A Walk through “The Would/Lands”

Have you seen the curious and “color-fool” folk hanging in the trees near WSW? The Would/Lands is a public art installation along the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail by internationally-renowned performance artist Pat Oleszko.

Pat introduces her creations along the Rail Trail during the opening performance, "The Would/Lands: Walk on the Wild Side."

Pat introduces her creations along the Rail Trail during the opening performance, The Would/Lands: Walk on the Wild Side.

In August through October, Pat visited Rosendale as WSW’s first Rosendale Cultural Crossroads Public Art resident. Her multidisciplinary work interweaves social commentary with eccentric presentations involving elaborate costuming and linguistic jests.  Pat has created work at the Museum of Modern Art, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as worked internationally throughout Europe and South America.

During her two-month residency at WSW, she responded to Rosendale’s history and geography to create The Would/Lands along the Rail Trail near the Rosendale Trestle. Her installation was greeted by a costumed performance of live music and local participants on October 5, 2014, and the installation remained on display through mid-November. (To see more of the performance, check out WSW’s Flickr, and Pat’s film.)

Several months later, Pat returned to Rosendale to release her Would/Lands creatures with fiery flames. She writes:

WouldLands-Burning2


Here are some of the creatures you might have stumbled upon in the woods…

A melodrama on the tracks as a nod to the silent films of yore when Simon Legree tied down A Maiden in Dis Dress to saw her in half for what reasons we can only guess. Now a metafore for Dastardly Dan, the tree-cutting man. Hello NYCO, goodnight wilder/nest.
The L’astro-nut, a curious cross between a miniature astro-nut caught in the helmut of a space angel or perhaps an angel with an astro-nut bugging her, surrounded by some primitive Miss Ills created by what primitive peoples on what planet we can only imagine.
A tribute to Missed Dolly Pardon riding high and flying as Dottywood. You can spot her in the trees. Say hello Dotty.
The all-knowing see-all warning danger eye at see. This is Sir Veillance that even escaped Snowdon.
The Trojan Rabbit spent a worthwile life sprinting back and forth in the mine fields separating East and West Berlin shepherding escapees under his guise before the Wall came tumbling down.
The DUMB/ME where the artist was originally sat as the ventriloquist’s dummy operating her larger self as a dummy answering questions in the Patechism of Cliché.
The Posted Girl O No! Don’t go there! Killer bees, private property, buried cables, and partially hydrogenated palm oil! Lying and hubris all bared!
The Critic and The Family Trees.  There’s Widow Jane, the Brother vacationing upstate, the Food Critic, the Bi in Brooklyn, Ray and Charles Eames chasing a feather, the Do Gooders, the Liberals, the Vapid Rich, the Tainted Loyals  et cetera add nauseum.
This one’s for the kids. Give me an A! Give me a B! Let’s C, it’s the AlphaPat Suit!
You would wonder why Da Virgin would jump for joy. I too.
A painting that’s a sculpture, Kneepoleon’s Foot Soldiers, lamenting their loss at the Rosendale Waterloo.
The Acrobat On the Edge, seen here as a tribute to the magnificent Umbrella Revolution for democracy in Hongkong.
And finally, the Bloviating Bore-acle. Ask her what you will, her answer will blow you away.