I'm on a John Fekner kick thinking about his art, philosophies, and ideas. WALL BLOOD? what a cool way to describe decay and paint peeling! The image sticks with you.
Gordon Matta Clark is one of my favorite artists from the 70's; if you're not familiar with his work, he cut an abandoned house in half as a sort of performance.
There was the defenestration piece in SF. Abandoned building that artist(s) attached furniture to. Was there for years but gone now.
I wouldn’t exactly call it abandoned at all since it’s on an active base, but, hidden away in the Bosnian mountains is a underground bunker that artists have interacted with and added art to that now a place that can be visited with permission. It’s called Tito’s Bunker. Built at an astronomical cost but to save only very few it’s an interesting juxtaposition between government projects, dead governments, and the people who lived it. Spy equipment and Tito’s quarters still intact. The underground petroleum tanks are kinda eerie as are the 70’s Yugoslavian chic meeting rooms. I have photos somewhere
Stealth: adj. designed in accordance with technology that makes detection difficult. Wraith: n. A wisp or faint trace of something
Posted by stealthwraith There was the defenestration piece in SF. Abandoned building that artist(s) attached furniture to. Was there for years but gone now.
I wouldn’t exactly call it abandoned at all since it’s on an active base, but, hidden away in the Bosnian mountains is a underground bunker that artists have interacted with and added art to that now a place that can be visited with permission. It’s called Tito’s Bunker. Built at an astronomical cost but to save only very few it’s an interesting juxtaposition between government projects, dead governments, and the people who lived it. Spy equipment and Tito’s quarters still intact. The underground petroleum tanks are kinda eerie as are the 70’s Yugoslavian chic meeting rooms. I have photos somewhere
Please do share them if you fid them! Gotta love Tito's bunker(s). I'm currently planning my next trip to Slovenia and am in the process of arranging an authorized visit to Tito's nuclear bunker, which is not open to public.
Please do share them if you fid them! Gotta love Tito's bunker(s). I'm currently planning my next trip to Slovenia and am in the process of arranging an authorized visit to Tito's nuclear bunker, which is not open to public.
Slovenia is very high on my list for the near future! If you make your way to Croatia I recommend taking the steps to go to Zjelava if you haven’t already
Stealth: adj. designed in accordance with technology that makes detection difficult. Wraith: n. A wisp or faint trace of something
Posted by stealthwraith There was the defenestration piece in SF. Abandoned building that artist(s) attached furniture to. Was there for years but gone now.
I wouldn’t exactly call it abandoned at all since it’s on an active base, but, hidden away in the Bosnian mountains is a underground bunker that artists have interacted with and added art to that now a place that can be visited with permission. It’s called Tito’s Bunker. Built at an astronomical cost but to save only very few it’s an interesting juxtaposition between government projects, dead governments, and the people who lived it. Spy equipment and Tito’s quarters still intact. The underground petroleum tanks are kinda eerie as are the 70’s Yugoslavian chic meeting rooms. I have photos somewhere
Wow, these are rad. I had to google the definition of defenestration. My tabs are full of Tito's Bunker articles. Coolest thing I've learned all day!
Read into the underbelly project in NYC and the artists involved. Lots of fairly well known new York artists used to explore, especially in the subway.
Also this came to mind
[last edit 1/20/2020 7:18 PM by uLiveAndYouBurn - edited 1 times] "Aint nothin' to it but to do it"
Posted by OpenHouse Is anyone into guerilla gardening? Or has found a collection of nicely kept plants in/around an abandoned location?
Saw a bit of this in Korea, as just about every patch of soil in the city has something growing in it, often edible produce hidden among manicured bushes. I did see some cabbage being kept healthy inside an abandonment once there. Steed could probably give better examples i'm sure.
Not sure if this not catching on is a sign that I shouldn’t keep adding stuff here but I think these could be of interest.
I stumbled across the photographer Francesca Woodman in a textbook and was stricken by the haunting look of her nudes and self portraits in derelict spaces. Even without reading about her life and suicide at 22, there’s something really eerie about them. If you like surrealism she has lots of interesting photos. I like the one with the tortoise. These are just two, with obvious elements of decay/abandonment in them, that seem to come up often:
As a teen, it’s crazy to me that she was a teen for the majority of her short career. Her work is so bold too, and has had it’s influence on modern day photography. I tried to keep it pg with my example photos; there’s lots of her nude in the woods, a graveyard, the abandoned home, her studio and an abandoned factory. She even did a series of nudes with her and one of her school’s models.
