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WORK TITLE: At the Lightning Field
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: c. 1973
WEBSITE:
CITY: New York
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://coffeehousepress.org/authors/laura-raicovich/ * https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-raicovich-8867b416/ * http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/laura-raicovich-to-head-queens-museum-/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2016065533
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016065533
HEADING: Raicovich, Laura, 1973-
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100 1_ |a Raicovich, Laura, |d 1973-
670 __ |a At the Lightning Field, 2017: |b CIP t.p. (Laura Raicovich) data view (b. Feb. 3, 1973)
PERSONAL
Born February 3, 1973.
EDUCATION:Swarthmore College, bachelor’s degree; City University of New York, master’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Worked at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Public Art Fund, Department of Parks and Recreation; Dia Art Foundation, New York, NY, deputy director; Creative Time, New York, director of global initiatives, 2012-14; The Queens Museum of the City of New York, president and executive director; The Brooklyn Rail, contributor; Art and Social Justice Working Group, lecturer.
MEMBER:Art and Social Justice Working Group.
WRITINGS
Contributor to The Brooklyn Rail.
SIDELIGHTS
Laura Raicovich is a museum director, writer, and lecturer who advocates for art that addresses social, political, and ecological issues. She is president and executive director of The Queens Museum of the City of New York, has written books on cultural art, and contributes to The Brooklyn Rail. Her past jobs have included director of global initiatives at Creative Time and deputy director of Dia Art Foundation. She also lectures with the Art and Social Justice Working Group.
Drawing on artistic content found in popular email spam, Raicovich wrote A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties in 2014. She noticed that spam emails for Viagra, Cialis, and penis enlargement were able to circumnavigate spam filters by including large blocks of text from Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield. Raicovich reworked this text and added her own to create a spy/romance novel.
In 2017, Raicovich published, At the Lightning Field, which describes modern sculptor Walter De Maria’s art installation called “Lightning Field” consisting of 400 stainless steel poles positioned 220 feet apart in the central New Mexico desert. The art project is meant to be viewed at night. After seven visits to the site over a ten-year period, Raicovich uses free verse style to meditate on the work, revealing its invocation of time, space, distance, duration, light, infinity, and memory. In an interview with Scott Esposito online at Conversational Reading, Raicovich explained how the art project stirred her emotions: “Infinitesimally large means to me connection to the cosmos, to the expanding universe, to really, really big things that are difficult to comprehend in our day to day frame of reference. … Being at the Field decidedly connected my thoughts to the heavens and where this particular artwork sits on the surface of the Earth, and its relationship to the universe.”
Writing in Kirkus Reviews, a contributor remarked: “Though Raicovich writes very specifically about her experience in viewing the work, the book is less about the work itself than about the nature of perception, the malleability of memory.” Calling her poignant 80-page essay a chaotic map of thought and experience that uses vivid language, a Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that “she combines her intimate, studied observations with the writings of a vast array of mathematicians and thinkers.”
Raicovich next edited Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production with Kareem Estefan and Carin Kuoni in 2017. Political, economic, and cultural boycotts have been around since Irish tenant farmers in the nineteenth century defied English landlords like Captain Charles Boycott. The book gathers leaders, artists, activists, critics, and curators to examine boycotts through history, including those in South Africa and Israel, and issues like self-censorship and long-distance activism.
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2017, review of At the Lightning Field.
Publishers Weekly, February 13, 2017, At the Lightning Field, p. 62.
ONLINE
Art in America, http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/ (October 2, 2014), Julia Wolkoff, author profile.
Conversational Reading, http://conversationalreading.com/ (May 2, 2017), Scott Esposito, author interview.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Laura Raicovich works as president and executive director of the Queens Museum. She is the author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties (Publication Studio), a book based on Viagra and Cialis spam, and is an editor of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books).
