Chasing the Spirit of Art and the Public Good public lecture

Dr. Aviva Rahmani is a Feminist Ecological Artist who began her career in the mid-1960s as a teaching assistant to Allan Kaprow (UC San Diego), a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. It was here that she brought Suzanne Lacy, Judy Chicago & Sandi Orgel together to do “Ablutions,” the first major performance piece on rape in early 1972.

Aviva's lecture titled “Chasing the Spirit of Art and the Public Good” will specifically refer to her most recent project, The Blued Trees Symphony. In this international project, Rahmani copyrights trees along proposed pipeline routes after they have been painted by students and other community members with a non-toxic buttermilk slurry. Each geolocated tree is a musical note which Aviva uses to create The Blued Trees Symphony. Each 1/3 of a mile of painted trees is equal to one movement in the symphony. The symphony is the aural aspect of the project. The painted trees are the sculptural aspect of the project. Each aspect is dependent upon the other to create the entire work.
Aviva has been working with a legal team to create an activist framework which is built upon the Visual Arts Rights Act (VARA). The copyright is designed to protect the “moral rights of the art,” giving private landowners, many living in “sacrifice zones,” (a geographic area that has been permanently impaired by environmental damage or economic divestment most commonly found in low income or minority communities) a tool to fight eminent domain takings of their land for private corporate gain.

The Blued Trees Symphony takes place in a forest, but Coda: Blued Trees is a site specific gallery installation conceptualized by Aviva for Virginia Tech's Perspective Gallery. In the spirit of social practice art, Coda: Blued Trees will be created and installed by Virginia Tech students and community members during the month of October for the November exhibit. During her week long residence at Virginia Tech (November 4 – 11, 2016), Aviva will work with small groups of students in their art classes (Professors Joiner, Hand and Paterson), provide lectures to the Creativity and Aesthetic Experience Classes and music convocation (Professor Weinstein), give a public talk (Lyric November 10 if funded), participate in the exhibit opening as well as attend an art walk along Blued Trees Brush Mountain in Montgomery County. The exhibit runs November 8 – December 17, 2016 with a reception for the artist on November 11 from 5 – 7 in Perspective Gallery.