Bill Gilbert

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Collaborations

Collaboration has been a focus throughout my career and I have engaged in projects with musicians, dancers, printmakers, sculptors, painters, composers, writers, biologists and activists in installations, performances and site interventions.  The Land Arts of the American West program was conceived as a nomadic studio to foster collaborative works. Collaborative projects completed  by participants in Land Arts and the Art & Ecology program are grouped together in our Survival Kit Collective.

Survival Kit Collective

Clean Livin', 2010 - Survival Kit Collective

The Land Arts of the American West program worked with Simparch (Steve Badgett and Matt Lynch) on upgrades to the sustainable living experiment at the Southbase of the Wendover Air Force Base.  We installed a roof catchment system, created planting beds and developed a system for crushing glass to be used in potting soil.

Barrio Buena Vista, 2009 - Survival Kit Collective

Buena Vista
Survival Kit Collective has developed an ongoing relationship with the Centro Artistico y Cultural in barrio Buena Vista in El Paso, TX. In partnership with Centro director Roberto Salas, Bill Gilbert, Catherine Harris and Jeanette Hart-Mann have directed students in the Land Arts of the American West in several projects including a marble mural at the entrance to the barrio, a master plan for preserving and developing the environmental assets of the barrio, and signage claiming an area in the neighborhood currently designated for the expansion of I-10.

Survival Kit Collective has developed an ongoing relationship with the Centro Artistico y Cultural in barrio Buena Vista in  El Paso, TX.  In partnership with Centro director Roberto Salas, Bill Gilbert, Catherine Harris and Jeanette Hart-Mann have directed students in the Land Arts of the American West in several projects including a marble mural more >

Hole to China, 2009 - Survival Kit Collective

Students and faculty in the Land Arts of the American West program completed and installed alternative signage and informative text at the Roberston Mine in Ruth Nevada and at the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Wendover, UT. 




   

AMAFCA, 2008 - Survival Kit Collective

Survival Kit Collective, in this case comprised of UNM Landscape Architecture and Studio arts students under the direction of Bill Gilbert & Catherine Harris, worked with the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Agency to develop an alternative proposal for the planned East Amole Surge Pond.


Los Poblanos, 2008 - Survival Kit Collective

Survival Kit Collective as a partnership between Landscape Architecture and Studio Arts students under the direction of Bill Gilbert and Catherine Harris  designed and installed a windbreak and beneficial plant habitat for Los Poblanos organic farms in Albuquerque, NM using entirely found materials from the farm. 


   

Bough, 2007

Bough

The team for this project consisted of Biologist Bruce Milne, Painter Erika Osborne and myself. The work was commissioned for the Weather Report exhibition at the Boulder Art Center curated by Lucy Lippard.

Bough (bou),n. is a fractal based planting design for the mountain/prairie ecotone above Boulder Colorado adjacent to the National Center for Atmospheric Research utilizing plant species capable of adapting to the rising temperatures brought on by global warming, (Gambel Oak, Mountain Mahogany, Piñon Pine).

The team for this project consisted  of Biologist Bruce Milne, Painter Erika Osborne and myself. The work was commissioned for the Weather Report exhibition at the Boulder Art Center curated by Lucy Lippard. more >

Haptic Antics, 2003 - 2004

 

Tori Arpad participated in the Land Arts of the American West program as a guest artist in 2003. Our collaboration began with a combined response to the idea that people tend to be unable to walk a straight line in isotropic spaces. (straightline/playaroll). Our collaboration continued its investigation of the physical aspects of perception first in a joint residency at the Everglades National Park (locomotion) and then at the Watershed Center for the Arts (work).


Work, 2004

Locomotion, 2004

Straightline/Playaroll, 2003
      

American Longing/Immigrant Desire, 1998

A mixed media, fond object collaborative installation with sculptor Antoinette Rosato at the Cente for MetaMedia in Plasy, Czech Republic.
In this work we investigate the desire of our European ancestors to immigrate to the Untied States and the longing in subsequent generations of Americans for a connection to their roots in the “old world”.


 

Gringo Incognito, 1992

GRINGO INCOGNITO

A collaborative performance with composer Landon Rose at Mobius in Boston, MA.

In this work we create a dialog between western rural and eastern urban cultures. For my contribution, I arrived from New Mexico, bought a cord of wood and stayed in the gallery until I had it split. I slept on the floor and prepared food for anyone who came to the gallery at mealtimes. Rose wired all the tools in the space and mixed the sounds created in splitting wood, chopping food, etc. with ambient sounds from the roof and street below and a set of “instruments” he brought to the space including an endlessly scanning police radio, a turn table playing Patsy Cline, and a helium tank filling balloons. The performance ended when I split the last piece of wood.

A collaborative performance with composer Landon Rose at Mobius in Boston, MA.

In this work we create a dialog between western rural and eastern urban cultures. For my contribution, I arrived from New Mexico, bought a cord of wood and stayed in the gallery until I had it split. more >

     

Exquisite Corpse, 1991


Exquisite Corpse

A collaborative performance/installation with artists Michelle Goodman, James Marshall & Gina Telcocci at the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM.

To begin the artists divided the gallery with screens into four equal spaces. Each artist chose one material from the list of stone, metal, rubber and wood for their initial installation. The artists worked in succession leaving two gestures poking through the screens into the adjacent space. The screens were removed at the opening revealing the corpse.

Over the next four weeks the artists worked in turn with the entire space creating a revolving set of installations. At the closing all four came together to create one final corpse in the center of the gallery that was dismembered and removed by the audience.

A collaborative performance/installation with artists Michelle Goodman, James Marshall & Gina Telcocci at the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, NM.

To begin the artists divided the gallery with screens into four equal spaces. Each artist chose one material from the list of stone, metal, rubber and wood for their initial installation. more >

Comprende el Burro, 1990

Comprende el Burro

A collaborative performance piece with dancers, musicians, conductors, artists, basketball players and an acupuncturist in the Galles Motors Body Shop, Albuquerque, NM. This works was inspired by my transition from seven years in construction in Santa Fe to a position in academia at UNM. The format is the hero journey with stops in the alienating work place, race/gender wars, healing strategies, high/low culture confrontations, spiritual appropriations and violence as a transcendent force.

A collaborative performance piece with dancers, musicians, conductors, artists, basketball players and an acupuncturist  in the Galles Motors Body Shop, Albuquerque, NM. This works was inspired by my transition from seven years in construction in Santa Fe to a position in academia at UNM. more >

     

Minitudes, 1988

A collaborative performance with Shelly Hull and Kathleen Matovitch at the X Theatre in Albuquerque, NM in honor of Nicolas Slonimsky’s 51 Minitudes For Piano.

This works surrounds an audience seated in the center of the space with a succession of  movement, light, form and sound events.



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