The Art of Protecting Lands: Aviva Rahmani

Continuing our exploration into the umbrella of environmental art, in this episode Andrew speaks with artist, Aviva Rahmani, who creates public, site-specific art to fight off land developers. Focusing on her series, Blued Trees Symphony, Aviva explains how her approach incorporates community, creativity and legal theory to protect natural landscapes. She also touches upon her belief of our community being in a time of "eco-suicide," and where she identifies her art in the umbrella of "environmental art."

-About Blued Trees Symphony-

The Blued Trees Symphony is an ongoing, site-specific land art project wherein Aviva Rahmani and collaborators convert threatened lands into art pieces. The hope is that by having them protected by the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), Aviva can the prevent the use of eminent domain to seize lands for pipeline construction where the artworks are situated.

The first iteration of Blued Trees Symphony emerged on, June 21, 2015 in Peekskill, New York. It is now installed over many miles of proposed pipeline expansions, and each 1/3 measure of those miles has been copyrighted for protection. Visually, Blued Trees Symphony presents stretches of trees painted with musical movements using an environmentally friendly ultramarine pigment. Together, these movements form a score which can be read and performed.

Learn more about Blued Trees Symphony here

-About Aviva Rahmani-

Aviva Rahmani began her career as a performance artist, founding and directing the American Ritual Theatre (1968-1971), performing throughout California. She graduated from California Institute of the Arts and received a PhD from Plymouth University, UK, Rahmani has presented workshops on her theoretical approach to environmental restoration and her transdisciplinary work has been exhibited internationally including in The Independent Museum of Contemporary Art (IMCA), Cyprus with the National Centres of Contemporary Art (NCCA), Ekaterinburg and Moscow, Russian Federation, KRICT, Daejeon, Korea, the Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, the Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH, and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO. Her work has been discussed and covered in books, essays, and in art magazines such as Art in America, Art News, The Huffington Post and Leonardo. Rahmani’s video documentation Gulf to Gulf sessionshave been viewed on line from over eighty-five countries. “Trigger Points/ Tipping Points,” a precursor to Gulf to Gulf, premiered at the 2007 Venice Biennale. In 2002, her pioneering community action project, Blue Rocks, helped restore degraded wetlands on Vinalhaven Island, Maine a USDA investment of over $500,000. The Blued Trees Symphony (2015 - present) has received numerous awards and been extensively written about and exhibited internationally. A Mock Trial is scheduled for the project at the Cardozo Law School, NYC on April 25, 2018.

Learn more here