LESNINI FIELD IS A SPECIAL TYPE OF GARDEN: a fenced off private property given back to the meandering river, recovering from mass agriculture. This parcel of land is both parched and regularly flooded. Gardening means protecting habitat of the banks of the river and telling the story of the place and ethics and aesthetics in our relationship with the natural environment. Through short term residencies, publications and artworks we are looking to create a site with a spell, an eye in the storm of the large-scale industrial agriculture serving the globe. See below for RFP. For Activities and News also see below and to see a record of projects produced please read the Field Reports produced by Lesnini Field founders Andre Dekker and Erik Bakke: FR1, FR2, FR3, and FR4.
Lesnini Field – Activities and News
Atop Platform, artist Robert DiMatteo (left) discussed his upcoming 2022 project at Lesnini Field.
January 2022
From Left, Paul Robins and Emily Zefferman (of Resource Conservation District of Monterey County) and Melissa Smedley at Platform discussed Melissa Smedley’s and her partner Nanette Macias’s project for Lesnini Field. See Field Report Four. To see all field reports go to www.erikbakke.com.
November 2021
Platform was built in the fall of 2021 as a space from which to view Lesnini Field and the surrounding environment and on which to hold conversation. Platform will also be used as a support for large canvases that can then be painted on site.
September 2021
Writer Steven Lee Myers visited in 2020 over multiple weeks for discussion and to prepare a text on Lesnini Feld. To read his text and learn about other activities at Lesnini Field, see Field Report Three.
May 2020
Artist Gerco De Ruijter visited Lesnini Field in March 2020 to take photographs. Gerco (right) is shown among new growth of poison hemlock with Margo Smits-Schouten. To see Gerco’s photographs go to Field Report Four.
March 2020
One of the collaborative projects Andre Dekker (pictured) and Erik Bakke worked on from Dec. 23, 2019 to January 5, 2020 was a series of paintings entitled Lesnini Field Topography. See Field Report One and Field Report Two.
January 2020
Ecologist Jennifer Robin Berry visited Saturday 28 December 2019. See Field Report Two.
December 2019
Karl Bakke created the Ford between the Lesnini Field areas the Maze and the Plain on Saturday 28 December 2019. See Field Report One and Field Report Two.
December 2019
Andre Dekker and Erik Bakke were on on site Dec. 23, 2019 to January 5, 2020. See Field Report One and Field Report Two.
December 2019
Lesnini Field founders Erik Bakke & Andre Dekker
Andre Dekker is a visual artist and writer, founding member of Observatorium, an artists group started in 1997, active worldwide, and known for large scale works of art in areas of transition and books on public art.
Erik Bakke is a painter, curator, and writer on contemporary art. Since 1990 he has exhibited his paintings and installations mainly in Japan, Poland, Germany, and the US and has collaborated on shows with international visual artists.
http://aftershockmagazine.com/
Contact
Lesnini Field c/o Erik Bakke
REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
If you have project proposal for Lesnini Field, please send it to erik@erikbakke with the subject heading “Proposal Lesnini Field.” Please keep in mind that projects can be realized on site but will have minimal permanent impact on the wilderness. That said, all are welcome to apply—from, for example, painters and sculptors, theater and performance artists, and filmmakers to musicians, writers, poets, scientists, researchers, mediators…
In the proposal let us know
Why you would like to have time at Lesnini Field.
What you would like to accomplish.
Who you are and how your contributions would benefit the project.
If you would like to learn more about the site and the project please go to http://www.erikbakke.com.
Lesnini Field 