Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. Contact: Jennifer Tisthammer Artist: Lara Stein Pardo Project Summary Funding from the Harpo Foundation will be used to support an artist residency at the Deering Estate and the production of a new body of work by artist Lara Stein Pardo.
Project Description The purpose of the requested grant funds is to support an artist residency from June 2010 – 2011 and fund the production of a new body of work, Tropical Grotesque, by local artist Lara Stein Pardo. The residency will culminate with an exhibition of the artist’s work. During her time as an artist in residence she will develop several indoor and outdoor sculptural installations that respond to tropical plants, local histories of the South Florida region, and global connections of the region through ideas of “the tropical.” This project addresses the questions and themes raised by the Harpo Foundation concerning how we interact with physical landscapes in an increasingly digital world. What do we understand as local in an increasingly digital world? Has the idea of “place” become a fleeting image? How does local history affect us? How do we understand the place in which we live? Tropical Grotesque engages tropical landscapes as a symbol and metaphor for South Florida, and combines ideas of beauty and repulsion, history and the present-day, and access and hindrance. The idea of the grotesque, or the fantastic, strange, and incongruous, in tropical environments is noted especially in historical accounts of early Floridian and Caribbean travelers, scientists, and tourists. Currently, as a global tourist destination, the South Florida attracts people with its beautiful beaches, lush foliage, and exciting multicultural life. However, walking down any street one will see fences that block access, guards attempting to restrict movement, and roped off lines and areas dedicated to only those who are granted VIP status. Real Estate development demands constantly push back natural area boundaries to keep pace with a growing population. As an immigration hub, newcomers to South Florida also encounter obstacles in their entry through what is made to seem as an open door. These hurdles are most evident in the differential treatment of people arriving from Cuba and Haiti through the Wet Foot Dry Foot Policy; Cubans are granted legal status and Haitians are held in detention for deportation. This project seeks to visually address the ideas of attraction and repulsion of both the tropical landscapes and the socio-geographic maneuvering of spaces that seem to be off-limits. The indoor and outdoor sculptural installations will combine aesthetically pleasing elements found in native and exotic tropical plants such as smooth lines, bold colors, big shapes, and curves with elements that are off-putting such as spikes, shooting lines, and fence-like structures. The outdoor installations would be designed to be placed within the Estate grounds, and would respond to the existing landscape with objects in the ground that heighten both the aesthetically pleasing and the incongruous features of the plants, including molded iron gates or posts that mimic the fences and doors seen guarding many South Florida homes and businesses. The indoor wall installations will include simplified one-color paintings of tropical plants. The paintings will be adorned with objects that appear sharp. For instance spikes or cones made of glass. Grant funds from the Harpo Foundation would support this artist in residence at the Deering Estate at Cutler. The project is designed to cultivate site-inspired sculptural installations that will 1 Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. Contact: Jennifer Tisthammer Artist: Lara Stein Pardo 2 take shape during the course of the artist’s residency, and offer Stein Pardo her first solo exhibition. Broadening the reach of the project, the Estate and the artist will forge partnerships with other local organizations and art spaces expanding the reach of the project and furthering community interaction with the themes of the work. The artist would be able to spend time at the Estate, interact with naturalists, historians, anthropologists that serve as staff, while learning about tropical plants and developing visual ideas for the installations in the onsite artist in residence studios. As an artist in residence, the artist would have the ability to observe, sketch, and photograph plants during different times of the year and day, speak with researchers about the physical properties of plants that prosper in South Florida, observe how people interact with the plants and the space, and study botanic drawings of plants and other materials in the research library and archives in order to produce very personal visual renderings. This dedicated time that the grant funding provides would help the artist to create thoughtful sculptural installations that are grounded in the site, visually attractive, and express the ideas that touch upon key issues in our 21st Century existence. The year-long residency is important to us as a cultural site and also marks an important step in the artist’s development as she builds connections with and between the studio, the natural world, and the public.
Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. Contact: Jennifer Tisthammer Artist: Lara Stein Pardo Project Summary Funding from the Harpo Foundation will be used to support an artist residency at the Deering Estate and the production of a new body of work by artist Lara Stein Pardo.
Project Description The purpose of the requested grant funds is to support an artist residency from June 2010 – 2011 and fund the production of a new body of work, Tropical Grotesque, by local artist Lara Stein Pardo. The residency will culminate with an exhibition of the artist’s work. During her time as an artist in residence she will develop several indoor and outdoor sculptural installations that respond to tropical plants, local histories of the South Florida region, and global connections of the region through ideas of “the tropical.” This project addresses the questions and themes raised by the Harpo Foundation concerning how we interact with physical landscapes in an increasingly digital world. What do we understand as local in an increasingly digital world? Has the idea of “place” become a fleeting image? How does local history affect us? How do we understand the place in which we live? Tropical Grotesque engages tropical landscapes as a symbol and metaphor for South Florida, and combines ideas of beauty and repulsion, history and the present-day, and access and hindrance. The idea of the grotesque, or the fantastic, strange, and incongruous, in tropical environments is noted especially in historical accounts of early Floridian and Caribbean travelers, scientists, and tourists. Currently, as a global tourist destination, the South Florida attracts people with its beautiful beaches, lush foliage, and exciting multicultural life. However, walking down any street one will see fences that block access, guards attempting to restrict movement, and roped off lines and areas dedicated to only those who are granted VIP status. Real Estate development demands constantly push back natural area boundaries to keep pace with a growing population. As an immigration hub, newcomers to South Florida also encounter obstacles in their entry through what is made to seem as an open door. These hurdles are most evident in the differential treatment of people arriving from Cuba and Haiti through the Wet Foot Dry Foot Policy; Cubans are granted legal status and Haitians are held in detention for deportation. This project seeks to visually address the ideas of attraction and repulsion of both the tropical landscapes and the socio-geographic maneuvering of spaces that seem to be off-limits. The indoor and outdoor sculptural installations will combine aesthetically pleasing elements found in native and exotic tropical plants such as smooth lines, bold colors, big shapes, and curves with elements that are off-putting such as spikes, shooting lines, and fence-like structures. The outdoor installations would be designed to be placed within the Estate grounds, and would respond to the existing landscape with objects in the ground that heighten both the aesthetically pleasing and the incongruous features of the plants, including molded iron gates or posts that mimic the fences and doors seen guarding many South Florida homes and businesses. The indoor wall installations will include simplified one-color paintings of tropical plants. The paintings will be adorned with objects that appear sharp. For instance spikes or cones made of glass. Grant funds from the Harpo Foundation would support this artist in residence at the Deering Estate at Cutler. The project is designed to cultivate site-inspired sculptural installations that will 1 Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. Contact: Jennifer Tisthammer Artist: Lara Stein Pardo 2 take shape during the course of the artist’s residency, and offer Stein Pardo her first solo exhibition. Broadening the reach of the project, the Estate and the artist will forge partnerships with other local organizations and art spaces expanding the reach of the project and furthering community interaction with the themes of the work. The artist would be able to spend time at the Estate, interact with naturalists, historians, anthropologists that serve as staff, while learning about tropical plants and developing visual ideas for the installations in the onsite artist in residence studios. As an artist in residence, the artist would have the ability to observe, sketch, and photograph plants during different times of the year and day, speak with researchers about the physical properties of plants that prosper in South Florida, observe how people interact with the plants and the space, and study botanic drawings of plants and other materials in the research library and archives in order to produce very personal visual renderings. This dedicated time that the grant funding provides would help the artist to create thoughtful sculptural installations that are grounded in the site, visually attractive, and express the ideas that touch upon key issues in our 21st Century existence. The year-long residency is important to us as a cultural site and also marks an important step in the artist’s development as she builds connections with and between the studio, the natural world, and the public.