White Mountain National Forest Artist Residency, New Hamphire

When: 7/1/2012 to 7/31/2012 wmnf

Where: White Mountain National Forest The Smith Farmhouse/Mead Base Sandwich Notch Road
Center Sandwich, New Hampshire United States

Contact: Frumie Selchen, Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire
Frumie@aannh.org

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White Mountain Trail Mix is a collaborative project of visual artist Xavier Cortada and composer Juan Carlos Espinosa to be created as part of an artist’s residency at the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. The artist residency is a collaboration of the White Mountain National Forest and the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire. For more information about the residency, please scroll down or please visit: http://aannh.org

During July 2012, Cortada and Espinosa will create a series of site-specific works inspired by their month-long exploration of and walks through the White Mountain National Forest. These works will include drawings and other visual works, temporary art installations and soundscapes. The work will be a creative response to the flora, fauna, and landscape, as well the human presence in the forest.

Cortada and Espinosa have worked together on numerous projects over the last few years, most of them have been related to their shared environmental concerns. Their eco-art practice is defined by interdisciplinary collaboration and participatory practices that involve artists, scientists, communities with the goal of public awareness and bioremediation.Cortada has created art on six continents engaging the local to address the global. Espinosa reflects his concern for environmental issues, as well as his concern for the withering of human and cultural memory in his music and sound art.

During their residency, Cortada and Espinosa will create opportunities for visitors and forest staff to see the artistic process in action. Their process will be documented and posted on this blog. As part of the residency, they will engage participants in the creation of an interactive art piece inspired by their work during the residency.

Cortada will also deliver an artist’s talk where he will show installations from other residencies (e.g., South Pole, The Netherlands) as well as the works inspired by their walks across the different areas of this huge forest. These will be shown in conjunction with the performance of Espinosa’s soundscape. Espinosa will also offer a lecture on the relationship between music, humans and nature and/or a talk on creating a sound art piece.

About the Forest:
The White Mountain National Forest encompasses nearly 800,000 acres in New Hampshire and western Maine. It includes beautiful woods, waterfalls and rivers and rugged mountains. The well-known Presidential and Franconia Ranges, the famed Tuckerman Ravine, and homes to moose, black bear and many species of wildlife are all part of the WMNF landscape. Other highlights of the Forest are the largest alpine area in the eastern United States, over 1200 miles of hiking trails, and year-round recreation, including skiing, snowshoeing, mountaineering, snowmobiling and touring by car or on foot. Considered one of the Northeast’s “jewels,” the WMNF is within a day’s drive of 70 million people and hosts about 6 million visitors each year.

For more information, see http://whitemountaintrailmix.wordpress.com/