The National Endowment for the Arts has approved a $25,000 Art Works Grant to fund “Atmosphere,” a site-specific work by Michael Jones McKean, associate professor of sculpture. The project is part of a long-term work of art titled “Twelve Earths” that spans 12 different locations.
Co-developed with scientists, “Atmosphere” (seen in a digital rendering above) will take shape as a shelter in the desert, with a climate-controlled interior that simulates environments from the Earth’s distant past. Its opening is planned to coincide with a series of public talks and performances on ecological stewardship.
Fathomers, a creative research institute based in Burbank, Ca., was awarded the grant to construct McKean’s project.
“We hope to design ‘Atmosphere’ as a semi-permanent installation,” says Stacy Switzer, Fathomers’ curator and executive director, “to be maintained and open to the public for a minimum of one year. Ultimately, though, the goal is to survive much longer: to exist as time outside of time; a space of mysterious origin and quality to be discovered by adventuring tourists and art pilgrims alike; a breath that pre-dates the human, and suggests what we might return to again.”
Read more at Fathomers’ website.
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