CCA News
Adam Green Goes Where the Glass Is Greener
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011, by Simon Hodgson
Adam Green's (Sculpture 2010) current summer job with AmeriCorps, teaching high-risk youth, represents for him a creative coming of age. "I guess you could have considered me a high-risk youth. I was sent to a military academy in Georgia for part of high school." In AmeriCorps' program in Providence, Rhode Island, Green is involved on the administrative side and is also teaching drawing, sculpture, and glassblowing.
The medium of glass was Green's own artistic liberation. "Working with glass takes intense focus. There's a huge learning curve, and a lot of failure. Making a perfect cup is like chasing a dragon. You have this balance between an unreachable goal and a meditative exercise. It's physically intense, and also cathartic. And when it works, it's extremely gratifying."
The quest to create order from chaos is a touchstone in Green's personal fine art practice. His Rocket Grids depict unfurling orthogonal patterns of spaceships, arrayed almost like windows in a skyscraper. Why rockets? "I've always built rockets: from latex, milk, rubber, or wax. As a kid, I was always more interested in science than art. I had a computer at a really young age and loved to take it apart and look at the circuit boards. The grid format is a natural for me in terms of classification, lists, and free association. To me, rockets represent a fantastic metaphor for manhood. NASA in particular is this gigantic phallus-obsessed institution, focused primarily on penetrating the atmosphere. All those failed test flights in the 1950s and 1960s are a huge inspiration for my work. They represented to me an erectile dysfunction in American society. My Rocket Boy costume, this ridiculous red and yellow rocket rig, uses humor to lower viewers' defenses. It's a self-portrait without being too serious."
Another major theme in his work is personal catharsis, as in the Man/Boy series of photographs, in which he wears the rocket costume and wanders the world in "a state of mental purgatory," investigating the gap between how a boy imagines the world and how a man experiences it. In Consideration of Boyhood is a balloon-based sculpture exploring themes about coming of age, giving literal form to the gradual, inevitable "sinking" of youthful expectations as one grows up.
At CCA Green started out in the Glass Program before switching tracks to Sculpture. "In my junior year, Maria Porges convinced me that Sculpture would be a better fit. She was one of several professors who influenced me. In my senior year I worked with Mark Thompson, who prepped me emotionally and mentally for what it was going to be like when I graduated. He was serious, thoughtful, and excellent at realistic planning. The critical conversations weren't just confined to the classroom, but continued on the outside -- more often than not at McNally's Pub!" he says. Now Green is paying it forward and expanding his network even more by participating in CCA's Alumni/Student Mentorship Program.
Green's professors were instrumental not only in shaping his work, but also in giving him opportunities to progress professionally. Working as a teaching assistant for Porges one summer at the Pilchuck Glass School in Stanwood, Washington, paved the way for a position after graduation as program coordinator there. Another TA position, working with Nathan Lynch ("another huge influence") at the sustainable farming community Pie Ranch led to his current apprenticeship at REBAR, a San Francisco design firm whose projects combine art with activism.
"REBAR works with communities and makes a difference not just to people, but also to infrastructure. 'Pedestal art,' to me, always seems a little ineffective. It caters to a very limited demographic. So a project such as REBAR's Pavements to Parks, turning invisible and unused San Francisco spaces such traffic intersections into green public spaces, is perfect for me." (Read the Sept. 2009 CCA news article on this project)
Another REBAR project involves restoration efforts on Año Nuevo Island, located just off the coast about an hour south of San Francisco. "We've been working with UC Berkeley biologists and the nonprofit organization Oikonos, restoring the natural habitat and making ceramic homes for seabirds that nest in the sand. Año Nuevo used to be a Coast Guard base but hasn't been used for years. When we first got there, the island was trashed; dead seals were everywhere, and also industrial trash from the military installation. But after four years, everything has changed. For me this is a perfect example of an intersection between art, science, and design, which is exactly what I would love to pursue in my future."