from the beginning...

Just days away from the official opening, it feels right to start at the beginning of the process evolving with the Collocation temporary art installation at Pritchard Park.

The place we are working holds an unbelievable array of definitions: a glorious stretch of unheard-of-in-these-parts undeveloped sandy beach tucked into a verdant hill; the former Wycoff log creosoting plant; the coming site of the Nidoto Nai Yoni/Let it not happen again Nikkei Internment and Exclusion Memorial; a former full-blown town called Creosote, complete with dance hall, post office, public baths and workers' cottages; an EPA superfund site; clandestine destination for island youth; site-specific art installation.

This litany is, in a way, a metaphor for the strange and complicated relationship shared between people and the land: a drama of control.

I imagine that those who are reading this have some interest in the Collocation project already. But I also imagine that these people are as complex as the site, each of whom has a different story that ties them to the project, or to the place. Hence the name Collocation: to arrange or place together. It is the most we can do to acknowledge the complexity, and to contain it only in naming it.

I'm keeping the blog more or less as a journal for the project, with the hope that the public nature of this work dovetails with the public forum generated in a blog. I spread some words, others help to grow them into conversation.

Here are a few photos of the initial walk through the site we conducted early in June, during which artists came to look for places that might inspire their work.