Utah Women 2020. Jann Haworth and Alex Johnstone
(Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
“Utah Women 2020,” 55' x 90'. Located in downtown Salt Lake City on the historic Dinwoody Building located at 37 West and 100 South. Under the direction of Jann Haworth, the co-designer of the original Beatles' cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for which she received a Grammy, a consortium of artists and citizens, local and international, were invited to participate.
The mural is a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. “Art is silent,” Haworth said in her speech at the unveiling. “There’s no music. There’s no dialogue. This mural is speaking in silence. And it’s speaking about democracy. It’s speaking about inclusion and about diversity. It’s speaking about our present condition. It’s speaking about the mistakes that are here. It’s speaking about the fact that democracy is a work in progress.”
As a case-in-point of democracy in flux: as 2020 marks the 100-year anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Utahn's point to the 150-year anniversary of Seraph Young, a Utah woman, becoming the first woman voter in the U.S. This point of historic value is put in perspective by Utah currently languishing at dead last in the nation for women's rights. A work in-progress indeed.
Zions Bank CEO A. Scott Anderson came up with the idea to do something special for the centenary over a year ago, and he then approached Jann, asking her to make it happen.
“I thought we needed to have something monumental to recognize the remarkable contribution of women in this state,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot that we have to do, but when you look at this mural, you realize how significant women have been not only in building this state but in influencing the nation. And we should have pride in that.” (Olander, KSL. 8/26/20. https://www.ksl.com/article/50010833/mural-celebrating-influential-utah-women-unveiled-on-womens-equality-day
The mural depicts over 250 of Utah’s most influential women, both from the past and present day, honoring women’s accomplishments as well as their contributions to the state, country and world. The 4,950 square foot mural contains 268 figures, which includes 5 doubles [2 of which were deliberate]; 2 blanks, 2 unknowns, 1 dog, 1 fictional. Crowdsourcing was an original intention for generating artwork, with stencil workshops scheduled across the state of Utah, training participants to contribute an image. Then coronavirus lockdown hit, so Jann and Alex created an online tutorial for stencil, which opened the process. People from Belgium, Vienna, Australia, Italy, Scotland, Wales and England all contributed to the work. A total of 178 people worked on the mural, only around 30 of which were professionals.
I was one of the professional artists Jann tapped to create a full figure. I created an image of Beckanne Sisk, who is a principal dancer at our local ballet company Ballet West. I chose her as she is a rare and inspiring artist, and I came up with the arts-collage to reflect her ability. I created her at nearly 9' tall, and on the mural she is 18'. She is at the far left, standing on Jann's depiction of the stencil process. At Jann's request I made a portrait of my collie, Nora; she is on the front row, third in from the edge. Jann liked my seagull from her S.L.C. Pepper mural, and created a new seagull to reference it.
For more, here is a nice write-up in our local online arts magazine, 15Bytes:
Each figure was photographed digitally, then compiled. This was a complex process done by Jann's talented son Alex. Then the image was printed on a mesh/banner media and installed professionally by the printing company.
The wrinkles all stretch out as the canvas hangs for a few days.
For a scale comparison, here is Beckanne Sisk taking the pose with the mural.
Beckanne Sisk of Ballet West, May 2013 She is now a Principal dancer in the company. Photo: Christopher Peddecord
Instead of cutting a stencil from a photograph, I drew the image at 2/3 life size, then had it enlarged and printed at Kinko's. This nearly 9' image was the canvas for my collage, pulled from one oversize coffee-table book on French Impressionism and, for fun, her hair is formed of Fredric Remington bronze sculpture.
The camera fisheyed a bit, so she looks much fuller figured than she is. "The camera adds 20lbs" for sure.
The extended arm is all Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte.
Elizabeth stands in for scale.
I did more work on her after this shoot, but anyway…Jann tells me it is “pure witchcraft”.
While still up in MT Jann had thought maybe I could create a big version of my rough tri-color Collie, Nora. When I returned to SLC Jann told me she had put Nora on the mural list, so to really make her. I liked the collage process, so after I finished Beckanne I drew up Nora to scale and banged out the collage. At this point I thought I was done. I had been working flat and this was the first time I’d hung it on the wall. I reworked her eyes, delineating the orbits which helped clarify her personality- not pictured.
For Nora I just drew her at life size, then collaged her. I left the little clock face in her black saddle as a fun little detail. She is close to finished.
Her nose is a dog head. One eye is a man’s head; she is always tracking her alpha. The other is a vase and fruit. Her mask is made of top-hats. I refined her eyes quite a bit more.
The white tip of her tail is Cezanne, her legs are Degas.
Her ruff is a fluffy zoo of artists.
SLC PEPPER ONLY ARTS CLUB BANNED. 2004
A 50' X 30' civic wall mural for downtown Salt Lake City (250 South 400 West) update of the iconic cover of The Beatles' 1967 album: SGT. PEPPER'S LONLEY HEARTS CLUB BAND.
Under the direction of Jann Haworth, the co-designer of the original Beatles' cover, for which she received a Grammy, a consortium of artists reinterpret the original cover.
