RA Walden’s site-specific installation extends across several acres of Storm King’s South Ponds for the tenth edition of Storm King’s Outlooks program, which offers emerging and mid-career artists the opportunity to present a temporary large-scale outdoor project in the landscape. In 2019, Walden was an artist-in-residence at Shandaken: Storm King where they began to think about the Art Center for a site-specific artwork.

Titled access points // or // alternative states of matter(ing), the project depicts the electron configurations of the six most common elements on earth: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, and sulfur (CHNOPS). The configurations of these elements—thought to be necessary for life on any planet—evoke the form of crop circles, here constructed from rings of perforated aluminum and laid across a grassy hillside. Considering landscape as body and body as landscape, Walden explores illness as a kind of visitation that leaves traces that are not always visible. Tapping into themes of science fiction and speculative fiction, the artist draws parallels between the phenomenon of crop circles, often considered to be hoaxes, and the experiences and access needs of disabled people, which are often met with disbelief, if not disdain, from the medical establishment and society.

Each electron configuration is accompanied by a poetic text by Walden, interpretive audio recordings by artist-composer The Honorable Elizabeth A. Baker, and a viewing area from which visitors can reflect on the interconnectedness of all life-forms on a molecular level. About the work, Walden has said, “the CHNOPS elements [remind us] that we are made of the same things as the earth at this point of extreme vulnerability societally, physically, and planetarily.”  

Outlooks: RA Walden is organized by Nora Lawrence, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, and Adela Goldsmith, Curatorial Assistant.

Texts edited by: LA Warman
Sound and Performance by The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker
Mastering by: Melissa Harris Chambers
Fabrication / Install / Maintenance:  Mike Seaman, Mike Cook, Jeff Damiano, Shannon Ferrell, Joel Longinott, Armando Ocampo, Florencio Ocampo, Mike Rivera
Web Accessibility: Cooper Lovano 
Video Editing: Judy Landkammer 
Studio Management: Lo G Moran and Harley Aussoleil
Care Team: Clay AD, Harley Aussoleil, Aleks Peksena, Pilar Muñoz Sandoval
Scientific Consultant: Freddy Walden 

Storm King’s 2023 Exhibitions and Education programs are made possible with major support from the Hearst Foundations and the Speyer Family Foundation, with lead support by Charina Foundation, Sidney E. Frank Foundation, Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, with support also provided by Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation, The William and Elaine Kaplan Family Foundation, Ronald and Sandra Kossar, Lipman Family Foundation, Ohnell Family Foundation, Windgate Foundation, and funded in part by The Helis Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art and Triad Foundation.
 
Storm King’s 2023 Season is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.