I cannot imagine asking one of my 40yo+ models to pose naked with me in an abandoned home, or just anyone at all, if I did I’d fully expect a restraining order. Something about the confusing mix of absurd circumstance, tragedy, ghostliness, confident sexuality and depression makes her photos hard to look away from. For me at least.
Aesthetically, I think they are an interesting example of abandonment photography.
I guess if you’re in possession of her nude works shot as a teen it’d be illegal??
Posted by Aran
...is that legal?
I would assume so. She published her work in photography books in the late 70's, and her art is in museums/galleries. She was in college when she started showing her work so I'm guessing she was at least 18. I'm not super familiar with any laws around nudity. It's unsettling to think about how her work could have been received by audiences because she was young, or to think about why she felt so strongly about photographing herself in the first place, but I don't think nudity is inherently erotic. I think nudes can be compelling and beautiful, and maybe thats all she intended them to be. I wanted to try to give some background in my post because I thought it was important not to gloss over the fact that she was young and committed suicide and seemed to have gone through some level of inner torment. You can read about her art. I would never want to post anything illegal. I think it's interesting to see past examples of photographers using abandoned places as a subject or as part of their art. I'm sorry if it came across as offensive or rude.
I guess it doesn't really involve trespassing, but I think it's nice to see a condemned building being turned into a place people can enjoy. I'd be excited to find a place like this on an empty beach.
Posted by OpenHouse Not sure if this not catching on is a sign that I shouldn’t keep adding stuff here but I think these could be of interest.
I stumbled across the photographer Francesca Woodman in a textbook and was stricken by the haunting look of her nudes and self portraits in derelict spaces. Even without reading about her life and suicide at 22, there’s something really eerie about them. If you like surrealism she has lots of interesting photos. I like the one with the tortoise. These are just two, with obvious elements of decay/abandonment in them, that seem to come up often:
As a teen, it’s crazy to me that she was a teen for the majority of her short career. Her work is so bold too, and has had it’s influence on modern day photography. I tried to keep it pg with my example photos; there’s lots of her nude in the woods, a graveyard, the abandoned home, her studio and an abandoned factory. She even did a series of nudes with her and one of her school’s models.
I cannot imagine asking one of my 40yo+ models to pose naked with me in an abandoned home, or just anyone at all, if I did I’d fully expect a restraining order. Something about the confusing mix of absurd circumstance, tragedy, ghostliness, confident sexuality and depression makes her photos hard to look away from. For me at least.
Aesthetically, I think they are an interesting example of abandonment photography.
This is one of my favorite - possibly my favorite - photographer(s).
Her story is incredibly tragic, but her artistic skill is phenomenal and I always felt that she was ahead of her time. I love her style. I think you’re the first person I’ve come across that even knows who she is!
Edit: I published a photo years ago titled; “Ode to Francesca,” or something similar to that. I’ll have to see if I can dig it up.
[last edit 4/29/2020 2:36 AM by Dee Ashley - edited 1 times] I wandered till the stars went dim.
Thanks for the John Fekner link ... just read an interesting quote by him.
"No matter what the individual discipline, it is to an artist’s advantage to be progressive and challenge oneself by taking risks and explore beyond familiar territory."
I had the wonderful opportunity to see a big exhibition of Gordon Matta Clark's art and documentation in Montreal sometime in the 1980's and was completely floored by his creative energy and use of abandoned buildings to carve out sculptural spaces. He was definitely a big influence on my art practice at that time in my life.
John Divola did some stuff at George AFB and various abandoned beachhouses in SoCal, but his work almost always involved modification of the environment. We went to one of his talks in SF hoping to hear a better justification... but we came away with the idea that he was just a dick with which we would never associate. (Not to imply that he would associate with us... just a simple "fuck him" from our part.)
But he is published and has had exhibits in serious institutions... so that's art, I guess. The "art" world =/= the UE world.
We had the idea to try to undo his work at George AFB (which we found), but... same age-old argument about UE restoration. Also, too lazy to detour our desert trips for such an endeavour.
Posted by OpenHouse Is anyone into guerilla gardening? Or has found a collection of nicely kept plants in/around an abandoned location?
That's obviously modification of the environment, which I have issues with. But on a more practical level, many abandoned places are heavily-polluted if not by the function of prior organization, but by the decay of structural materials that weren't particularly made to biodegrade with a low impact. I would be a bit loath to collect/eat an abandonment cabbage.
[last edit 4/29/2020 4:28 AM by dtewsacrificial - edited 3 times]
Ethics
