Arts Benicia / Creative Work Fund

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Takedown

Demolition Day(s)

Takedown in Progress

Towards the End

Dead Soldiers

Cute Airstream Included for Trailer Value

Loading the Trucks

Recovered Reinforcing Bar

Lifting and Carrying Back

Bodil Looking Happy Enough...

Loading the Pickups

Finagling a Tough Spot

How many Per Truck?

Trying to Break the Solar Apart

The Original Holy Shot...

Fearless Leader and Still Trying to Disassemble the Solar

Unstably Loaded Trucks

Larnie's Solar Roofs

Old-Fashioned Solar Machines

Unloading Unstable Trucks

Over the Compost

Slightly Stabler Transportation

Unloading More Outfall Units

At Your Service!

Finding Scrap Sod

Backfilling with Scrap Sod

Backfilling with Increasingly Rare Scrap Sod

A Delicate Touch...

Just the Right Place...

Yet Another Handsome Benicia Dog

Backfilled Space Where the Project Was

photo credit Larnie

The New Stonehenge (Sans Stone)

photo credit Larnie

All that goes up must eventually come down. Mark's demonstration project, having been viewed by countless Benicia residents and even more inquisitive dogs, finally came down this month. Your correspondent stood around taking pictures for this blog and offering the occasional helpful comment.

We took the wooded pieces to Larnie and Bodil's house, where they are now stored in state as glorified scrap. Knowing Larnie, it will eventually be good for something. Mark painstakingly removed the sod from the top of the project, and reinstalled it on the ground where the shadow of the - um - structure had killed the existing grass. The result, as you can see above, is the mysterious crop circle footprint where the project was - at least until the next mowing.

Your correspondent can assure you that no ancient astronauts were involved in this project (unless Mark isn't telling us something). No probes were involved. Solar recycling of wastewater was firmly demonstrated. No dogs were harmed in this project. Quite the opposite in fact. Dogs and humans of Benicia both demonstrated a healthy curiosity...

-Mark Van Norman-

Monday, March 2, 2015

Hats 'n Dogs

A Beautiful day with a well-attended talk and walk marked the introduction of the work to the community. Dogs (well-managed, mind you) abounded, and everyone save your correspondent seemed too wear appropriate ultraviolet protection. A variety of cookies were displayed, to your correspondent's delight. Mark gave an excellent talk on the purpose of the work, both environmentally and artistically, and then answered a barrage of questions. At one point, as you will see, a small scale figure was introduced to show what a full-scale natural water-treatment device might look like in practice.

After the talk, Mark led a walk through the wetlands that separate the green from the Carquinez Strait - the very wetlands we are trying tho protect with "devices" like the one Mark has created. Your correspondent has a bad leg, so all you will see here are pictures of people departing and shortly arriving from the walk - we have a small wetland, after all.

Your correspondent is happy and somewhat bewildered by the fact that this sensitive wetland is one of the dismayingly few places in Benicia where doge are allowed off leash. My vote - more places for dogs off-leash, fewer of these places to be in environmentally sensitive areas like our wetlands - Not that I don't take advantage of the allowance with our own dogs occasionally.

All in all, a lovely display of the extraordinary visibility of Mr. Brest van Kempen's works in practice - environmental art of the best kind - attention-grabbing for the passerby and informative once the attention has been grabbed. I can only recommend that Arts Benicia station a docent with the work to explain it and engage the passersby. I think that with docents, we could both better explain Mark's work to the passerby and use Mark's work as a tool to enroll people in Arts Benicia.