Bill Gilbert

INSTALLATION

Since moving to New Mexico, my work has been focused on articulating the relationship between humans and place. Starting in 1979 I made the commitment to work with the native materials of my environmental back yard in northern New Mexico as means to develop an intimacy with the land.

Installations in the environment using juniper, tamarisk, willow and adobe seek to articulate the forms, textures and energy of the New Mexico landscape. Early installations in an architectural context (Native New Mexico & In Place) establish a confrontational dialog between culture and nature. In later works (Burnt, Here and Lineage,) my focus changes and digital media are added to break down the nature/culture dialectic.

A site specific work on an abandoned tailings pond using aspen trees from the surrounding hillside, Desolation focuses on the beauty often present in destruction. The work changes through the course of the day in response to the movement of the sun progressing from being nearly invisible in the early morning light to glowing with an apparently internal light at sunset.

A private commission in Denver, Colorado continuing my series of native material installations based on the skeletal structures of the surrounding landscape. 

A site-specific work for the Shidoni Sculpture Garden in Tesuque, New Mexico built entirely from materials native to the Ortiz Mountains. The work creates a pathway, that leads the viewer from the formal sculpture grounds to the riparian zone of the Tesuque River.

The initial series of native material installations created after settling in New Mexico  This series was inspired by watching boulders rolling past my house during summer flash floods.

This work represents the most complete articulation of my interest in dissolving the barrier between culture and nature.  The peeled aspen and adobe forms house a series of videos addressing aspects of the human condition including: love, family food, gender and money.

Mixed media  installation at the Contemporary Art Center In New Orleans, LA in conjunction with the National Council of Educators in the Ceramics Arts conference consisting of burnt juniper and fused adobe forms, chain and a video of a solitary figure chopping wood.  The title refers to the beauty often present in destruction.

In this installation I am interested in the mystery of what has transpired in this space, a former fire department station. The work is tagged with an archaeological tagging system that specifies the location of each form in 3 Dimensional space to create the sense that it is the remains of an event that has been transported and reconstructed.

This work includes a video of a solitary figure endlessly chopping firewood.

Mixed media installation at the Boulder Art Center in Boulder, CO 

This peeled aspen and fused adobe installation includes a video of me performing the mundane repetitive chores associated with inhabiting a rural environment. Here acknowledges human presence in the environment while setting a scale relationship that maximizes the quiet power of the natural materials.

A natural material and sound installation at the Creative Arts Gallery in New Haven, CT.

Soku is the product of a collaboration with composer Landon Rose in which we combine natural materials, sounds and smells gleaned from the New Mexico environment to transform an architectural space. more >

A juniper, tamarix and adobe installation at the Hoshour Gallery in Albuquerque, NM.

This installation stems from a ten-year commitment to work with the materials native to my home environment in northern New Mexico. more >