Swannatopia Presents:
Currently:
“And The Green Grass Grows All Around And Around And The Green Grass Grows All Around”
Buncombe County Special Collections | Pack Memorial Library | Asheville, NC
3/26-6/10, 2025
Join us on Tuesday, June 10 for a casual, family-friendly closing reception and celebration of agri-cultural cross-pollination featuring a multimedia experience in the auditorium and edu-taining activities for all ages and abilities. We will have some special seeds to share and our friends Appalachian Seed Growers Collective will be joining us to talk about participatory seed weaving and breeding! We will also be learning about a lovely legume grown right here in Swannanoa as we kick off the SUMMER SESSION of Experimental Art Club with prompts aplenty!
light refreshments from 6-7 in the reading room provided by Friends of the Special Collections!
We, of Swannatopia, look forward to using our time within this space to collect our thoughts and incubate our dreams as we redirect our gaze toward the farms, forests, and legume lagoons of our future. Our Special Collections selections offer a glimpse into the vision—trees and seeds in anticipation of sunny days to come.
Many of the objects on display were created in response to the prompt “How Do We Mark The Flood?” for an event of the same name held on November 23, 2024 at Warren Wilson College; others were included in our recent exhibition “DEER FREAKS…and decoys.” and accompanying puppet fashion show “How Do We Disappear, Yet Still Be Seen?” at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.
On Saturday, April 26, from 2-4 pm, ISA Certified Master Arborist April Wilson and colleagues joined us in the Reading Room to share tree failure data collected post Helene, following a “crankie” performance by artist Primrose Coke and a report back from Friends of the UNCA Woods.
Recently:
Ant Float Dream Boat | “Ants Together, Ants Forever”
BMCM+AC {re}Happening 13 | Lake Eden | Black Mountain, NC
5/3/2025
Swannatopia presents: "Ant Float Dream Boat" inspired by ants and how collectively and cooperatively they work together to create a phenomenon called the “ant raft”, allowing them to remain afloat for weeks, caring for each other, until dry land is reached and their community can rebuild.
From a pool noodle to explorations in innertubes (“inner tutus”) ,we will create an antigravitational miniature/giant ant float on Lake Eden with wind enhanced visuals. An illuminated ant ballet will be performed on the water as a sunset surprise, accompanied by an orchestra, projections, synchronized movements and more that will guide the participant-observers on the shore to dream as ANTS TOGETHER, ANTS FOREVER.
Ant Float Dream Boat takes inspiration from Black Mountain College's Build program, surface tension, the choreography of Esther Williams and Busby Berkeley, “the cheerio effect”, geodesic domes, mermaid shows, marionettes, spinnakers, migration, the anti-architectural “inflatables” of art collective Ant Farm, tractor square dancing, actual ants, and community response to the hurricane.
Marigold Mingle
Puppet Fashion Pie | “How Do We Disappear Yet Still Be Seen?”
(a closing reception for DEER FREAKS… and decoys.)
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center | Asheville, NC
3/14/2025
Swannatopia’s Experimental Art Club does puppets, fashions, and pie with an improvised many friend orchestra! 7:00 Sunset on a Swannanoa River Runway! This now age folk lore is one for the books with shadow puppets, a cattywampus troop, an official worm squirm and so much more! Bring your binoculars and sunglasses and dress like a forest! binoculars and sunglasses and dress like a forest! Wow what a dream! We had an incredible turnout for this one-of-a-kind event—it was a completely full house! We couldn't have asked for a better conclusion & culmination to the Deer Freaks & Decoys project and, of course, the Farm at Black Mountain College exhibition. This experience reminded us how art, animals, people and place are all interconnected. Thank you to all of the performers, makers, bakers, and attendees for bringing your enthusiasm and whimsy.
DEER FREAKS… and decoys.
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center | Asheville, NC
9/27/2024-3/25 2025
Presented below and in conjunction with The Farm at Black Mountain College , curated by David Silver and Bruce Johanssen. DEER FREAKS… and decoys. explores the hyper-natural forces of attraction and repulsion informing our interactions with the landscapes we inhabit. This open “call” via a series of prompts welcomed submissions from fence rows to scare-crows, documenting the creative ways people propagate, shape, lure, and protect in their environments.
Both exhibitions were originally set to open on September 27, 2024, but the museum didn’t reopen for some time after Hurricane Helene, until power and water had been restored to downtown Asheville. We have only recently been able to gather again in our studio in Swannanoa’s historic Beacon Village, and we feel lucky every day that it- and we- are still here.
