THE FINE ART OF RADICAL GARDENING

Cal Arts School of Art MFA studio, Spring 2006

In this seminar we will be surveying some connections and relationships between gardens, art and politics. The class will include student research presentations, regular visitors to the class, a weekly reader and a series of lectures and site visits. We will survey contemporary and historic examples of the garden as a fine art from monastic Pre-Renaissance gardens to the work of contemporary artists (such as Mel Chin, Nils Norman and Meg Webster). We will look at the diverse roles of the garden, from the world-view story-telling narratives of the Italian Renaissance garden to the radical political potential for the garden to engage current issues of land use, food production and public space.

The seminars and studios that I will be leading this year as visiting artist are related in theme and content. We will be exploring the possible alternatives to the conventional practice of the contemporary artist. This generally involves the solitary creation of work in a generic non-imposing studio space and the solitary experience of the completed work in an equally generic and non-imposing gallery space. Perhaps this model is the most expedient way to market the work of the artist. What are the other social, political and economic forces at work? Through these classes we will look at the opportunities for the contemporary artist to respond to the unique conditions that surround them, to directly interact with the complex reality of their time and place and the people that are a part of their lives. These classes will look in particular at the marginalized and ephemeral art forms of gardens and events. Of particular interest will be issues of public space, communal experience and organic processes.

SCHEDULE
#01 - 02.09.05
lecture part 1: gardenlab projects: the gardenLAb experiment, the art center community garden & edible estates and survey of contemporary art & ecology projects including: mel chin, doug buis, moisture, fallen fruit, nils norman, tobias rehberger, lize mogel, south central farmers, phil ross, the cornfields, agnes denes, alan sonfist, green guerillas and others

#02 - 02.16.05
screening of 'edible estates' video, presentation of 'public green poster'
lecture part 2: villa lante & the renaissance garden, thomas jefferson's monticello & the american dream, central park & the urban oasis

#03 - 02.23.05
video program: 'the man who planted trees' / 'the wash' by lee anne schmitt & lee lynch / smithsonian video series on bio-diversity / 'koyaanisqatsi' by godfrey reggio

#04 - 03.02.05
film: 'the future of food' 2004 / slideshow: 'the land institute'

#05 - 03.09.05
lesley stern visits / writer & professor, ucsd / san diego

#06 - 03.16.05
phil ross visits / artist / san francisco

#07 - 03.23.05
katie holten visits / artist & curator / new york & dublin

#08 - 03.30.05
no class - spring break

#09 - 04.06.05
ava bromberg visits / writer & urban planner / los angeles

#10 - 04.13.05
fallen fruit visits / artist collective visits / los angeles

#11 - 04.20.05
moisture visits / artist collective / los angeles

#12 - 04.27.05
los angeles urban rangers visit / collective / los angeles

#13 - 05.04.05
taro shinoda visits / lecture on japanese gardens

#14 - 05.11.05
site visits t.b.d.

#15 - 05.18.05
final presentations, reviews & discussions

BIBLIOGRAPHY (more to come)

required textbook:
Pollan, Michael / Second Nature / 1991

biography:
Rybczynski, Witold / A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmstead / 1999

art:
Matilsky, Barbara C. / Fragile Ecologies / 1992
Spaid, Sue / Ecovention / 2002
design:
Bradley-Hole, Christopoher / The Minimalist Garden / 1999
Church, Thomas D. / Gardens Are For People / 1995
Cooper, Guy / Paradise Transformed: the Private Garden for the 21st Century / 1996
Cooper, Guy / Gardens For the Future: Gestures Against the Wild / 2000
Moore, Charles / The Poetics of Gardens / 1993

essay:
Wes Jackson & William Vitek / Rooted in the Land / 1996
Wes Jackson / Becoming Native to this Place / 1994
Page, Russell / The Education of a Gardener / 1962
Pollan, Michael / Second Nature / 1991
Pollan, Michael / Botany of Desire / 2001
Mcphee, John / The Control of Nature / 1989
Walker, Peter / Invisible Gardens / 2002

guide:
Carroll, Steven B. and Steven D. Salt / Ecology for Gardeners / 2004
Fairbrother, Nan / Men and Gardens
Kirk, Donald R. / Wild Edible Plants of Western North America / 1970
Larkcom, Joy / Grow Your Own Vegetables / 2002
Leaf, Sue / Potato City: Nature, History, and Community in the Age of Sprawl / 2004
Mathias, Mildred / Flowering Plants in the Landscape / 1992
Perry, Bob / Landscape Plants for Western Regions / 1992
Tenenbaum, Frances, editor / Taylor's Master Guide to Gardening / 1994
Welsh, Pat / Southern California Gardening / 2000

history:
Adams, William Howard / Gardens Through History: Nature Perfected / 1991
Buchanan, Rita / The Shaker Herb and Garden Book / 1996
Conan, michel, editor / Perspectives on Garden History / 1999
Hunt, John Dixon / Gardens and the Picturesque / 1994
Hunt, John Dixon / The Italian Garden: Art Design & Culture / 1996
Hunt, John Dixon / Greater Perfections: the Practice of Garden Theory / 2000
Shepherd, John Chiene / Italian Gardens of the Renaissance / 1986
Solomon, Barbara Stauffacher / Green Architecture & the Agrarian Garden / 1988
Steenbergen, Clemens / Architecture and Landscape: Great European Gardens / 1996
Sweet, Muriel / Common Edible and Useful Plants of the West / 1976
Teyssot, Georges / The History of Garden Design / 1991

landscape:
Amidon, Jane / Radical Landscapes / 2001
Birksted, Jan / Relating Architecture to Landscape / 1999
Spirn, Anne Whiston / The Language of Landscape / 1998
monographs:
Eggener, Keith I. / Luis Barragan, Gardens of El Pedregal / 2001
Saunders, william / Daniel Urban Kiley: the Early Gardens the Gardens of Russell Page / 1996

natives:
Francis, Mark / The California Landscape Garden / 1999
Lenz, Lee / California Native Trees and Shrubs / 1981
Lowry, Judith Larner / Gardening with a Wild Heart / 1999

regional:
Streatfield, David C. / California Gardens: Creating a New Eden / 1994
Burton, Pamela / Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California / 2002
Inaji, Toshiro / The Garden as Architecture: Japan, China And Korea / 1998
Listri, Massimo / Italian Parks and Gardens / 1996
Slauson, David / Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens / 1991

periodicals:
California Agriculture
The Gardener's Companion
Garden Design Magazine