the evolving process

Its coming together. Reis, an intense EMT and somewhat of a guru who lives in a loft below Arcadia, and I spent some and hour or so painting out the gallery box for the van. Generally our conversations form around some aspect of spirituality, which he has studied most of his life and openly discusses. Like many of the characters in the factory complex where Arcadia resides, he's been a solid friend and supporter.

The box has become a gorgeous origamic shape. Robert is installing the exterior walls later today so Simiya and Mac can begin installation. I'm not entirely sure what to expect but I'm sure it will be amazing. They were describing fragile towering ceramic shapes attached to the box through a strip of metal. Excited to see what it becomes and if it will withstand the drive.

Kara showed up around 10pm or so with a box of her picnic prints. As a reclamation of built environments she initiates picnics in public spaces and photographs them. A few months ago I attended one of her picnics under an overpass near the St Louis arch. Attended by friends, passerbyers and a slew of locals dwelling in nearby encampments. It was a nice mix of personalities and a lovely sharing of food. www.karaclarkholland


Kara Clark Holland

"My work is largely about my explor- ations of the various built environ- ments in which I have found myself, seeking to understand these places and my own responses to them. I seek to discover the hidden relationships between our visible surroundings and the social and cultural values that have created them, as well as to explore the resulting effects on our lived experience of a place. It is my intention to explore space as a psychogeographer, investigating the various and subtle ways in which the characteristics of the physical environment affect the human psyche.

Why do we feel more at home in some places and more alienated in others? What makes some places feel comfortable and delightful, and what makes other places decidedly not so? In exploring such questions, I seek to illuminate our relationship to the environments that we have made for ourselves, both how our shifting cultural values have shaped them and how we in turn are shaped by our built surroundings." - Kara Clark Holland