James McAnally, editor of Temporary Art Review recently asked Matthew Coolidge, founder of the Center for Land Use Interpretation [CLUI] how his vision of the manmade landscape forms a “cultural inscription” [for America] that can be read and interpreted, and what is the central narrative he sees in the inscription. Matthew Coolidge replied, “Any central narrative shifts, depending on the angle of view. Our projects and … Read the full Story >>
As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls. This elegiac line sums up, in my mind, the fate of most urban waterfalls in America. The falls at Wichita Falls, TX, originally rose just five feet; they were eventually washed away in a flood, and later restored in theme-park style as a roadside attraction. The Wichita River was dammed in the 1920s to form several lakes … Read the full Story >>
The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI), as described on its website, is s a research organization interested in understanding the nature and extent of human interaction with the earth's surface. It recently published some of its findings in Overlook: Exploring the Internal Fringes of America, which offers clues as to how to approach a subject as enormous as the North American continent. … Read the full Story >>
I stumbled upon the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in 2010 when I was looking for images of the West. Not the romantic West that was invented by Carleton Tompkins or Ansel Adams; more like what Robert Adams calls home, but worse. I discovered the CLUI’s residence program at Wendover, Utah, located on the Great Salt Flats, which is home of … Read the full Story >>
As a fan of the Center for Land Use Interpretation [CLUI] and the haunting novels of Nobel Laureate, Patrick Modiano, I agree with Lucy Lippard’s assessment in The Lure of the Local that “space combined with memory defines place.” While Modiano shows a passion for estrangement, his quiet exploration of mood and memory is inextricably founded in his recall of the places where … Read the full Story >>
The Center for Land Use Interpretation [CLUI] looks down as it looks into the center, the very source of life and death, the main thing that drives every society on Earth: Land. Its ownership, stewardship, use, and destruction is questioned through CLUI's physical, historical, and data examinations, which are conducted in places you previously might not have even thought about. The Winter 2015 online exhibition is United … Read the full Story >>
Editor’s note: This feature is extracted from Urban Crude: The Oil Fields of the Los Angeles Basin, an on-line exhibition at The Center for Land Use Interpretation and the third installment in CLUI’s exploration of the American “petroscape.” The landscape of oil in the USA touches every state in one way or another. Los Angeles is unique, as in addition to being notorious as a … Read the full Story >>
