THE ODD MAGAZINE
ODDITY 12
Aerial Theater
- Stephen Poleskie
Some people might think it odd for a person to want to create artworks in the sky. I suppose that it depends on what one believes is the purpose of making art. If the goal of the artist is merely to produce objects for people to buy, so that they can be resold for more money after the artist is dead, then making art in the sky using an airplane trailing smoke, that thousands of people can see, but no one can own because it blows away is not art. It may sound like an odd idea, but makingart in the sky is what I did through the 1970s to the 90s.
Pitts Special biplane installed in a gallery in New York City, 1979
During the 1960s, I had been somewhat of a“realist” artist, painting figures in landscapes. The figures eventually found their way out of the picture frame and I painted only landscapes. At the time I was living in New York City and operating a screen printing workshop called Chiron Press, which was engaged in printing works for such well-known artists as Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein and Warhol. We also managed to print a number of my own images, which at the time were rather minimal landscapes.
Poleskie performing in his biplane, with dancer Susan Barnard on the ground for a video filming. Date, ca. 1982
My reputation as a screen-printer got me invited to Cornell University to teach in the art department. It was in Ithacathat I fulfilled a childhood desire;I learned to fly. The view from the cockpit, the vast sense of space unraveling for miles in front of my eyes, compelled me to attempt to recreate this experience on canvas. However, the rather flat landscapes, with a jumbled aerial perspective that resulted were to me considerably less than the reality I had observed. For me, a work of art by its very nature must transcend the reality that inspired it. The main elements lacking in these early 1970s paintings were the enormous space, the sense of speed or movement and the ability to change with time. Consequently, I stopped painting entirely and devoted myself to exploring the use of the airplane as a tool for making art.
Aerial Piece over Boston as part of the MIT Sky Art Festival: 1992
I called this artwork in the sky “aerial theatre.” For me art is spirituality and the perception of the will of its creator. In my aerial theatre I presented the viewers with a highly charged environment of movement and sound that energized and expanded what was seen. I sought to absorb the functions of drawing, sculpture, and dance into the act of flying itself. Although the separate parts of each piece were known aircraft maneuvers and practiced beforehand, they by themselves had little artistic identity. It was only when a selection of these previously experienced elements was joined in an integrated four dimensional performance in space that anything that could be seen as art occurred. In these events the making of the artwork became as important as the artwork itself.
Over the Empire State Building, New York City, 1987 photo: Ginnie Gardiner
All meaning is contiguous to some other meaning. This is a four dimensional concept that implies that an idea can grow or increase in ever expanding circles, provided it is not restricted by the social structure in which it is involved. Unfortunately, an artist is often forced by circumstance to take a position; to try to locate oneself in relation to what is currently being done by other artists and what has been done before. This presents a difficulty, for the original meaning or intent of the work may then be subverted by external forces to serve a different social schema. The artist must be free from the social order (and the society of artists) so that they can avoid the demagogues of distinction who would have us believe there is only one true way.
Over the Hudson River, in front of the former World Trade Center Towers, 1978
My aerial theater found an appreciative audience in Europe, especially in Italy where the art critic Enrico Crispolti wrote of it as the logical extension of Futurism. While I could never take my biplane, which I had rebuilt myself and painted with a special scheme, over there, I did have many exhibitions of my drawings in Europe. As my aerial theatre events were not improvisational, but thoroughly planned beforehand, this lead to the production of a great many art works of a conventional nature, such as collages and drawings on top of site photographs. These works were useful to me in preparing for an event and in helping to visualize what I was planning. Originally I had intended to keep these works private, but later found it helpful to exhibit this material to aid in the understanding of what I was trying to do in the sky. Now these drawings, and a few photographs and videos, are all that remain. In the year 2000, having reached the age of 62, the age that most airlines require their pilots to retire, I gave up flying.
I am sometimes sorry that I stopped flying and performing my aerial theater. Back then it was difficult to have things documented. Now I think of all the people below me in a city like New York who would be recording my event on their I-phones and then posting the images up on the internet. I would certainly have a much wider audience than I had in the past. However, I am reminded of all the security restrictions that have been put into place since the destruction of The World Trade Center towers. I realize that my unannounced sky pieces, which I did over cities like New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, would not be allowed. I would doubtless be escorted away by F-16 fighter jets, maybe even shot down. Also, I suppose that one could rightfully consider the smoke my airplane was trailing as just adding more pollution to the atmosphere. And on the subject of pollution, I am sure that there are many cities in the world today where, if I did do an aerial theater piece above them, no one on the ground below would even see it. There is no going back, so I suppose it was best that I stopped performing my aerial theater when I did.
End
Biography
Stephen Poleskie is an artist and a writer. His artworks are in the collections of numerous museums, including the MoMA, and the Metropolitan Museum, in New York. His writing, fiction, and art criticism has appeared in journals in Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, India,Italy, Mexico, the UK, and the USA, and in three anthologies, including The Book of Love, (W.W. Norton) and been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has published five novels and two books of short fiction. Poleskie has taught, or been a visiting professor at twenty-six institutions, including: The School of Visual Arts, NYC, the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University, and been a resident at the American Academy in Rome. He lives in Ithaca, NY, USA with his wife the novelist Jeanne Mackin.
Website: www.StephenPoleskie.com