Ground Markings
Winterville Cultural Center Gallery | Winterville, GA
11/2 - 11/9/2024
A pop-up exhibition in Winterville in support of artists impacted by Hurricane Helene featuring work of WNC artists, presented in conjunction with DEER FREAKS…and decoys.
Decoy ’n Decor ‘n More | “How Do We Get Our Ducks In A Row?”
Asheville Mall | space K-18 | Asheville, NC
11/10/2024 - 1/5/2025
A duck call shop, community dance studio, river runway, and temporary home for Experimental Art Club. A production space for chandeLURES, puppets and fashion. Thank you to the Asheville Mall for a dry, secure, free space to store our tools and materials for three months while displaced from our studio.
OUR TIME at the Mall was brief but very insightful-
the Asheville Mall has grand potential as a makers/artist space but-We found the lighting to be subpar and spent a lot of time moving stuff, but we did get to meet Ms. Claus, Mr. Belk ( the bear) mascot, experience Planet Smoothie's new line of JELL-O pudding inspired shakes, and hit the food court a few times. One pair of jeans was purchased during our three month stint.
“How Do We Mark The Flood?”
A day of collective healing and community resilience on the historic grounds of Warren Wilson College| Swannanoa, NC
11/23/2024
Prior to the storm, we had been planning an “Ambient Farm Stroll” outdoor land-arts happening at Warren Wilson College in conjunction with our project “DEER FREAKS…and decoys”and exhibition of the same name at BMCM+AC below and in conjunction with The Farm at Black Mountain College.
When asked by the WWC farm manager to not cancel post-Helene, we pivoted our efforts with the help of many friends and neighbors to create an event that included 45+ land-art installations by students and community members across 5 acres of farm and garden, music and “odd dancing” in Bryson Gym, a cider pressing, and hog roast.
This was the first time since the storm that many folks had seen each other, and traveled from across the region to be together. We, of Swannatopia, remain in awe of the power of gathering this day brought. This video beautifully captures our curious, playful, and kind community coming together through art, music, dance, and sculpture woven into the fabric of the landscape–song in a garden, bells in the wind, shiny pig fascinators, decorated deer in a gymnasium, a puppet show live scored by an orchestra, flying kites on a muddy field, open doors, sown clover, ode to lemon balm, and a sunset surprise salamander procession.
Warren Wilson College started as the Asheville Farm School in 1894, became a coed junior college in 1942, and transitioned to the four-year Warren Wilson College in the mid 1960s. Collaborations between the Asheville Farm School and Black Mountain College form an important part of The Farm at Black Mountain College story.
Alive at the Bait ‘n Tassel | “What Looks Delicious To A Fish?”
Lamplight AVL | The Residency at 821 | Asheville, NC
12/21/2024 - 1/5/2025
(A tangential part of DEER FREAKS…and decoys.)
Experimental Art Club does “chande-LURES” for our third annual holiday light show window display eggstravaganza/ vernacular habitat showroom at Lamplight AVL.
Found in Sound: Tales from the Record Store Universe
8/22 & 8/23/2024 | TRANSFIGURATIONS IV Festival | Diana Wortham Theatre | Asheville, NC
Set design commission for a multimedia storytelling event celebrating 20 years of our favorite record store. We paid homage to interior with a scale replica of the iconic retail counter, 20’ woodland camo banners stencilled with forest ferns & foliage, floral installations adorning the orchestra pit, hovering waves, and no less than one dozen light reactive eggs. The artist lineup included Sally Anne Morgan, Thom Nguyen, Nathan Salsburg, and Kevin Morby. Produced by Erin Brethauer of This Land Films.
Color Theory Guard
BMCM+AC {re}Happening 12 | Lake Eden | Black Mountain, NC
4/20/2024
(installation + publication)
Color Theory Guard lead participant-viewers through a series of movements within a prismatic
playground and color changing landscape. This color wheel act radiated out to the rest of the Rehappening at Lake Eden. Every hour, we introduced a new playground prop, color combination exercise, and over two hours of original “now” age ambient tracks that slowly transformed the space into a total spectrum experience. Through dazzling live performance and with a edu-taining multimedia zine, we, of Swannatopia’s Experimental Art Club, created a community powered color wheel experiment.