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Laura Raicovich
EDITOR
Laura Raicovich is President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum of the City of New York. A champion of socially engaged art practices that address the most pressing social, political, and ecological issues of our times, she has defined her career with artist-driven projects and programs. Recent projects at the Queens Museum include “Mierle Laderman Ukeles: Maintenance Art”; “William Gropper: Bearing Witness”; “Mickalene Thomas: Untitled”; “Mariam Ghani: Garden of Forked Tongues”; “Duke Riley: That’s What She Said”; “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk,” as well as a series of programs designed with Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly Shapiro to launch their “Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas.” She lectures internationally, has contributed regularly to The Brooklyn Rail, and is the author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties and At the Lightning Field.
assuming boycott cover
ASSUMING BOYCOTT
Resistance, Agency and Cultural Production
Edited by Kareem Estefan, Carin Kuoni, and Laura Raicovich
Boycott and divestment are essential tools for activists around the globe. This is the essential reader for today’s creative leaders and cultural practitioners, including original contributions by artists, scholars, activists, critics, curators and writers. More
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NEWS OCT. 02, 2014
Laura Raicovich to Head Queens Museum
by Julia Wolkoff
Laura Raicovich, 41, has been named the new president and executive director of the Queens Museum, New York, effective Jan. 1, 2015. Her appointment follows the departure of former director Tom Finkelpearl, who left the museum in May to become commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Raicovich comes to the museum from New York-based nonprofit Creative Time, where she has served as director of global initiatives since 2012. Prior posts include the Dia Art Foundation, where she was deputy director for ten years, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Public Art Fund and the Department of Parks and Recreation, all in New York.
Located on property owned by the City of New York in one of the most ethnically diverse residential areas in the country, the Queens Museum is dedicated to serving local as well as international audiences. To this end, the institution recently underwent a two-year $68-million expansion, completed in November 2013, which doubled its size. In an email announcing her departure from Creative Time, Raicovich wrote, "[The Queens Museum's] history of engagement and innovation, paired with its recent expansion, creates a dynamic space for great art, participation, and dialogue to come together."
Additionally, Raicovich is a member of the Art and Social Justice Working Group, lecturing internationally on socially engaged and collaborative art. She is the author of essays on art and culture and recently published the novel A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties (published serially in The Brooklyn Rail). Raicovich graduated from Swarthmore College and holds a master's degree in liberal studies from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York.
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Dec 9, 2016
Laura Raicovich: ‘I’m Being More Strategic With My Yeses’
The Queens Museum president on preventing burnout.
Credit: Michael Angelo
When you have the opportunity to ask some of the most interesting people in the world about their lives, sometimes the most fascinating answers come from the simplest questions. The Thrive Questionnaire is an ongoing series that gives an intimate look inside the lives of some of the world’s most successful people.
Thrive Global: What’s the first thing you do when you get out of bed?
Laura Raicovich: I sit up and take three slow, deep breaths. It isn’t a big effort but it reminds me to breathe all day.
TG: What gives you energy?
LR: Meeting with brilliant artists who suggest new ways to see and experience the world. And playing tennis.
TG: What’s your secret life hack?
LR: Sleep. As much as possible. I find that I have some of my best ideas just before I wake up.
TG: Tell us about your relationship with your phone. Does it sleep with you?LR: After my last email and social media checks of the day, I turn the brightness way down and read a novel on my phone before bed. Once I start reading, there is no more email or posting, just relaxing. Sometimes I read a real book, but I can’t do that with the lights off.
TG: How do you deal with email?
LR: I try to only respond to emails that are actually to me (not ones I’m CC’d on) and if an email conversation starts to get too complex, I get on the phone or visit a colleague’s desk. I also try not to respond to every email immediately — sometimes that just generates more email. Another strategy: I set aside two hours per week as dedicated email time, as a safety net to respond to the emails that may have gotten buried while I was at meetings during the week. I do this on Friday afternoons so I can go into the weekend knowing I have responded or have a specific to-do list for the next week.
TG: You unexpectedly find 15 minutes in your day, what do you do with it?LR: One of three things: check in with a team member in person, look at my to do list and pick the thing I most need to get done and do it, or walk through the Museum. The last option is always the smartest and most energizing.
TG: When was the last time you felt burned out and why?
LR: Last year I said yes to too many opportunities. While it was terrific to get the Queens Museum’s work out into the world through my travel and talks, it was also a roller coaster, time-wise, and I was run ragged. