Another Chance I have had a close working relationship with artist Chrysanne Stathacos for the last fifteen years. In 1991 she participated in the exhibition, “The New Metaphysical Art,” curated by G. Roger Denson at the Amy Lipton Gallery in New York. Her work at that time consisted of paintings produced by impressing ivy, roses, and found objects onto canvas and fabric. Since then I have worked with Stathacos on various projects intersecting art, nature, spirituality, and ecology. In 1999, I had the fortunate experience of personally creating a Stathacos rose mandala at the “Natural Reality” exhibition at the Ludwig Museum in Aachen, Germany. As Stathacos could not be there, Curator Heike Strelow invited me to install “Rose Pillow.” Using hand-drawn instructions from the artist, I recreated a work using flower petals, inflatable pillows, and mirrors. The experience provided me with an intimate knowledge and understanding of the rigor, focus, and contemplation needed to assemble such an ephemeral and transient object, and though I approached my job with caution, I found the balancing of spontaneity and control to be exhilarating. I also came to understand that the key to these works, aside from their performative aspect, is their embodiment of experiential nature as an organic, living artwork that directly engages the artist and viewer. Since the flower petals are in a state of natural decay, I found that through the mandala’s gradual dematerialization process one can witness the passing of hours, minutes, even seconds in the cycle of life. It is impossible to resist the sensuousness of the rose scent or the aesthetic passions that the unfolding blossoms stimulate. Beautiful though they are, however, lurking beneath the perceptual surface of this most dazzling of all flowers is our recognition of the death and decay we associate with their cut and plucked remains. This is why rose petals are an especially poignant choice in the assembly of mandalas—one of the most mesmerizing and ancient archetypes to facilitate the mind in its meditations on the meaning of existence, transformation, consciousness, and even, however fleeting, the profound experience of infinity. Stathacos’ use of mirrors, by contrast, extend the opportunity for self-reflection, an awareness of our own human fragility and connectedness, while reminding us of the illusion of the self in our narcissistic and sometimes shallow and unenlightened natures. By directing viewers toward an understanding of attachment and non-attachment, presence and absence, being and non-being, Stathacos reminds us of our intimate connection and participation with the natural world in spite of the intoxicating wheel of life that catches us in its spinning. Connecting ritual activity to contemporary art is at the heart of Stathacos’ varied practice. Her multi-media works encompass installation, photography, video, performance, and public art, interests that mark such early work as “The Banquet,” staged with artist Hunter Reynolds (1992) at Thread Waxing Space; “Green Machine,” made in collaboration with composer Ben Neill (1993) at Paula Cooper Gallery; and “1-900 Mirror Mirror” (1994), a performance of personalized tarot readings over video phones in a room constructed by the artist from mirrors at the Andrea Rosen Gallery. Stathacos, however, did not tap into the deepest recesses of desire until she made her first trip to India in 1995. Here she became inspired by a wishing tree that she saw covered with multi-colored cloths containing the wishes of the masses of devotees who visited the site. This led her to design the 1997 public art project, “The Wish Machine,” an interactive vending machine that dispenses artist-mulitple wishes to the public for a dollar. Commissioned by Creative Time for Grand Central Station, “The Wish Machine” has traveled to train stations and public spaces in Frankfurt, Toronto, Geneva, and New Delhi. Participants received a small package offering wishes of LOVE, HOPE, PEACE, HEALTH, and MONEY, along with a tiny glass vial containing the essence of the plant traditionally attributed to the magical realization of a specific desire (i.e., the essence of a Rose = Love). Such a simple act of exchange symbolizes the transformation of busy impersonal public arenas into interior spaces of reflection and hope. In this sense “The Wish Machine” is a successful transformation of a non-art venue for merchandising into a catalyst for deeper self-consciousness, whereby viewers who are not accustomed to contemporary art are made to interact with art’s extra-visual aspects. Stathacos has continued this extra-visual function with her Rose Mandalas, this time intersecting artistic concerns with the human communion with nature and quest for spiritual source. In 2000, Stathacos went to Asia for six months on a award from the Japan Foundation to study wishing rituals. The outcome of that investigation is her work, “On Nature, Wishing, Hoping, Praying,” a 24-foot photographic scroll depicting a universal tendency towards ritual wishing actions based on nature. The images include child’s play in Canada, prayers at the Ganges, 9/11 memorials, fire festivals in Japan, and wishing trees from three continents. Aside from cultural rituals and spiritual beliefs, Stathacos’ work has also been influenced by a wide range of artistic precedents both historical and contemporary, Eastern and Western. Buddhist thankas, mandalas, and sand paintings are of obvious inspiration as well as the rich iconography of Dionysus, the Delphic Oracle, and the mystical artifacts of medieval Christianity. Modern and contemporary influences include Joseph Beuys and his interest in transformative performance as well as his political interventions into ecological and social systems; Yves Klein’s exploration of the void; and the early surrealist performances of Meret Oppenheim. The Fluxus art movement of the late 1960s—particularly the work of Yoko Ono, with her emphasis on the experiential and ephemeral nature of art—also informs Stathacos’ wishing tree imagery and temporal performances. In addition, Stathacos’s installations have an affinity to the pioneering feminist and earth-based practices of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta and contemporary land artists Andy Goldsworthy and Nils-Udo. Stathacos’ ultimate intention is to create opportunities for reflection and connection to the natural world. She asks viewers to question the materialist demands of our society and “the thoughts of desire that fill our minds as we try to get what we want while missing the very roots of what sustains us—nature in all her forms.” She notes that “ritual action brings us back to the source in the psyche common to all. We cannot exist without the air, water, fire, and earth, yet we forget to look at the sky, touch the trees, and smell the flowers.” Stathacos aims to reconnect us with the natural world and to remind us of the not-so-distant past when communicating with nature was a part of daily life. Amy Lipton |