LAND CARE IN THE EXPANDED FIELD: The Art of Landscape Maintenance in a Broken World

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Date

2022-06

Authors

Pierce, Abigail

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

Landscape maintenance is a largely routinized and long-term process, and these qualities have the tendency to render it invisible. And yet, if we are to sensitively and meaningfully engage landscapes and the communities present therein, an ethics of care for landscape architecture is essential. To understand land care, and its importance in this moment, it must be made more familiar by enhancing its visibility, appeal, and power. This project explores the concept of a maintenance artist in residence, as inspired by the work of the artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles. Ukeles has been the maintenance artist in residence with the New York Sanitation Department for 40+ years. Through empathy and connection, Ukeles’ socially engaged art practice lends visibility to the reality, necessity, and creativity of maintenance work. The guiding question for this project is: How can the Ukeles model of maintenance artist in residence be applied within landscapes? Using the framework of creative practice for this inquiry opens the possibility of speculative design and the generative potential of iterative design in relation to practices of landscape maintenance. Four typologies of maintenance art are identified through Ukeles’ work: interaction, performance, documentation, and exhibition. These typologies are then explored through a researchthrough- design methodology informed by creative modes of inquiry as detailed in Karen Lutzky and Sean Burkholder’s “Curious Methods” and Tim Ingold’s Making. Studying land care in this way will hopefully lead to understanding its potential as a socially engaged, multidisciplinary creative practice serving both the physical and social infrastructures that require our ongoing attention. A Maintenance-Artist-in-Residence could act as a living link between designers, caregivers, and communities, while increasing visibility and respect for land care, the labor it involves, and the creative potential it holds.

Description

40 page

Keywords

Maintenance art typologies, Industrial aftermath, Care-centered practice

Citation