Lost Art in the Lost Coast-part one

This year I have made two trips to the Lost Coast in Northern California- one solo trip and another with a team of five.  My visits have been for the sole purpose of building sculptures on the coast as part of a series of recent work that I am calling "Lost Art."  I am in the process of preparing an exhibition of the photography of the sculptures, that were themselves torn down by the incoming high tides.  

 

The Lost Coast,  Northern California

Viewed from the south

Photo taken by Christopher Casanova

The Lost Coast is a protected mountainous coastal area in Northern California about 3 hours north of San Francisco.  Extremely powerful surf and weather push the natural environment in this 60-mile stretch of forgotten coastline to high levels of growth and erosion.  There are no roads.  

"South of Shipman's"  Installation in progress

Artist: Christopher Casanova

Lost Coast, Northern California  October 2008

Photo taken by Gaston Pierre

The sculptures consist of very large boulders that are hoisted into the air and then lower on to fragile structures made out of driftwood sticks.  

"Glacial Arch" Kärradal, Sweden 2002

"Glacial Arch" Installation View

Artist: Christopher Casanova

Karradal, Sweden 2002

It is true that I love Sweden. This installation was built in a bay just out side of the town of Karradal in the Kattegat sea area.  The water was waist deep and the sculpture was built about 100 meters out in the bay.  It took two days of concentrated effort to hand carry the rocks from land to the site, an existing protruding rock formation.  The arch took many attempts but only one afternoon to complete once I had all of the elements in place.  That morning, I had gone into the forest and cut y-shaped branches from fallen trees.  The branches were used  as crutches for the individual stones, which were roughly the size of large watermelons.  Once the keystone was in place, I carefully removed the braces and the arch was complete.  

A lot of people waded out to take a closer look and though I expected someone to eventually push it over, the sculpture remained in tact for the remainder of my stay in Karradal.  I have no idea how long it stood, but I like to imagine that it is still part of that beautiful horizon.  I photographed this work with a Makina 6/7 medium format camera and the sculpture remains now in small editions of prints made from those negatives. 

I was very pleased with this piece of work, but what sticks in my mind are the memories of the fresh berries that I picked every morning for breakfast and the chill of the water.  Karradal is in south western Sweden, maybe 100 km south of Goteborg.  The stones were found in fields and are the debris of glaciers moving across the land many many centuries ago.

Off the grid- Set designed and built for Tom Tailor Print Shoot 2007

Built as the setting for a print and TV commercial shoot for a German clothing company-Tom Tailor- the design of this structure became a  study of the concept "Off the Grid."

Would it not be terrific to live directly on the beach, even if you had to sacrifice a few comforts here and there?

According to the original plan, we were to have three days to complete the construction of the set.  We started on day one to collect our materials, driving around the beach with a giant 4x4 forklift and several 4x4 golf carts.  One hour into our day, the federal park rangers showed up with the sheriff.  Unfortunately, they came to inform us that the location we had chosen for the site of our construction was a part of a wild life reserve. There was a bit of mix up regarding the permit that had been pulled and we were asked firmly to leave our vehicles where they lay and stop all work until the misunderstanding was cleared. It took 2 days to resolve the misunderstanding and we were finally given permission to start working at three in the afternoon the day before the shoot was scheduled.  Plus, we had to move our whole operation one mile up the beach.  I had made a model as part of my presentation for the director, Dewey Nicks, and his clients.  My crew and I spent those two days of idle time reviewing this model and planning every step of the construction.  When we were finally able to start working, we all knew exactly what to do and everyone one worked at break neck speeds and we got it done that night.  What a great crew.  Please check out the time lapse video below. I think that it is pretty cool. 

Anything could be inside this box!

Northbound 405 freeway Los Angeles, California

"Crates in Arch" Paris, France 1996

"Crates in Arch" Installation View

Artist: Christopher Casanova

Paris, France  1996

This installation was created using fruit crates both stolen and borrowed from  a near by open air market.  The arch is one of many arches located in the 12th arrondisment on the Avenue Daumesnil.  At the time, the arches, the support of an old aqua duct, were being retrofitted to become the studios and work shops of artists and artisans. This particular arch was the studio of a glass blower named Scott Slagerman.  The facade was made up of big panes of glass, which made for an incredible play on light- during the night, as viewed from the street,  the interior lights were filtered by the airy thin walled wood crates, emitting a really beautiful glow, and the opposite was true during the day when inside of the space.

101 Avenue Daumesnil Paris, France 75012

As can be imagined, the construction of this piece required a lot of crates.   I was sure that I was going to have to gather up the crates by less then honorable means, so I rode my bicycle through the market  very early in the morning  and grabbed up crates attaching them to a  sled that I had cobbled together and pulled them back to the site.  After four predawn excursions, I thought it wise to get an idea of how many crates I still needed to nab.  Sadly, all of my hard work did not even add up to one complete row.  It is true that the thought of abandoning my plans did come to mind. However, before giving up, I decide that I would try a different approach.  I wandered through the market and eventually found out that the empty crates were all recycled- loaded up in large trucks and shipped out of Paris city limits. I had the good fortune of meeting one of the owner/drivers of the recycled fruit crate company and after showing him my drawings and describing my plans he agreed to deliver a 40 foot container full of crates to 101 Avenue Daumesnil.  What a break!  He helped me unload and returned  two weeks later on the day of the scheduled removal of the installation and loaded up all of the crates. I knew him only by his first name, but I am ever in debt to Francois. 

When the installation came down, I had this idea that I could simply pull a couple critical crates and the whole wall of crates would come tumbling down. This was not the case.  I had lashed the crates to the structure in several spots for added stability and that is exactly what I achieved. The wall of crates had become a superstructure and would not fall.  I ended up removing vast quantities of crates and only then did it fall.  The tie wire that I used to fasten the crates to the facade held several crates in mid air.  In the photos the hanging crates give the illusion that the piece is in the middle of falling, which is rather nice. 

"Crates in Arch" Installation view-falling