BILL GILBERT's Matter of Fact: WALK TO WORK

From Bill Gilbert's Walk to Work

"With Matter of Fact: Walk to Work, Bill Gilbert continues his long-time interest in creating art based on the high desert environment by walking from his home in the Galisteo Basin to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque along a path that parallels the commute to work he has made for the past 20 years. Following as straight a line as the topography and legalities allow, Matter of Fact is an exploration of place that mediates between an abstract representation of the land through maps and a direct, physical experience of walking across the planet's surface. Gilbert’s tools are his legs, voice, and backpack, and his translation of the experience for viewers, installed at 516 ARTS’ Second Site, uses digital technologies (a digital recorder, GPS unit, and computer) to create a dialogue between the physical and virtual definitions of place". -from the LAND/ART website

August 1 - September 19
Gallery Component for Second Site at 516 ARTS

"The meaning of the term “Land Art” has changed quite a bit since the early Earthworks of the 1970s. The current focus is less on building monuments in remote places and more oriented to investigating our relationship to the natural environment. We currently face issues of sustainability both large and small, public and private. Those related to aspects of our daily lives are often the most difficult to address. For twenty two years I have made the hour-long drive from my house in Cerrillos to my office at the University of New Mexico. I know the terrain along Highway 14 quite well from the perspective of a car window at 60 miles an hour. For this piece, I decided I would develop a different understanding of this terrain by walking to work for a change. So, I strapped on a backpack and headed out my door following as straight a line as possible (given the variations in topography, land ownership, etc.) to my office at UNM. Along the roughly 50 mile trek I recorded my perceptions from the perspective of a lone hiker walking across the land.

For the installation at 516 Arts I have juxtaposed the abstraction of a video map of my journey with a physical map of the route to mimic my experience of traveling by foot guided by map and compass. " - Artist statement by Bill Gilbert