Collaborating on the mural's direction with Jann Haworth are SpyHop Productions, Global Artways/YouthCity, and local, national and international artists. Using a "street art" method of reducing a photograph to multiple stencils that are layered and spray painted, each artist directly painted their images upon the wall.
"The original album cover, famous though it is, is an icon ready for the iconoclast. We will be turning the original inside out... ethnic and gender balancing, and evaluating for contemporary relevance." - Jann Haworth
I was one of many contributing artists on the mural, and as director of Global Artways I networked to help secure the site. Jann wanted the mural to reconcile the lack of positive representation of women on the Beatle's album cover, asking that artists first decide on an important woman to include, which could be followed up with a male figure. I chose disruptors including artist Cindy Sherman; art activist group the Guerrilla Girls; Edward Abbey, author of The Monkeywrench Gang- which inspired the Earth First! movement (and his inspired nature writing of Utah in Desert Solitaire); and the Archaeopteryx (representing science) vs. the California Gull (representing religion- the gull is the state bird of Utah honoring the LDS apocryphal "Miracle of the Gulls").
Cindy Sherman as photographer, and as subject in #30 of her Untitled Film Stills
Edward Abbey, holding his "Monkeywrench" alluding to his novel The Monkey Wrench Gang
Guerrilla Girls
Archaeopteryx
California Gull
Interesting note: from 1998 to 2003 when I moved about it looked like this.
When I solidified, things were about as this.
Fusion. 2001
My collaboration with Contemporary Ice Theater, funded by University of Utah Fine Arts Grant. First Night at the Gallivan Center (New Year’s Eve), Salt Lake City, UT
My collaboration with Contemporary Ice Theater, funded by University of Utah Fine Arts Grant. First Night at the Gallivan Center (New Year’s Eve), Salt Lake City, UT
In collaboration with Jodie Porter, a modern dance major and professioanl ice skater, I created a group of three sculptures for her newly founded troupe "Modern Ice Theater" to respond to. A grant through the University of Utah Fine Arts funded the exploration. The dance, titled "FUSION!", was performed at First Night 2001 at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City as part of the New Year's celebration. Rehearsals and the performance drew attention from all local television stations and newspapers.
I created monumental forms that could disassemble and reassemble for performer interaction, were lightweight, and could slide frictionlessly on ice when fully assembled. After our first on-site rehearsal (pictured), a local reporter came over with his camera and asked me for an interview. I was on a roll, and spit some great artspeak- the reporter was jazzed. He found me about an hour later and told me, whoops, his camera hadn't been on.
Set Resets. 2001
University of Utah Sculpture Department collaboration with University of Utah Modern Dance for the Trisha Brown Dance Company’s Set Reset. Modern Dance Theater at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
University of Utah Sculpture Department collaboration with University of Utah Modern Dance for the Trisha Brown Dance Company’s Set Reset. Modern Dance Theater at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Set Resets suspended forms at Modern Dance Theater at the University of Utah.
Suspended forms with shifting light projection.
Resolution Revolution. 2001 and 2002
Downtown Art Alliance: Temporary Installation; Salt Lake City, UT
An 18’ tall Rube Goldbergesque sequential machine of welded steel to burn New Year’s resolutions for the Salt Lake City First Night celebration at the Gallivan center. Re-funded in 2002 to add metal screens and video projection.
University of Utah adjunct instructor Brad Taylor gave over a public art project to 8 senior sculpting students and myself (MFA student) to create in a collaborative effort. An idea of a Rube Goldburg-esque contraption involving New Year's resolutions was the direction of the grant proposal. The project was undertaken and completed over the winter break. We created an 18 foot tall steel "Ferris Wheel" that burned New Year's Resolutions. The wheel was assembled at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City as part of the First Night 2001 celebration of New Year's Eve. We operated it throughout the night, burning resolutions of revelers.
The creation and operation of the wheel drew television and printed media coverage, and was appreciated by the public. The funding was renewed the next year, and we projected video of time-lapse imagery onto the wheel, retrofitted with metal screening to capture the projection.
The entire frozen morning and afternoon of New Year's Eve was a blur of transporting cold steel to the site and assembling the apparatus. It was 2 below zero by 9:30 pm, and I operated the wheel 'til 1am. Participants would fill out flash-burn paper with their New Year's Resolutions and we would hang the baskets on the wheel which rotates past a blowtorch alighting their resolution, then the basket carries the burning resolution high into the air, then disengages the empty basket down a slide of steel to be reset. I took a break just after the midnight fireworks. The bursts had been hidden in a low deck of cloud. As I watched the crowd milling about an unreasonably attractive woman walked toward me with intention, smilingly telling me she had been watching me for hours and wanted my phone number (pre cell-phone world). I had just moved at the end of the semester, and was living out of boxes and I'd spent weeks building out this contraption and the Fusion forms for Contemporary Ice Theater- so I carried my new number in my wallet. Her eyes went a bit wide as I fished in my wallet to find my number, and she said, "You're kind of special aren't you? I'm sorry..." and she disappeared into the crowd.
The wheel's magnification mirror on the left enlivens the burning New Year's Resolution in the basket on the wheel.