Pathway 1

Pathway 1 was made to be a part of a class wide collaborative installation called "Faux Real" in the Worth Ryder Gallery at UC Berkeley. The themes our class discussed involved the notion of a hidden natural wonderland, existing behind a temporary wall that forced an initial confrontation with the “front half” of the show. The front half took the form of a classical art gallery space with pieces in white frames – each of which were reflections upon the work done in the back.

Pathway 1 is an interactive narrative designed to activate the space, and to test the preconceptions of gallery art and interaction. The entire path consists of four large pine logs placed on the floor with some additions built onto the first three. Natural materials have been a direct way for me to engage with issues in nature and its appreciation, as well as with the level people are willing and able to engage with it. Fallen logs are common and natural, and walking upon one is always a playful, exciting, and uplifting experience. All one needs is the confidence to jump on and engage. It was my goal to ease participants into gaining this confidence through the progression of handrail fixtures leading up to the eventual moment of standing on a plain log. Basic wild abilities are so often ignored when solely flat paved streets surround us. Flat streets are not where we came from. I wanted to connect people with their wild essence.

In the context of the show, the pathway gave viewers a different vantage point from which to view the rest of the art in the show. Exit points between logs left participants in front of different pieces on different sides of the gallery. The pathway pulled the space together into a collectively transformed world through which one could meander.

The progression is a flow from recognizable human input to plain nature. The first log and its constructed walls and roof are meant to establish a sense of safety and comfort through recognized construction, contrasted with the natural log supporting the built parts. The parts seem so distinct, but they come from the same place. The log is braced with the ground and will not tip. I wanted to create comfort in the participants – I wanted to lure them onto the pathway. Once on the log, the surrounding structure makes one feel sheltered, contributing to the growing comfort on the log.

Log two is smaller and very stable. The walls and roof are lost, replaced with strong vertical lines that can function as hand grabs, but don’t quite beg for it - balance is emphasized further. The side poles begin low, and grow at the very end as a build up for log three, which makes use of the same materials as log two, except that the vertical posts grow over one’s head.

Log three tips like a heavy sided teeter-totter, tipping only after one had walked past the halfway point. This occurrence pushed the interaction and levels of expectation to more extreme levels, and emphasized the importance of focus and awareness of one’s surroundings. The tipping log functioned as a game for many of the participants, and multiple people attempted to balance on the tipping point as individuals and as teams. This task allowed for participants to explore this careful moment of satisfaction once balanced, as well as to feel the exhilaration of control over the immense weight of the massive log. The sound of the log’s BOOM as it returned to its resting place became a dominant feature of the space, and emphasized the force and power balancers were able to hold under their feet when on the giant tree trunk.

Log four is simply left as it would have been found in the world, signifying the completion of the task, returning engagers back to a natural situation. After the tipping, simply standing on a log seems easy and natural.

The progression of Pathway 1, from recognizable to challenging, matched the flow of the entire show, which began with a recognizable gallery space and progressed into a transformed and unexpected world of wonder. The space, as well as the piece, begged reconsideration of what might possibly be considered art, and in what contexts art can be found and explored.