Our storied collaboration with photographer Alex Marks continues, with these Polaroids from a rehearsal of This Clement World by Cynthia Hopkins, which she performed this past weekend as part of Carbon 13. This Clement World addresses our global climate crisis, and was commissioned by Les Subsistances in Lyon, France where it will premiere this November; St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY where it will have its US premiere in February 2013; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN where it will be presented in March 2013. We felt lucky to be a part of the process. –NI

We’re over at the Crowley Theater, just starting rehearsals for This Clement World, the musical performance piece by Cynthia Hopkins that addresses the global climate crisis (and will eventually be part of the Carbon 13 exhibition). If you’re still in Marfa tonight, don’t miss this work-in-progress — I got chills listening to Cynthia just do vocal warmups. Show starts at 8 pm. Free. — NI

Erika Blumenfeld, Las Conchas Wildfire (New Mexico 2011), 2012, Digital pigment print, 40x60 inches, Edition of 3

Getting excited about the opening of Carbon 13 this Friday. Installation is in full swing (thanks to master installers Sean Di Ianni and Justin Waugh), and artist Erika Blumenfeld just installed her contribution — paintings, sculptures and photographs related to the wildfires across the US southwest. Erika explains:

“In April of 2011, as the Rock House Fire raged through Marfa and across the beautiful landscape of far West Texas–devastating the region’s wildlife, ranches and livelihoods–I began to collect the charred debris of the trees, dirt, animal bones, and grasses that remained. I then photographed the result of what has clearly become a heightening of conditions for wildfires due to arridification from climate change. I documented four major fires across of the southwest in this way, gathering material from the Rock House Wildfire (Texas 2011), the Las Conchas Wildfire (New Mexico 2011), the Wallow Wildfire (Arizona 2011) and the recent Waldo Canyon Wildfire (Colorado 2012).

I ground the charred debris I collected into a fine pigment, which in some cases is iridescent with metalized carbon, and made a series of Wildfire Paintings, allowing the raw material to sit on the surface of a gilded-edged panel. For the sculptural component, I filled hand-hammered Tibetan song bowls with charred grasses, pinecones, wood and pineneedles and displayed them along burned volcanic rocks, animal bones and cacti. All of these materials are contraband, as the areas from which I gathered them were either private, state, or federal lands. At each location I went to gather debris, I was at some point evicted from the land, highlighting the interesting dichotomy between the varying human ideas of ‘land ownership.’ This work considers the sacredness of the natural landscape alongside our desire to own it, exploring the idea that land ownership has in one sense stolen the land from nature. In stealing it back, the piece intends to re-sacralize nature beyond our possession of it. In the photographic works, I documented the thick smoke of the active fires and the blackened landscape in the aftermath of the blaze.

The works are forensic evidence of the crime of climate change, eulogy to the wildfires, and homage to the nature they consumed. However, as carbon is both the building block of all life and is itself an artifact of light, these works also intend to look to the regeneration that is possible as we look for solutions for climate change.”

Join us on Friday for the Carbon 13 opening from 6 to 8 pm, followed by a community dinner at the Capri, where we’ll also show Koyaanisqatsi, the film by Godfrey Reggio, with music by Philip Glass. –NI

We’re big fans of Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, the amazing design duo at Sonnenzimmer, who designed our Yeasayer poster back in 2010, and just sent us this poster celebrating the Marfa Dialogues and Carbon 13. Knockout. What’s more, it’s printed on 100% post-consumer waste paper, courtesy of , an independent printer in Niles, Michigan, with their own hyrdro-plant for electricity (and they’ve been energy radicals for SIX GENERATIONS). Inspiring. Many thanks to Nick and Nadine (be sure to explore their site, I’m in love with that Walkmen poster) and buy the Marfa Dialogues poster now. –NI

David Hockney, Olympics, 1972

Allan Jones, Olympics, 1972

Horst Antes, Olympics, 1972

Eduardo Chillida, Olympics, 1972

Tom Wesselmann, Olympics, 1972

Josef Albers, Olympics, 1972

According to Creatures of Comfort (GREAT blog): “The 1972 Olympics held in Munich were the first time that the events were broadcast globally through television. As a result, it became the first time a terrorist attack was seen globally. Otl Aicher, who designed the 1972 Olympics chose, also for the first time, to use image predominantly in the graphics, rather than text and he commissioned international artists to make editioned prints for the games.”

ALSO OF NOTE: Texas soul legend Bobby Patterson is playing the El Cosmico festival, in addition to a lot of awesome folks (buy tickets here). In celebration, here’s a Thursday jam by Bobby, courtesy of Aquarium Drunkard.

Bobby Patterson “If You Took A Survey”

Courtesy of Creatures of Comfort.

“The political impulse is fine but moot. Art has political consequences, which is to say, it reorganizes society and creates constituencies of people around it. Miles Davis creates a constituency. Andy Warhol creates a constituency, and any object or occasion that organizes people in terms of what they want is a political constituency.”

— Art critic Dave Hickey, in an interview with The Believer

Relevant to our next visual arts exhibition, Carbon 13, and the Marfa Dialogues symposium, both of which address climate change, sustainability and art as a transforming media. Read more of the interview here. –NI

A video interview with Dan Finsel, our featured artist for Artists’ Films International (which opens July 20). Video courtesy of Made in LA 2012.

Great discussion between writer Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and artist Simone Leigh (who just participated in our 2012 Benefit), moderated by Claire Barliant (who wrote the essay for the upcoming Immaterial catalog). Video thanks to New York Public Library. –NI

Cape Farewell, an interdisciplinary project of David Buckland, just opened a new show at the Espace Fondation EDF in Paris, France. Titled Carbon 12, the show is a counterpart to Ballroom Marfa’s fall 2012 exhibiton, Carbon 13, also curated by Buckland. Both shows ask artists to think about, respond to, and propose solutions for the global climate change crisis. Read more about the exhibition and accompanying conference here, and more about Cape Farewell on their website. Can’t wait for Carbon 13! – RM