Past Projects

Welcome to our archive of projects and events gone by. 

red bamboo web.jpg

As an inaugural installation for the art farm lab and show case sculptural piece for the Rainforest Gallery open house in 2008, artfarmer Diego Samper - along with his crew of artfarmer volunteers (special thanks to Victor, Shoshana, Aileen and Danielle) - created and installed The Red Transect.  In the field of ecology, as artist Diego Samper explains, "a transect is a metho

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Synchronicity Logo

In 2010, deer crossing the art farm developed a new project, Synchronicity, that built on the experience and infrastructure developed over the previous two years.  This project involved a formally produced festival that was defined by the collaborations and connections between artists from different disciplines. Along with the two-day festival, the art farm hosted a series of forums, discussions and dialogues for the wider community on the “Synchronicity” theme. A term coined by Carl Jung, Synchronicity refers to the experience of events occurring together in a meaningful way, although causally unrelated. As the mobilizing theme for the art farm’s 2010 season, “Synchronicity” is about opening our eyes to the connections that exist between us all – from the banker to the shop-keeper to the farmer to the planner to the hydro-worker to the builder to the fisherman to the artist. It’s about discovering these connections and working with them to build a healthier happier community. Between the forums, the discussions and the festival itself, the Synchronicity project allowed our regional community to discover and engage with existing partners encountering common challenges and seeking common goals.

More about SYNCHRONICITY, the 2010 festival, here.

 

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measuring the spiral

One of the first projects for the art farm lab, the Laurel Spiral - an experiment in Green Architecture by artist/architect Diego Samper - sits right at the heart of the art farm hub.  As a forested walkway leading into an enclosed meadow with a large bonfire pit, artfarmers will use the Laurel Spiral as a place of reflection, dialogue and collaboration with themselves and the natural world.

In the words of Diego Samper "The Spiral, the Uterus Mundi, symbolises the generating matrix of the world, the power of creation and natural order.  As Earth architecture, a sprial laurel hedge (Prunus laurocerasus) will define a living enclosure. A place of encounters and performance stage, it is also an astronomcial calendar, with markers pointing to the solstices and equinox and signalling the time for seasonal rituals of celebration of life and renewal.  A woven living structure, it will provide a protected nesting environment and food for migrating birds." 

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working on cob

In partnership with some artfarmers extraordinaire, the Good Earth Builders from the Sunshine Coast and the Mudgirls from Saltspring and Lesquiti Islands, the art farm lab has been buzzing since the Spring of 2009 with cobbers, apprentice cobbers and curious on-lookers.  Dedicated to re-invigorating an ancient natural building technicque for the modern age, the GEB and MG now offer anyone interested hands-on experience in building beautiful artistic structures with material they can find digging in their own backyards. This is art + nature = change in practice - and as the heart of the art farm hub's campground, the Cob Kitchen - designed by resident artist/architect Diego Samper - is an inspiring physical example of  how a bit of mud, a few people, and their bare feet can create change (in this case - the new is actually old), just like that.

 

Past Cob Events:

April 30 - May 2 2010

Cob Finishings: Roofing with MudGirls and Good Earth Builders

 

May 14 - 16 2010

Cob Finishings: Wall and Stove with Good Earth crew

 

July 12 - July 15 2010

Cob Kitchen: Plastering Workshop with Good Earth

REGISTER FOR THIS WORKSHOP!

 

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late summer's night dinner

For some of us, we've got not choice - the grid doesn't reach us.  For others, we're just looking for ways to take less and give back more (energy, water, resources - you name it).  Starting in 2010, with artfarmer Nadi Fleschhut at the helm, the art farm is embarking on an ambitious long-term project we're calling Closing the Loop or Giving back to the Grid.  What are some easy-to-learn skills or easy-to-build tools that can help us give a little more and take a little less in our homes, our work, our shared spaces? New innovative technologies and ideas abound, let's get them out there and into the hands of people who are looking for them...

 

PAST WORKSHOPS

FOLLOW THE LINKS BELOW TO REGISTER!

 

June 5 - June 6, 2010

Water: above and below, a workshop

 

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critical mask ella cooper

As part of the art farm's second full season of programming, deer crossing presented its first themed two-day event at the art farm hub.  RETURN invited over a dozen artists from multiple disciplines to create installations, performances, sculpture and ceramics based on the title theme.  Sunshine Coast artists teamed up with Vancouver-based artists and others from even farther afield (as far as Nebraska, USA, in fact) to present a one-of-a-kind event that entertained, dazzled and shifted the perspective of hundreds of audience members over the two overcast days in August. Check out the program from the event here.

Completed
Otesha warm-up events.jpg

As part of the art farm's opening season of programming, deer crossing invited the theatre activist organization Otesha to the hub for a four day intensive creation workshop led by Vancouver theatre artists Lynna Goldharr Smith and art farm founder Laen Hershler.  The twelve performers arrived by bike (they tour their theatre piece around the country on bikes also) and then dug their heels in for one of the more intense theatrical rides of their lives: creating a show in under a week's time.  Otesha returned for a premiere performance of the new show a month later and then took it on the road up the Sunshine Coast, onto Vancouver and the Gulf Islands.

Completed
creating the wilderness cube

In 2008, art farm curator Diego Samper designed and created the Wilderness Cube; an attempt to 'cage' wilderness amongst cultivated land. At first, the cube, consisting of six 8 foot square steel wire mesh, contained grass only.  After the art farm's first open house in August 2008, however, Diego decided the cube should rather surround a large meter high boulder unearthed when the hub space was first cleared in the '80s.  Now standing at the entrance to the art farm hub's main gathering space, the Wilderness Cube will be left to its own wild devices, while its surroundings will continue to be cultivated for years to come.  "11.4 cubic meters of wildness", Diego calls it.  For more on this and artfarmer Diego Samper's work, check out: www.diegosamper.com

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otesha workshop

REACH or “Re-integrating Existing Assets into Community Hubs” aims to bring sector leaders in tourism, arts and culture, local food, intelligence services (consultancy, education, finances) and green building/design together with local governments and private sector visionaries to plan, design and build a shared work space that builds capacity for the biggest collective growth sector on the Sunshine Coast: creative and social entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs from this emerging sector sell innovation, technology, ideas, products and services that are unique, restorative and socially conscious.

Check out our REACH page here

A Tides Canada Initiative

 

REACH Sponsors

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