It's been 12 years since a motley crew of Montano bridge opponents, environmentalists, and North Valley residents got together to press the city to buy an-about-to-be-developed tract of land on the Northeast corner of Rio Grande and Montano. We called ourselves the Anderson Field Alliance and our efforts culminated in the city's first- ever mail in election in 1997 wherein citizens overwhelmingly voted to increase the gross receipts tax slightly to acquire open space. Anderson Field, which was renamed Los Poblanos Open Space, was the flagship for these acquisitions from Tijeras Canyon to the Petroglyphs. A small non-profit, Rio Grande Community Farm, farms the land today, providing forage for cranes, geese and fun for kids who love the annual corn maize. The old field also hosts a community garden near Alvarado Elementary School, where you can rent a row, and grow what you want. They provide the water.
This spring, on a Sunday afternoon, I came across three generations of a Navajo family, down from the Heights, tending to their row. I can't think of anything more positive.
This weekend the city kicked off a "Land Art " exposition , a collaborative presentation of various forms of "environmental" art, including a series of exhibitions, site specific art works, a lecture series and/or symposium and a publication documenting the project. One of these pieces, created by North Valley artist and Anderson Field Alliance member Anne Cooper, is located on Los Poblanos Open Space. It's called Anitya, the Sanskrit word for impermanence. It's a 9'x 9' plot with a grid of small terra cotta bowls, each with a two inch hole cut out of the bottom, and filled with seed balls. The intention is, as the rains/snows come, the bowls will dissolve back into the earth leaving a red stain where they disintegrate. Likewise the seeds will germinate and sprout up in this 9' x 9' grid. The piece will not be manipulated or interfered with for the duration by the artist, but will be at the whims of nature and the public.
Anne will document the piece from the gathering of the clay, processing the clay, making of the bowls, seed balls, laying out the grid and its disintegration/ growth during the months that it will be in the landscape. The documentation along with an installation that refers to the project will be on display in 516 Arts during the summer of 2009, with directions to Los Poblanos for anyone curious to see it in its current state. Rather than have "gallery talks" the artists will lead "gallery walks". Hopefully this will introduce this remarkable piece of land to more of the public.
Anitya will in no way change or damage the land, and once the clay has dissolved back into the earth and the plants have run their cycle the land will return to its current state, with the clay marks the only remnants of the project. Call the 516 Gallery downtown or contact Anne Cooper at cooperix@comcast.net. I've already put it on my "check-it-out" list.
It's just been released in time for the Rio Grande Nature Center's 25th Anniversary, and will debut with a book signing Saturday Nov. 10 at the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park at 6:00 p.m.
Seventeen of the original watercolors will be on sale at the Nature Center through Dec. 1. This is sure to stir your heart strings, if you're at all called to the outdoors, right in our backyard, as I am.
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