2017 Independence Foundation Grant Proposal

Making Myth – The Search for Ymir in the Land of Fire and Ice

2017 Independence Foundation Grant Proposal

From Ymir’s flesh the earth was created,
And from his blood the sea,
Mountains from bone,
Trees from hair,
And from his skull the sky.

And from his eyebrows the blithe gods made
Midgard, home of the sons of men
And from his brains
They sculpted the grim clouds.

The Poetic Edda. Grímnismál, stanzas 40-41

Introduction

I am applying for the 2017 Independence Foundation grant in order to continue my research in mythology as it relates to geologic land formation. Geomythology, an interest within the Earth Sciences, associates phenomenal physical landforms with the cultural creation myths specific to that particular landscape. It seeks to add explanation to the natural environment through anthropological narrative that scientific reasoning cannot do on its own. It accepts that there may be scientific evidence hidden within these myths. Although based in fantasy more than anthropologic myth, my first encounter with this phenomenon was in 2014 when traveling through the high deserts of Utah in Goblin Valley State Park. A gorge filled with thousands of hoodoos, oversized sandstone mushroom-like lumps and mounds, each having their particular protuberances and appendages, the park can attribute its surreal landforms to natural erosion, although it is described as a valley filled with hordes of goblins and gnomes. This peculiarity began my interest in myth as it relates to landform. I began to consider the importance of applying fantasy to new and strange phenomena and how that idealization may relate to the process of comprehending new information.

Geomythology supports my two main artistic influences; my formal interest in material and process as well as my deep love and intrigue for fantasy and science fiction narratives. The study of geomythology parallels my studio practice in that it simultaneously keeps my hands in the muck of reality while my mind is preoccupied with escapist endeavors. My practice has grown symbiotically, where my material knowledge has begun a confluence with material myth, creating mysteriously abstract as well as creature-like figurative forms. As an artist, I find the cosmos creation myth of the Norse giant Ymir (pronounced “EE-meer”) particularly interesting, both from sculptural and narrative perspectives. 

With the death of the hermaphroditic giant, the first forms were created. The skies and the seas, the mountains and the rocks were formed from their dismembered body. I am always looking for the big picture, the origin of things and the truth to materials. As clay is fired in a kiln to become vitrified ceramic, I am a maker of rocks, as did Ymir’s bones become mountains. As a ceramist creates with the opposing elements of earth, water and fire to create ceramic forms, Iceland was created between the might of volcanic and glacial upheavals coexisting.

The Ymir myth is also the story of the creation of humans as well as other mythological races such as dwarves and trolls. These beings have inhabited popular culture for sometime and many people have been drawn to their appeal. As part of my research, I’d like to unpack why such Norse creatures have become relevant in todays mainstream media, such as the novel and television series’ Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings. I am looking to unearth why we are continually drawn to this mythology.

Moving beyond the veil of fantasy towards specific explanations, geology and mythology provide more sound scientific and anthropologic evidence for how things came to be and why they continue to intrigue us today. They give credence to the form of things. They serve as foundations for hands-on exploration and research. I am proposing to visit and explore the geomythological landscapes of Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice for a period of six to eight weeks during the summer months of 2018.

Intent

The Independence Foundation Grant will provide me with a unique developmental opportunity that will allow me to travel to Iceland inspiring my artistic practice in both formal and conceptual ways by visiting sight specific locations that have geomythological intrigue.  Continuing my research on location, I will visit and explore in person sights that I have read about by geologist Dorothy B. Vitaliano who, in her book Legends of the Earth – Their Geologic Origins written in 1968, coined the term geomythology. Iceland, being the epicenter for Nordic myth, is a land formed of volcanoes and glaciers. The formations these two elemental opposites have created are truly remarkable. Sights I intend to visit include Asbygi, said to be formed by the hoof print of the All Father Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir, Lakagigar or the Laki lava flow craters, an environment so surreal it surpasses most science fiction landscapes, Mount Hekla, a volcano said to be the gate way to hell itself, as well as Katla, a sub-glacier volcano that when erupts melts the glacier Hofdabrekkujokull above it flooding the farm lands below. It is said that an evil witch threw herself over a cliff creating the first disastrous deluge. I can only imagine how it must feel to set foot on such potent ground.

 I will document my first hand accounts of these mesmerizing landscapes by making drawings and photographing them while on location. Pen, pencil and ink-wash drawings and sketches will be done infield capturing the dynamic forms created from volcanic and glacial convergences. These studies will be the beginnings of a new body of work that will incorporate the forms I witnessed as well as the folklore I stood amongst. While on location I will also take rock samples of the particular sights for future study in my art studio.

