THE BLUE PHASE CEREMONY
On Saturday December 3, 2005 Hirokazu Kosaka, a Kyudo archer, will shoot an arrow on the Not A Cornfield site, signaling the end of the project's Gold Phase and ushering in the final Blue Phase. Kyudo - traditional Japanese archery- is a mobile form of the meditation zazen, and the firing of the arrow speaks to both the concept and the intentions of the Blue Phase. For this project has taken aim at revivifying a parcel of land at the historic center of our city and, having hit its target, it now opens up a space in which to consider the wider ramifications of our responsibilities and relationship to the earth.
ABOUT THE BLUE PHASE OF THE PROJECT
Not A Cornfield site, signaling the end of the project's Gold Phase and
ushering in the final Blue Phase. Kyudo - traditional Japanese archery - is a mobile form of the meditation zazen, and the firing of the arrow
speaks to both the concept and the intentions of the Blue Phase. For
this project has taken aim at revivifying a parcel of land at the
historic center of our city and, having hit its target, it now opens up
a space in which to consider the wider ramifications of our
responsibilities and relationship to the earth.
The color blue is traditionally symbolic of a dream-like state of
thoughtfulness and of physical and spiritual balance, purity, and
faithful union. Biochemistry explains that these associations are the
result of brain chemistry. For the sight of blue causes the brain to
secrete eleven tranquilizing neurotransmitters. Color psychology on the
other hand explains that blue, being the only color that is both
concentric or inward-looking and passively subject to external action,
simultaneously stimulates consciousness of individuality and a sense of
union with some greater entity.
Whatever the source of its affect, more than any other color in the
spectrum blue both symbolizes and fosters that state of wonder and
meditative wondering which must be a prerequisite for any actual
change. For it is only after something has first been imagined that it
can then be brought into being.
During the Blue Phase the harvested corn will be recycled and the
field will be tilled and sown with a mixed ground cover crop that will
function to further re-mediate the soil. At the same time a matrix of
blue lights will be scattered throughout the site in a pattern
reflecting the constellations that will be overhead at midnight on the
winter solstice. The lights will fade in and out in response to
'events' from the surrounding area - the sudden passage of a train, for
example, or environmental factors such as humidity and wind.
Additionally, to reinforce the placement of Not A Cornfield within an
urban context, several of the buildings and landmarks around the field
will also be 'painted' with blue light.
The project site will remain fully open to the public throughout this
time and, after a brief period of hush, the Friday Nights @ Not A
Cornfield series of salons and open mic/open screen evenings will start
up in January 2006. Functioning once again to bring people together to
address some of the many questions that the project raises, these
evenings will engage such topics as the future of this specific place
and the generation of a broader healthful balance between we humans and
our social, cultural and natural environments. A particular area of
focus during this time will be the related subjects of shelter and
homelessness; while the capacity of corn, and specifically of the Not A
Cornfield crop, to function as a low-cost sustainable building material
ABOUT HIROKAZU KOSAKA, ZEN ARCHER
Hirokazu Kosaka was born in Japan and graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute in1970. He is a Buddhist priest of the Shingon sect and a master Zen Archer. His 1994 installation entitled “In the Mood”, at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles explored notions of memory, identity, and living in the present. “Amerika Maru”, his piece about the problems of assimilation in 1950s and 60s Los Angeles, incorporated chanting monks, Flamenco dancers, archery, and big band music. Amerika Maru premiered at The Japan America Theater and toured to Jacobs Pillow, and the Colorado Dance Festival. Over the past few years, Kosaka has been planting a rice fields in the Isamu Noguchi plaza and using as an installation for the Butoh dancers/choreographers Min Tanaka and Oguri. The Ruin Map project funded by the Creative Capital in which three hundred woodblock prints was exhibited in JACCC in May 2003. Flagship Powhatan is a performance work and collaboration with Butoh dancer Oguri in a celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Commodore Perry ís opening of Japan to the West. A collaborative work by Kosaka, architect Michael Rotondi and visual artist Wolfgang Laib entitled, “Verandah” is part of a nation-wide exploration of the influence of Buddhism called The Awake Project was exhibited at the Fowler Museum October 2003. Kosaka has won grants and awards from such organizations as the Creative Capital, Durfee Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, NEA, Brody Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, California Arts Council, PEW Foundation, among others.
ABOUT THE NOT A CORNFIELD PROJECT
Growing in the historic center of Los Angeles, the Not Cornfield project transforms an industrial brownfield site into a cornfield for one agricultural cycle. Now the Los Angeles Historic State Park, the site popularly known as 'The Cornfield' had remained derelict for more than a decade. The project serves as a potent metaphor that provides a focus for reflection and action in a city unclear about the location of its energetic and historic center.
ABOUT LAUREN BON, NOT A CORNFIELD ARTIST
Lauren Bon resides in Los Angeles and holds a Masters of Architecture degree from MIT and a BA from Princeton. Ms. Bon is a trustee of the Annenberg Foundation and President of Not A Cornfield, LLC. Her recent urban, public and land art projects in the U.S., Hong Kong, Belfast and Northern Ireland, as well as her role as a trustee, make her uniquely poised to build the capacity of the Foundation in the area of site based philanthropy, serving communities through education, civic, health, artistic initiatives and programs. Not a Cornfield art project is being developed through a grant by the Annenberg Foundation.
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