elements, cared for the land, and made art. The seasons changed, and the silk gradually became tattered. The land began a slow recovery. Regenerative growth, animals, and numerous birds inhabited the area. Some had always lived there, but new opportunities for habitats presented themselves within the altered
terrain. The irony of time passing was witnessing the renewal of the landscape while the silk faded and tore. The new natural growth and the decline of the tired hanging art began to resonate with me, representing my healing process and recently discovered resilience.
The installation came down in late 2019. I still feel a pang in my stomach when I realize I will never see or experience it again. It was not meant to be permanent, but the memory is lasting. I feel so much joy reflecting on the project and looking at my artwork created from that time. It is a place to call home.
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Ecopoiesis: Eco-Human Theory and Practice. 2023, Volume 4, № 2. ISSN 2713-184X
© Ecopoiesis, 2023
