TEMPORARY ART WORK: CREATE AND LET GO

"Aerial Pool 1"  14" X 11"  Lori LaBerge  2018, digital photograph

Two things came together this week. The first is the idea of ephemeral art. This type of art is temporary and not meant to last. It is created knowing it will end (as in performance art) or be destroyed. A good example of this was a work I saw in Burlington, Vt. shown below:

Flour poured through metal carving to create oriental rug effect by Cal Lane

The second idea was creating work from local sites. An abandoned pool has been an obsession with me for years as it is filled with cement blocks and other debris. A community college recently purchased the building and is just beginning construction starting with structural details.

Pool at Pinebridge in Spruce Pine NC

From these two thoughts I began painting on an old polyethylene tarp used as a drop cloth. I knew the tarp would again collect drops of paint and stain in its next use, destroying the work created.

The first artwork at the top of the post used the two blues from the above photo. The silver is the color of the cement blocks. The crinkled appearance is reminiscent of water movement.

Another view of abandoned pool

The work below was based on the spray paint surrounding the future construction area around the pool. The paint can just be seen on the upper right hand side of the photo above. There were also posts placed around the pool to keep people out. 

"Aerial Pool 2"  14" X 11"  Lori LaBerge  2018, digital photograph

The actual works do not exist anymore. One could think of the photographs as new works, but they are not the same as the originals.