Covering Ground In Big Sky Country

Covering Ground In Big Sky Country

Kelly Kaczynski with Anita X
Boston Center for the Arts, Massachusets
2000

^{hill rises, installation view, 8’ high x 32’ wide with circuit boxes and cords on either side}

^{Detail of spoon grouping in foreground with view of hill as transparent in background / detail of spark group; blue electrical wire coming from cloud activates - approx. 30 sparks at random intervals}

^{View of wheel group; fifty paper wheels vary in size between at 1 ½”dia and 3”dia. - three wheels turn at variable speeds / view of grass group with plywood detail; each green wire approx. 3” high}

Covering Ground in Big Sky Country was a site-specific collaboration between artist Anita X and Kelly Kaczynski in the Cyclorama building of the Boston Center for the Arts, MA. Anita’s sky and clouds made of tissue paper are suspended below the domed skylight and above Kelly’s ground, thus splitting the space horizontally between above and below.

Made of cut plywood, the undulating ground is based on the pattern of the existing bricks. As a viewer moves through the terrain, small interventions are activated throughout. These interventions refer to the history of the building’s occupations while the landscape as a whole references its original use as a Cyclorama, a structure to house a painting in the round. Standing in the center of the 360-degree painting, the viewer is immersed in a landscape depicting historical events.

Room: 12,000 sq/ft.
The sky above (Anita): tissue paper, wire lathe.
The ground below (Kelly): plywood, cut spoons, water cast lead, paper wheels in motion, sparks, supporting electronics.