Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret Self-Guided Curriculum
Welcome to the TACOMA ART MUSEUM Thank you for visiting the museum to explore Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret. Included you will find some ideas for teaching points and to facilitate discussion with your students. As you enter the museum, please set all backpacks and jackets in the coatroom which is located near the Visitor Services desk. Have students gather at the benches and please begin by reviewing the museum rules with your students. Welcome to TAM! While at the museum Explore the exhibitions Learn about art Create art Have fun As a reminder when visiting the museum please Respect each other and other museum visitors no shouting or running Keeping a safe distance from the artwork touching harms the art There is no food or drink in the galleries Flash photography can harm the artwork If taking notes a pencil is preferred and are always available at the admissions desk Stay with your group
Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret November 22, 2014 February 8, 2015 Mary Lucier created The Plains of Sweet Regret as a poetic response to the people and landscape of North Dakota at the turn of the 21st century. From the end of World War II until very recently, North Dakota suffered a slow economic decline as multinational agribusiness largely replaced local businesses and the traditional family farm system. The state experienced population loss as generations left for opportunities elsewhere. Lucier shares, The work reflects a personal journey through this region during various seasons and weather, primarily in the heart of North Dakota an area that is witnessing the greatest outward migration since the Great Depression, leading to a decline of rural life and the creation of ghost sites scattered across the landscape. Through multi-channel video projections and sound, Lucier captures the many contradictions of life in the contemporary Great Plains. She celebrates the beauty and harshness of the landscape by focusing steadily on the endless horizon and long, lonely roads. She finds the tension between the history and the present, and underscores the pull of nostalgia against reality. She explores abandoned churches, schools, and homesteads. Lucier s scenes of contemporary life in North Dakota include cowboys at the Devils Lake rodeo, massive farms, and ranchers tending to their cattle including the birth of a calf. Lucier continually draws attention to intimate details from the lives of individuals who inhabit a landscape still filled with the relics of the past. These people live with the old buildings and abandoned objects while tending to their immediate responsibilities and needs. Mirroring the boom-and-bust cycles since white settlement began in the late 19th century, economic changes have been met by the inhabitants of North Dakota with resilience, resignation, and even the hope of opportunity. Working with her long-time collaborator and composer Earl Howard, Lucier shaped the sound of the installation to evoke both the difficulties of the economic realities and the vastness of the northern plains. Their synthesized chords are plaintive and melancholic, leaving us to ponder forces much greater than ourselves. Lucier ends her work with George Strait s western ballad I Can Still Make Cheyenne. With the news that his wife has left him, a cowboy clings to a furtive hope for something better far away from his home. The Plains of Sweet Regret honors the people who face such difficult decisions every day and reveals the slow cycles of life on the Great Plains. Organized by Tacoma Art Museum in a new, all-digital edition. We gratefully acknowledge the generous cooperation of Mary Lucier. Mary Lucier, The Plains of Sweet Regret, 2004. Five-channel video/sound installation employing five video projections and vintage school chairs. Eighteen minutes, continuous repeat. Courtesy of the artist. Originally commissioned by the North Dakota Museum of Art.
ABOUT THE ARTIST Mary Lucier is widely celebrated as one of the pioneers of American video art. She was born in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1944, and graduated with Honors in English and American Literature at Brandeis University. In the 1970s and 1980s, she earned international critical acclaim for her video installations. She currently lives and works in New York. Lucier has been featured in one-person exhibitions at the Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and dozens of others. One of her early projects (1975) was presented by the iconic alternative art space The Kitchen in New York. The North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks has commissioned Lucier to create two major works, including The Plains of Sweet Regret. Her distinguished exhibition history also includes important group exhibitions such as September 11 at MoMA PS1 in New York, 2011; the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1997; The Luminous Image organized by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1984; the 1983 Whitney Biennial; and the 10e Biennale de Paris at the Musée d Art Moderne in 1977. In the Northwest, Lucier s work has been shown at the Portland Art Museum, the Henry Art Gallery, and the alternative space and/or in Seattle. Lucier has been honored with the 2007 Skowhegan Medal for Video. She has received multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and grants from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation through the North Dakota Museum of Art, the Nancy Graves Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Video still from Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret, courtesy of the artist. Video still from Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret, courtesy of the artist. Video still from Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret, courtesy of the artist.
GALLERY DISCUSSION Mary Lucier's eighteen-minute, five-channel video installation creates the experience of moving through the landscape, across the prairies and the plains, and into the West of the imagination the West, which, if it ever existed, lies in ruins. Laced with melancholy, The Plains of Sweet Regret asks the viewer: What is it about this life that one cherishes, that must not be lost through change? PROMPTS What is your first response feelings and thoughts as you enter the gallery? What did you learn about the people and places represented in the piece? Why do you think the installation is called The Plains of Sweet Regret? Where do you think piece was set (North Dakota and Great Plains)? Why do you think Lucier uses video? What is your response after viewing the entire piece? How did the music influence your experience? If you could ask the artist one thing what would it be and why? How will you describe The Plains of Sweet Regret to people who haven t seen it? CREATE Respond to the galleries by creating your own art in the TAM Studio. Located in the museum s lobby next to the TAM Store, the studio is stocked with art supplies, work tables, tools, and inspiration. Guests of all ages, interests, and abilities are welcome to stop by TAM Studio during museum hours to to find new ways to create, contribute, and connect with TAM.
VOCABULARY American West traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time. Prior to about 1800, the crest of the Appalachian Mountains was seen as the western frontier. Since then, the frontier moved further west and the Mississippi River was referenced as the easternmost possible boundary of the West. In the 21st century, the states which include the Rocky Mountains and the Great Basin to the West Coast are generally considered to comprise the American West. Culture the entirety of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, and all other products of human work and thought: decorative artifacts, environmental pollutants, high art, political ideologies, ritual beliefs, social customs, and so on. Nostalgia a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. Regional Identity the act of identifying with a specific geographic region of a nation. Video Art a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. RESOURCES Amon Carter Museum of American Art http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibitions/mary-lucierthe-plains-of-sweet-regret. Electronic Arts Intermix http://www.eai.org/artistbio.htm?id=417. SFMOMA http://www.sfmoma.org/explore/collection/artwork/9092 COVER IMAGE Video still from Mary Lucier: The Plains of Sweet Regret, courtesy of the artist.