Time Is Fake: a Swan Pond Experience
Lamplight AVL | Asheville, NC
12/9/2023 - 1/2/2024
“Time is Fake: a Swan Pond Experience” brought the people together again, to shimmer and shimmy among sights and sounds from the collective's many large scale installations staged over the past year. Featuring fresh cake works and fashions by Experimental Art Club, an AVL FM "time is fake" hotline radio show, a Sunset Surprise, New Psycho Actives Bug Mall Soundtrack music video premiere, a puppet show live scored by a 9 member orchestra, swan song sound bath, and black light dance party by DJ Madbog.
The Oasis Of The Juicy Fruits
Krafthouse: Forest of the New Trees” Center for Craft | Asheville, NC
9/21-10/14 2023
For "Krafthouse: Forest Of The New Trees”, invited groups of artists were asked to imagine a “post-major event Appalachia”(yikes!). In response, we cultivated an immersive "Post-Scarcity U-Pick Orchard" within a subterranean geodesic dome. Through this highly collaborative multimedia experience, The Oasis of the Juicy Fruits gave visitors a glimpse into a future of sweet abundance and care, and paid technicolor homage to our region’s cherished craft and folk traditions of gourd art, Appalachian quilt styles, limberjack puppets, square dancing techniques, shape note singing, basketry, and fruit jam preservation, as well as William Bartram’s 1773 descriptions of pre-contact agricultural sites in the Georgia Piedmont. Woven into the fabric of the Oasis is an imaginative fusion of American psychedelia/ outsider art, agroforestry and futuristic fruit grafting that finds fertile ground at the crossroads of unconventional artistic expression and a yearning for the commons. In this harmony of tradition, innovation, and creative wonder, The Oasis of the Juicy Fruits beckoned all to partake in the dance of life.
Call For Sculpture (publication + exhibition)
Lamplight AVL | Asheville, NC
9/2/2023
In conjunction with the exhibition BMC/MX : Black Mountain College and Mexico, “students and artists of all ages and all media” were invited to engage creatively with visual prompts offered by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas. Images of the resulting artworks were compiled into a limited edition interactive zine, which joined the museum library’s collection and was given to each participant, and selected works were on display at Lamplight AVL during the release event .
Kaleidico Concepts
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center | Asheville, NC
6/17/2023
The first in a series of performative and experiential actions presented in conjunction with the exhibition Black Mountain College and Mexico, we, of Swannatopia, built large-format kaleidoscopes and optics through which participants could view each other and the art on display.
Fountain of You/ Feel Fountain Park
BMCM+AC {re}Happening 11 | Lake Eden | Black Mountain, NC
4/8/2023
Fountain of You is an interactive experience utilizing the symbolism of a park fountain to explore the ways in which we orbit one another. This water ballet of sorts attracts and engages the viewer in a multi-tiered experience of choreographed parading, interactions with our life guards, and places for deep reflection looking into a holographic “fountain of you” featuring a kinetic fountain feeling, with ongoing performances and busking sets around the interactive wishing well.
Bug Mall
Lamplight AVL/The Residency at 821| Asheville, NC
Dec 11-31, 2022
For our December artist residency, we transformed the storefront gallery space at Lamplight AVL into “Bug Mall”. Drawing inspiration from utopian experiments both attempted and imagined, cooperative and adaptive behaviors observed across life forms, holiday light shows and the shopping mall itself, Bug Mall explores the ways we relate to our built environment, each other, and ourselves through the lens of contemplative socioentomology. The multimedia installation included works from over 30 artists and spanned a butterfly experience, puppet show, live musical performances, monorail, movie theater, fountain, escalator, elevator, funeral parlor, vending machine, arcade, high school art show, seed bank, volcano, claw machine, Zig Zag’s Roller Disco, Swannatopia Department Store, Wormhole!, a wormhole, chapel, food court, claw machine, carousel, and more. An original Bug Mall soundtrack, composed by New Psycho Actives (Avey Tare and Geologist of Animal Collective) played throughout the installation, and at 5:17pm during the opening reception, a Sunset Surprise lightshow was activated featuring projections by Abby Portner.
Marigold Daze
Swannatopia | Swannanoa, NC
June 2021?
A secret show in our backyard greenhouse with music by Avey Tare, sunset surprise projections by Abby Portner, Field Patterns set + tape release, haircuts , porcelain, and stained glass.
SWANNATOPIA 1
Swannanoa, NC
February 2020
