Anomaly Field Station (Wisconsin)

A site-specific installation with bog photograph by the artist, artificial flowers, feathers, bird netting, altered desks, stainless steel ball, print, 2023.

Abel Contemporary Gallery, Stoughton, Wisconsin, July-September 2023

In this historic tobacco warehouse, a tamarack bog shimmers into existence. Blue flowers and black feathers swirl in a dark mass above. A metallic sphere sits in the middle of the flower covered desk. A print of a famous UFO photograph is seen on the wall. Abel Contemporary Gallery is the field station for the observation and study of the totality of what has appeared in Gallery no. 5. Read more about the exhibition here.

Research Approach (or clues to the anomaly):

Field Station: “Whatever form individual field stations may take; they all share the same commitment to advancing our understanding of the Earth.” (1)  

Anomaly: something that is unusual or unexpected. “The anomaly, he explained, was there for a reason, and it was their job to understand why it was there.” (2)

Tamarack: (Larix laricina) is a deciduous conifer – it is not known how this aspect of this genus developed. Bright yellow needles in the fall drop to be replaced by new lime green needles in the spring. (3)

Apports: physical objects that manifest suddenly and mysteriously from an unseen dimension- often through a person acting as a medium. In 19th century séances, apports that appeared as flowers, especially ones out of season or place were considered the most believable. (4)

Gazing Ball:  Since the 13th century, gazing globes have been a very important part of gardens, both spiritually and aesthetically. Created originally by Venetian glass blowers, their presence spread from kings in Europe to everyday people who believed that they held magical, mystical powers. (5)

Metallic Orb: At a June 1, 2023, at a historic NASA briefing on “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” (or UAP, the new term for UFO), a striking disclosure was made: U.S. military personnel are observing “metallic orbs” of unknown origin in the skies worldwide, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye. (6)

“GIMBAL”: The name given to one of the three Pentagon videos released in 2017. A front-page story published in The New York Times described the crafts maneuvering in ways not currently possible by any known human technology. (7)

Tobacco: “In the American continent, tobacco leaves have been smoked or applied to the body for medical, magical, religious, and recreational activities for approximately 8,000 years.” (8)

Notes:

(1) “What are Field Stations?”, Organization of Biological Field Stations, accessed online.

(2) Quote by Garry Nolan, PhD, (“James”) from the book American Cosmic by Diana Pasulka. 

(3) “Tamarack: The Unsolved Mystery Tree”, Andrea Bake, LEAF Blog, September 16, 2013.

(4) Encyclopedia Britannica.

(5) “History of the Gazing Globe”, Main Street Seed, accessed online.

(6) “The US Military has been Observing Metallic Orbs Making Extraordinary Maneuvers”, The Hill, June 2, 2023.

(7) “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious U.F.O Program”, The New York Times, December 16, 2017.

(8) “Tobacco”, The University of Texas, El Paso, accessed online.