I would like to spend my travels by working with geology departments and artist organizations alike. I have contacted the department heads of three universities who have classes in geomythology, informing them of my interest in Iceland and have asked if I could volunteer my assistance on one of their Iceland field work trips or if they could connect me to a group of geologist who will be there during the summer of 2018. Dr. Jeff H. Tepper from University of Puget Sound and Dr. Lee Kump from Penn State have both replied with interest. I have also contacted Dr. Magnus Tumi Guomundsson head of faculty in the Earth Sciences department of the University of Iceland expressing my interest with the same endeavor. My intention of joining a field work team as a volunteer will give me more of a scientific hands-on experience than I as tourist could have on my own. Volunteering as a rock-hound will give me insights to geologic materials that will influence my formal approach to ceramics and hopefully shape the varied forms clay can take when exposed to different processes.

I would also like to spend some time reflecting on my fieldwork experience as an artist-in-residence at the NES Foundation in Skagaströnd, a small fishing village in the Northern region of Iceland. While there, I plan to extrapolate from the drawings and pictures I documented on location notions of the landscape and environment I found interesting and conjure forms akin to the myths those landscapes embody. While using the NES residency as a home base for a month, I would like to take day trips across the region, continuing my explorations of the land as well as visiting natural history museums and other culturally significant institutions of and relating to Nordic mythology.

Upon my arrival home, the Independence Foundation Grant will also support the creation of new ceramic sculptures and drawings that have been directly inspired from my travels and infield studies gleaned from Iceland. I will create a new body of work for the purpose of having a solo exhibition in late 2019 hosted by The Clay Studio, of which I am currently a full time artist-in-residence. Funding for this new body of work will go towards materials, kiln firings as well as studio rent costs at The Clay Studio.

This opportunity will be one of artistic growth and academic intrigue, one that will move my practice from the ethereal studio mind of fantasy toward a more concrete understanding of things. I will gain a hands-on experience of how the landscape we inhabit came to be and the importance those phenomena have on our human identities. This experience will connect me to a rational in my work that I would not be able to comprehend otherwise. Geomythology merges natural physical form with cultural heritage as reiterated through story telling in the hopes of creating a better sense of ourselves as we continue to exist on this earth. With Ymir’s death our world was created. With this opportunity I’m looking for truths that are currently beyond my comprehension yet have sustained our existence for centuries, if not millennia.

Summary

            The 2017 Independence Foundation Grant would fund a six to eight week research opportunity specific to the geomythological landscapes of Iceland in the summer of 2018. I am seeking to voluntarily join a geological fieldwork trip in order to gain hands-on geologic knowledge of what makes Iceland’s landscapes so unique. The second part of my travels will be a month long artist-in-residency at the NES Foundation, where I will begin to distill my fieldwork studies through drawings and personal journaling incorporating the Norse myths inherent to the land formations of Iceland. Upon my return, I will use my documentation of these landscapes to merge the formal and mythical encounters I had into a new body of work that I will display in a solo exhibition at The Clay Studio in late 2019.

Artist Statement

With consideration to the mysteries surrounding the mythological, the alchemical and the occult, as well as referencing fantasy and science fiction narratives and speculations, my artwork is based in a formal practice of accepting the unknown, the incomprehensible as well as the absurd. In todays insatiable quest for information at instantaneous touch, I prefer not to know the answers. I choose instead to stay bewildered and approach making experimentally, daring myself to make something ignorant. Within that mentality, I believe it is important to continue the human need to explore what is possible, to relinquish certainty in exchange for vulnerability. Rendering form as an amorphous solid, my work is a record of my physical presence with material. When swishing and smearing, poking and clawing, I am making the decision to stay mentally connected to this physical realm, however ambiguous that may feel at times. Hands-on interpretation helps me to consider the total state of things as they exist in the world today, as they will always be in a state of change, adaptation and evolution.

Bio

JASON LEE STARIN received his MFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art and Oregon College of Art and Craft in Applied Craft and Design in 2011, and his BFA in Ceramics from Grand Valley State University in 1999.  Referencing fantasy and sci-fi narratives, Starin's ceramic-based art practice values the importance of making tangible objects as they are construed between internal and external realities.  Originally from Michigan, he currently resides in Philadelphia, PA where he is the Ceramic Shop Supervisor for The University of the Arts as well as a Resident Artist at The Clay Studio.