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Valises for Camp Ground: Arts, VALISE 2 – TOOLS

Artist: Abeles, Kim

Object Date: 2018

Medium: Mixed media

Imperial Dims: 48 in.

Department(s): Fire

About the Artwork:

The sculptural and instructional valises will be used by the National Park Service and County Fire Department to teach about fire prevention, national forests, and our relationship to nature. Each valise has a theme with specific talking points, and all of them circle back toward teaching issues about fire abatement and our connection to wilderness. The female inmates at Camp 13 who have been trained as firefighters supplied the content for the valises through their experiences with firefighting and fire abatement methods. The process was organic in the sense that there was a two-way conversation between Abeles as artist-in-residence and the inmates regarding the development of the valises. The women supplied the content based on their experiences, and also responded to the artistic and content-driven outcomes. Participants worked alongside as well as with the artist on the elements of the valises. Some of the valises respond to discussions with park rangers regarding issues including fire prevention in residential areas especially those adjacent to forests; securing homes from wildlife entering and getting trapped, and conversely, encouraging wildlife through habitats; invasive plants vs native species; and citizen’s responsible use of parks and national forests. Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena held an exhibition that featured ten small, mixed media travel suitcases (known as "valises") created during a long-term collaboration between artist Kim Abeles and the female inmates of Camp 13—a correctional facility in the Santa Monica Mountains for women who are trained and deployed to fight forest fires throughout the region. The valises will be used as educational tools at public events by the National Park Service and Los Angeles County Fire Department to teach the public about fire prevention, national forests, and our relationship to nature. This project was managed by Armory Center for the Arts and was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. 

Valise 2 - Tools encourages discussion about fire abatement and the paid and inmate workforces who clear the area and fight our fires. It is in the form of a backpack and contains a miniature of each tool used for clearing and firefighting. A representation of Camp 13 uniforms made by an inmate from an actual uniform is at the top of each panel, and each position in a crew is embroidered on the bottom of the cordura fabric. Details include;

• a valise in the form of a backpack that the CAMP 13 firefighters use
• each tool used for clearing and firefighting has been created in clay
• a uniform has been repurposed along with its tag
• each position in a crew is embroidered on the cordura fabric; some of these names refer to the primary tool used by that crew member (tools like the McCleod or Pulaski, for instance)
• encourages discussion of fire abatement, fire hazard reduction tips, and about the paid and inmate workforces who clear the area and fight our fires
• speaks to the important safety needs of firefighters and a tangible look at all the equipment required for this task
• each section is removeable with snaps, and the reverse is created in velvet to feel like forest moss

About the Artist:

Kim Abeles is an artist whose community-based projects explore biography, geography and environment. She has created projects with the California Science Center, air pollution control agencies, health clinics and mental health departments, and natural history museums in California, Colorado and Florida. In 1987, she innovated a method to create images from the smog in the air, and Smog Collectors brought her work to national and international attention. Permanent outdoor works include Walk a Mile in My Shoes, based on the shoes of the Civil Rights marchers and local activists. Abeles has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust Fund, and her process documents are archived at the Center for Art + Environment. Her work is in public collections including MOCA, LACMA, CAAM, Berkeley Art Museum, and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Recent publications about her projects include New York Times, Los Angeles Times, American Scientist Magazine, and the forthcoming book, Social Practice: Technologies for Change, Routledge Press. To learn more, please visit: About - Kim Abeles.