Lost Art in the Lost Coast-Time Lapse Video

Lost Art

Lost Coast Project October 2008

Time Lapse Video

Artist:  Christopher Casanova

Lost Coast, Northern California

This 6 min and 30 second video is a making of video shot during the completion of 4 sculptures in the Lost Coast in Northern California.   This video kind of ruins the mystery surrounding the finished work, but I think it is very interesting and worth the sacrifice.

The Lost Coast Project took place in October 2008 and is part of a series of similar work that the artist calls "Lost Art."  There is still a lot more to see of the Lost Art series, but this should be a nice little taste.

"Log Through Cement" 2001

"Log Through Cement"

Artist:  Christopher Casanova

Paris, France 2001

Dimensions:  Concrete slab is 4' x 6'

Materials:  Fallen tree, concrete, and steel.

It is a little funny how much a 4' x 6' slab of concrete weighs.  This sculpture was made for an exposition at a cultural space outside of Paris.  I poured the slab on site, and I had a really challenging time getting the mass of concrete from horizontal to vertical.  As often times is the case, I was working alone, with pry bars, timbers, and a chain attached to a car.  "Log Through Cement"  was transported and set up three times before  it took permanent residence in the front yard of a client's home in Rueil-Malmaison, France.

"Hollow Wood Cube" 2009

"Hollow Wood Cube" 

Artist:  Christopher Casanova

Santa Monica,  2009

Dimensions: 18" x 18" x 18"

Materials:  Found timbers and blocks of wood

My studio is located in a hanger at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California.  I have a rather small interior work space, basically two single car garages length wise, which I use for painting and planning. There is also a covered outside workshop which is where I make smaller sculptures. "Hollow Wood Cube"  comes from this covered workshop.  

The piece, as its name implies, is hollow and is made from re-sized found timbers and blocks. I made it hollow so that it would be relatively light. There are so many facets and details to see that I wanted the sculpture to be  easy to move.  Turns out, it is rather heavy, but one can still flip and turn the cube. The sculpture was built from the inside out and there is no evidence of attachment (i.e. screw heads or nails.)

Lost Art in the Lost Coast-Continued

"Buck Creek" Installation View

Artist:  Christopher Casanova

Lost Coast, California 

Solo Trip 2008

I was visiting El Capitan state beach, just north of Santa Barbara and I started to build models of a sculpture that I wanted to build.  I found small little lengths of driftwood sticks and arranged them in "Lincoln Log Cabin" like stacks.  Then I placed a stone on top.  I was amazed that even in such a small scale, the structure was able to support  a tremendous amount of weight.  The stone practically floated.

This was the starting point for the Lost Art sculpture series.  The installation at Buck Creek  was the first work of the series.  It was built at the mouth of a creek in the Lost Coast about 11 miles north of Shelter cove, the last bit of civilization in the area.  I made a solo trip to the area and hiked for two days to reach the site.  Using fallen timbers and large pieces of driftwood, I fashioned a lifting gantry in the form of a pyramid.  With the aid of the gantry, rope and pulleys I lifted the stone into the air. After arranging the driftwood support , I lowered the boulder.  It was a bit of trick to get everything lined up correctly. Once the boulder was in position, the weight settled and the installation was complete.  I disassembled the gantry and walked away.  The installation survived 4 days, until an eight foot high tide took it down in the night. 

'Big Wheel' Paris, France 2002/2004

'Big Wheel' Installation View

Artist: Christopher Casanova

Place des Invalides, Paris, France 2004

In 1999 a wind storm named Lothar swept through France, knocking down tens of thousands of trees in forests surrounding Paris. That winter, following the storm, I began to work with fallen trees in the forests north of Paris. The tree trunks that I used for 'Big Wheel' where from the Forest of Fontainebleau. Each of the thirteen pieces were spliced together with a blind square stub tenon to form the ring measuring over three meters in diameter.

'Big Wheel' Installation View

Artist: Christopher Casanova

Place des Invalides, Paris, France 2004

The majority of the wood work was done in the forest with hand tools and the final fitting done in my atelier in the 5th. The wheel fit together and came apart with relative ease and was first assembled as part of an solo exhibition at the Galerie Ortille Fourcat in the 4th arrondisment. Two years later it was reassembled in the gardens of the Place des Invalides, where it remained as a semi-permanent guerilla installation.

'Big Wheel' Installation View

Artist: Christopher Casanova

Galerie Ortille-Fourcat, Paris, France 2002

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.