ELEMENTS 2020 - AN ENVIRONMENTAL PUBLIC ART SERIES
Murals at Mason is developing murals and public art projects that explore the dynamic relationships between art, humanity, and the ELEMENTS: EARTH, WATER, FIRE, AIR. This open theme invites meaningful creative interpretations of contemporary society and our relationship with the environment from a variety of perspectives.
Coming 2020-2021 Academic Year
Title: FAUNA OF BELMONT BAY
Artist: TakerOne, Budapest, Hungary
Location: Potomac Environmental Research and Education Center (PEREC), Belmont Bay, VA
Duration: 1+ year
Project Description:
TakerOne’s mural design blends four key species that inhabit Belmont Bay including the Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly, the Tree Frog, the Wood Duck, and the North American River Otter. The artist beautifully integrates the scale and environments of each animal to demonstrate the connection between them. Moving through insect, reptile, avian, and mammal, viewers can appreciate the biodiversity in Belmont Bay, VA. The large-scale mural faces a large open recreation field and it will be clearly visible from boats in the bay.
Artist Bio:
TakerOne is a mural and street artist from Budapest, Hungary who, since 2001, has produced projects in London, New York, Los Angeles, Auckland, Spain, and Israel. After years of doing graffiti and tagging, he shifted his professional focus to paint photorealistic murals on a commission basis. He is dedicated to improving the built environment through the addition of inspiring, large-scale images.
Title: DIOS QUE MEDITA COPIA (The God Who Meditates)
Artist: Wosnan, Bogotá , Colombia
Location: Enterprise Hall glass structure
Duration: 1+ year
Artist Statement
“The basis of my work consists of organic forms, microscopic life, plants, fungi, bacteria, and beings from parallel universes.
For this design, I decided to manifest an ancestor, perhaps a superior being who takes care of Mother Nature. This ancestor is composed of all the elements of nature, such as water, fire, earth, and air which generates life from raw material. I decided to unify all the elements as an anthropomorphic form that subtly emerges through an assemblage of mushrooms. The central form is a being in a meditative position--static, calm, receptive to nature, and perhaps inspired by lost or unknown cultures or civilizations--delivering a message of respect for the world we are losing through over-consumption, deforestation, and pollution.”
Artist Bio:
Wosnan is an urban artist and illustrator born in Bogotá, Colombia. His artwork scrutinizes and explores possible origins of existence, causes of everything we see, and also worlds that we have yet to see. His work engages biology, alien paradises, entomology, existentialism, lost civilizations, ancestral beliefs and science fiction. He has participated in numerous festivals and socially-engaged projects internationally.
Title: ARCADIA
Artist: Sam Nester, Brooklyn, New York
Location: President’s Park Hydroponic Greenhouse
Duration: 1 year
Arcadia is an environmental public art installation tapping into plants to generate sound and light.
Arcadia creates a stream of non-repetitive music and light by capturing the natural biorhythms of Virginia native plants and converting them through a Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) into sound and light signals.
Arcadia bridges art, nature, and self-care by creating a virtual meditation space for the Mason community. Stay tuned for announcements from the Center for Well-Being and Counseling and Psychological Services for events and meditation sessions using Arcadia.
Over the course of its year-long installation Arcadia will be a test site for experiments with the following Native Virginian medicinal plants: Black Cohosh, Wild Indigo, Butterfly Weed, Maidenhair Fern, and Pink Azalea.
Arcadia will also aid in related campus research on plant propagation and food security, by incorporating Ginseng, Goldenseal, Echinacea, Witch Hazel, Red Bud, Flowering Dogwood, Paw-Paws, Figs, Blueberries, Alpine Strawberries, Dwarf Thornless Raspberries, Currant Shrubs, and Serviceberry.
Arcadia’s plants will eventually be transplanted to new homes on campus, such as the Innovation Food Forest or Green Studio.
Arcadia may be experienced online at the link below, to prevent the risk of COVID-19 transmission, or from the outside of the Greenhouse, following University guidelines for social-distancing. Share your photos or videos with us @muralsatmason to be featured on our social media!
Artist’s Bio
Australian-born trumpet player Sam Nester is a performer and educator. Nester has performed for Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival & Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Paris Opera Ballet, Wordless Music Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group and the Festival of New Trumpet Music, John Cale (Velvet Underground) and John Zorn. He is currently the Artistic Director of Bridge Arts Ensemble in New York City. Nester has been a Fulbright Scholar, a recipient of the Australian Music Foundation Award and Brian Boak Outstanding Performer Award and an American Australian Association’s Dame Joan Sutherland Fund grantee.
Artist: CEE PIL, Belgium
Location: Atrium windows of Exploratory Hall entrance
Duration: 1 year
Artist’s Statement
“A bird in general is a symbol for freedom, truth, art, creativity, higher values, and higher consciousness. A bird is a global animal as they can fly over the world and live across the whole world. The parrot in particular stands for learning, communication, healing through the power of light and color, sun, diplomacy, a parrot brings good news and positivity, and is a strong spiritual force! For me the colorful parrot (multiple colors in one bird) represents tolerance, peace, and multi-ethnicity. Under the branch that holds the birds is a portal, a door representing a step into another world as a person with new insights and skills. In this version there is a city in the portal, representing society.”
Artist’s Bio
CEE PIL started teaching himself to paint at an early age and has studied linguistics(dutch) and music(piano-drums). He also became involved in non-profit organizations working for emancipation of minorities and social work through art education. His main artistic approach is based in performance art and conceptual art. The concrete outcomes are represented by painting murals and objects in different media and painting styles, spoken word performances and music, with a strong emphasis on raising awareness and bringing a critical view on the perception of reality. In his act of creating there is always a great deal of improvisation ("accident") that represents freedom (of expression) and breaking free of conventions. Using mysterious metaphors and giving food for thoughts, rather than bring an already paved path is what he aims to do.
