The Feminist Pedagogy of SAVE NATURE-SAVE CULTURE:  A Double-Coded Art Installation

M. Pilar Viviente

M. Pilar Viviente Miguel HernÃ¡ndez University

Abstract

SAVE NATURE-SAVE CULTURE (2006), is a site-specific art installation in New York Cityâ€™s Le Petit Versailles (LPV), a public garden maintain by neighbor volunteers (see Figure 1). Issues concerning housing, graffiti, gender and sexualityâ€”including queer representation, women, and the transgenderedâ€”are regular themes in LPV programming, along with activities, events, and meetings often involving music, poetry, and visual arts. As an alternative public arts space, LPV is a small garden located in the East Village in an effort toward environmental sustainability. My installation addressed the issue of sustainability of community gardens. This visual essay concerns a feminist pedagogy of double-coding that I embedded and embody with this art project.

Author Biography

M. Pilar Viviente, Miguel HernÃ¡ndez University

M. Pilar Viviente, Ph.D., is a contracted professor of art at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Miguel HernÃ¡ndez University, in Altea, Spain (www.umh.es). She received her Ph.D. from Barcelona University in 1993 and since that time has taught undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at Barcelona University and at Miguel HernÃ¡ndez University. At the present time she is Director of the Design Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Altea as well as art critic of the magazine Temps dâ€™Art. As a member of InSEA (International Society for Education through Arts, www.insea.org) she regularly participates in international conferences. She is a multidisciplinary artist of the â€œreflective generation,â€ which emerged in Spain at the end of the 80s and early 90s. She is a visual artist, painter, sculptor, musician, pianist performer, writer, and art critic. She works with a variety of media, exhibiting since 1987, and her works are represented in important museums and collections all over the world. She has participated in more than 100 exhibitions, and her work is published in more than 100 publications to include conference proceedings, scientific magazines, and contemporary art magazines, art catalogues, and press releases, both national and international. Correspondence regarding this visual essay should be addressed to the author at p.viviente@umh.es or pilar@viviente.info (Author Web site is at http://www.viviente.info).