Rosie blanckenburg
~ Albany Bulb Background
1.The Albany Bulb is located on a spit of land that used to be a dump and a landfill. Near
the bulb there are old docks that are falling into the bay, a large parking lot, two new
sporting fields and Golden Gate Fields, a horse racing facility. It lies on the western edge
of the County of Albany in a relatively isolated location but can be accessed easily from
the Bay Trail, Eastshore Highway and Buchannan Street. The Albany Bulb landscape is
varied and encompasses rolling hills and fields, rocky beaches and scrubland that is
populated by a number of native and non-native plants.
2. The Albany Bulb is on a peninsula surrounded by water which effectively draws the
boundary of the park. Starting at the parking lot, a thoroughfare leads into the park and
spits into a few main pathways that run thorough out the park. Tributary trails, which
frequently break off of the beaten paths, provide a tantalizing aside to those who are
inclined to explore. Artwork such as graffiti and metalwork, are placed together in
allotted areas.
3. An individual found on the Albany Bulb can be from almost any descriptive category.
Dog walkers, families, individual runners, artists, and bums can be seen there at almost
any time of day. The Albany Bulb is populated by bums , which does not deter visitors
from entering the park. Both genders are present in equal amounts. Many ethnicities and
races (African-American, Asian, white, Indian, European) were represented in the park,
and the visitors had several different cultural backgrounds. The age of the people visiting
was a large mixture of younger families with children, old and young hobos, students and
adults. For the most part, while all ages were represented, people tended to be middleaged or younger especially since it was later in the day. There were a fair amount of
people in the park in the evening and you could be relatively assured that there would be
someone within less than a minute’s distance from you.
4. Generally people come here to partake in exercise,
activities, artistry or inhabitation. This space is open
and accepting towards not only functions (eg. Dog
walking) that are uniformally found in parks but also
those that are atypical, such as spraying graffiti or
painting trees, and living in encampments with their
own clocks. At the Albany Bulb I saw many dog
walkers, clusters of bums exchanging news or a
cigarette, students taking pictures of the different works
of art, strolling couples and children having fun with
their parents. San Francisco Chronicle: Endangered Art: The controversial
beauty of Albany Bulb
~ Albany Bulb Experience
1. The Albany Bulb is as much a wooded scrubland as anything else inhabited by several
types of animals (groundhogs, snakes, opossums) and birds (sparrows and egrets). It has
an assortment of native (oak, grasses, coyote bushes) and non-native plants (fennel and
palm trees) competing for domination. Most of the bulb, apart from the edges is elevated
into a flat-topped hill and the terrain is a rough mixture of grasses, gravel, dirt, and rocky
beaches. Found without the park are slabs of concrete, piles of driftwood, encampments
filled with trash and empty bottles, discarded bicycle tires, and structures made out of
wood, tarp, or metal.
2.
The piece of art that stood out to me the most was the structure of the woman at
the end of the trail on the shoreline. She was designed and placed so cleverly that
the effect was that it felt like she was welcoming you with out-stretched arms to
her world. Her hair, face, and arms (made out of twigs, sticks, driftwood and
pieces of metal) were outspread and life-life that they seemed suspended in
animation as if she had just been frozen in time. I could not help but experience a
feeling that she was as close to being alive as a piece of art could get.
Another piece of art that caught my eye was a sculpture consisting almost
completely of wire alone. There was a main “body” – junk enclosed within –
oddly shaped legs, neck, a pair of wings each with their own supporting mud
guard, and finally the rotatable head, a rose complete with petals made with
circles of wire. I thought that it was really creative and intuitive of how the
artist(s) not only crafted a working, movable shape out of wires but combined
several different ideas into one in such a way that it actually worked. It seemed
natural and genius; an arts-and crafts project that you could interact with.
3. What aesthetic or sensory qualities does this space and its various forms of “junk”
bring out for you?
Touch and sight are two of the main senses that the “junk” art is attuned to, and I found
that several of the pieces of art were easy to interact with. Many artists who made them
used a wide range of color and materials, and welded them into fantastic shapes, many of
which were imitations of real life, such as the sitting man staring contemplatively at the
golden gate. A lot of artwork was unsigned; it did not matter who had done the art. Most
of the art pieces defied traditional forms of art and were very individualistic. The
creativity allowed for interesting use of several of these aesthetic qualities in a way that
challenged mainstream art forms. (Dutton, Denis. 2009. The Art Instinct: Beauty,
Pleasure, and Human Evolution.Bloomsbury Press. )
~ Albany Bulb Reflection
1. I feel like that the Albany Bulb, more than most outdoor spaces I’ve been too, is
essentially a, in some respects, place that one can interact with and as a
consequence it has attracted a fully fledged community which has grown larger
and more vibrant over the years. Unlike many parks and outdoor spaces it has its
own society, or inter-locking societies, that it is a brimming mish-mash of culture.
2. How is your concept of art, beauty, or natural landscapes influenced by this
visit?
My concept of these things have been broadened by looking at the various art
forms seen at the Albany Bulb. It is less about representation than about skill for
the artists, and for me, I now know that creativity is boundless. Nature by itself
can be used as an art form. Before hand, when I would think of art, I pictured
galleries of paintings and finely sculpted pieces of marble, but now I realize that
anything can be rendered in such a way as achieve a state of beauty. Universal
standards of beauty can not be applied to every form of art; other wise perceived
beauty would be redundant.
3. None of the artwork is fixed, like changing of the exhibits in a Musueum, older
pieces are often painted over or added to in someway, or even fade way over time
due to prolonged exposure. The Albany Bulb, like Museum, is a hub of culture
and styles of art and houses a collection of art of all forms. It is an area of
creativity and historic value; knowledge is passed down and exchanged among
the artists and the visitors through the artwork that appeals to several different
groups of people in a society (Dylan Eret, Lecture).
Sources:
Dylan Eret Lecture on Museums
Dutton, Denis. 2009. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution.
Bloomsbury Press.
San Francisco Chronicle: Endangered Art: The controversial beauty of Albany Bulb