Jonathan Santos

Paper mache and brushed aluminum spray paint, winter 2011

1: a festive social affair
2: a bursting of a container (as a tire) by pressure of the contents on a weak spot
3: an uncontrolled eruption of an oil or gas well
4: an easy or one-sided victory
5: a valley or depression created by the wind in areas of shifting sand or of light cultivated soil
6: a series of hand-painted blowout signs on 22 x 36″ watercolor paper

This project commemorates President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as a dual-purpose text. Not only did this short speech serve to consecrate a battlefield as the “final resting place for those who died,” but it also reminded the nation of the “great task remaining.” By repairing the political, geographical, and moral division, Lincoln asserted, “the dead shall not have died in vain”.

This piece translates the famous opening lines from this speech into American Morse code, signifying a telegraphic communication echoing from the past. The series of dots and dashes is painted on yellow caution tape, which cordons off a space, consecrating it and delineating it from the ordinary perimeters of life. Fall 2006-

Ink on caution tape, 3 ” x 300′ each roll

Many thanks to Maria Santos and Jim Delaney for installing LA and St. Louis.

Related Exhibition: Hopeless and Otherwise, Southern Exposure, Curated by Valerie Imus

Stacked Rifles Historical Marker references Peekskill’s military and geographical history.

“Peekskill was a significant Revolutionary War military base, and at times used as a headquarters for American army officers in the Hudson Valley from 1776 through 1782. The area was important for its hilly defensive location, its views of the bay, and its industries applied to military purposes. The overlook locale, now identified as “Fort Hill” in Peekskill, was the site of five large barracks buildings and two redoubts. An average of 1,000 Continental soldiers were stationed at Camp Peekskill on and off through the eight years of war”.

The piece takes its abstract form from stacked rifles; this familiar configuration symbolizes soldiers at ease. The piece is painted in safety orange, which is the standard color for defining a protective space, marking a location or the need for awareness. When viewed from directly above, the sculpture’s four abstract rifles create an X, both marking the spot as a place of significance, and calling for future vigilance. Fall 2006

*excerpts from History of Peekskill, Written by John J. Curran, City Historian, January 2002

Many thanks to Camilo Alvarez of Samsøn Projects and HVCCA, Peekskill, NY

Wood and safety orange paint, 5′ b x 8′ h

This temporary sculpture is drawn from my time in Maine and my experience of the back roads and front lawns that define its domestic landscape. Blue poly tarps that are commonly used across the state to cover and protect materials and possessions from the weather are also employed around the country and in many parts of the world, revealing this simple and inexpensive commodity as a universal, versatile, and practical answer to a wide range of situations. The same standardized sheets of plastic that extend protection and ownership beyond the enclosure of the home also extend the territory of humanity and inhabitability when configured as a provisional humanitarian aid in the exigency of natural or manmade disaster.

This piece explores the blue tarp’s universal connotation of temporality and protection to extend interior, architectural space into the exterior landscape, while its removal from banal yard service or terrifying disaster footage attempts to focus attention on its function and dysfunction in the contemporary culture of impermanence and instability. Summer 2006

Polytarp, conduit and fastener, 2′ b x 9′ h

1-1=1 is a temporary site-responsive project that triangulates mapping, statistics and human tragedy. This ongoing project responds to the recent rise in fatal street aggressions in Greater Boston. The nonsensical equation, 1-1=1 (one person killing one person equals one crime statistic) is stenciled on the sidewalk at each site of these violent incidents with phosphorescent paint, presenting a subtle visual reminder of the temporality of life and the permanent impact of these acts, while simultaneously marking a vigil for those who are lost. Summer 2007

Jersey Barrier Bench Attachment

Jersey barriers were originally developed to divide multi-lane highways in New Jersey. These barriers were intended to minimize damage to vehicles, and to prevent them from veering into oncoming traffic and causing fatal, head-on collisions. Today the barriers, which are also known as K-rails, have evolved in both form and function, but the original Jersey barrier design and use are still in high demand. The barriers are used on construction sites, to block off restricted areas, and more recently, to create a safe distance between surface streets and vehicles and sensitive sites and monuments. Because government buildings and historic monuments are now protected in this way, the barriers which restrict vehicle intrusion also render these important civic places unattractive and unfriendly for pedestrians. As what started as a temporary safety measure becomes increasingly more permanent, widespread, and unavoidable, a new way to reinterpret these barriers for the benefit of the pedestrian population has become critical.

more info…

This project is generously funded by the LEF Foundation‘s Public Art, Architecture and Design Grant. Many thanks to the Artists Foundation for sponsorship and support.

To dwell is to extend: to inhabit a desire or memory, project it in space, and inscribe it in a landscape. The seminal writing on dwelling, Heidegger’s “Building, Dwelling, Thinking,” explores dwelling as an extension of a person’s very being, either through building edifices or through cultivation of the land. Although the noun, dwelling, has become linked with a structural building, the verb is intertwined with people’s habit of extending their own mortality by establishing, cultivating, and preserving a landscape or place. In short, to dwell, the verb, is about extending a personal experience not only through space, but also in time and memory. 2004

Landscape installation (concept proposal) with Marrikka Trotter