Untitled Document

Tom Ashcraft

__________________________________________________________________

Recent Projects

Five Mile Line, 2006

Five Mile Line • 2006-present • Temporary, performance/site responsive public work, Silver Bow Arts Foundation, Butte, Montana. Workingman Collective, artists: Tom Ashcraft, Janis Goodman, and Peter Winant
This piece was inspired by a 1914 map, found on E-bay, of mine tunnels and fault lines below the city indicated by red and blue lines. Workingman Collective then used E-bay as a source of community inventory and to generate contact with members of the community. The “work” focused on the activity of snapping continuous red and blue chalk lines on five miles of main street sidewalks provoking levels of community response. A primary construction tool, the chalk line represents commitment, delineates territory and marks what’s cut and what’s kept. Documentation in over 1,600 photographs and in video recordings shows the relationship of the line, as an object and gesture, to the existing structures and to the commerce of business and people in Butte’s fragile old city center.

Table to Chair, 2003

Table to Chair • 2003 - present • Permanent environment-site work, Twelve diseased eighty-year old Hemlock trees, planted in two straight rows of six each, east west and north-south, were cut, milled, and assembled into two 50’ benches that are supported by their stumps. Site includes a 5’ diameter x 12” deep black concrete disk “table” and extensive landscaping on a one-acre site. Private residence, Floyd VA, IN PROGRESS

Memorial, 2003-2006

Memorial • 2003-2005 • Public environment-site work memorializing five residents of the town of University Park, Maryland, whose lives were lost on 9/11. Located in a16 acre park, the overall site is 90’ x 200’. The central “place” of the Memorial is a 25’ diameter area of black rivers stones set in concentric rings with five large boulders, an 8’ long hand hewn American elm bench, a 40’ fieldstone retaining wall, stone pathway, and extensive non-evasive landscaping. Local community, civic organizations, and residents (approximately 175 people) were organized to help build the memorial and were consulted for the development and schedule of the sites long-term maintenance. Landscape design in collaboration with Sandra Youssef Clinton of Clinton and Associates. University Park, MD, Dedicated on September 11, 2005

Delta - Paper pulp drawings, ceramic bowls, and plywood table

Stack - Carved marble and plywood tables