Mierle Laderman Ukeles
"SNOW WORKERS' BALLET: 2012" VIDEO ART
Drivers of large snow tire dozers:
Hirohiko Nogami, “Romeo,” purple blade
Noriyoshi Kuwabara, “Juliet,” peach blade
Shigekatsu Takahashi, red blade
Nisaku Ikeda, green blade
Masashi Kuwahara, yellow blade
Drivers of the rotaries
(including different drivers for the second and third performances):
Kakichi Ichikawa, Kazuyoshi Kosugi
Nobuyuki Mizuochi (also painter of the blades)
Yuichi Muruyama, Koji Niwano
Masayoshi Sakai, Masayuki Takano
Tadashi Watabe, Yoshihiro Yanagi
Gallery Website:
feldmangallery.com/artist-home/mierle-laderman-ukeles
"SNOW WORKERS' BALLET: WINTER 2012" VIDEO ART
VEHICLES AND DRIVERS:
Thirteen snow vehicles:
Three large tire dozers with red, green, and yellow blades
One large tire dozer with peach blade, “Juliet”
One large tire dozer with purple blade, “Romeo”
Six large rotaries
One baby rotary
One motor grader
Supervisor and conductor:
Mitsugi Fukuzaki
Driver of the motor grader:
Haruyoshi Yanagi
Since 1977, when Mierle Laderman Ukeles became the official, unsalaried Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation—a position she still holds—she has created art that deals with the endless maintenance and service work that “keeps the city alive”. Her work highlights everything from urban waste flows, to recycling, ecology, urban sustainability and our power to transform degraded land and water into healthy inhabitable public places. Ukeles uses her work to ask the question of whether we can design modes of survival for a thriving planet instead of an entropic one. A planet that won’t crush our personal and civic freedom while silencing the individual’s voice.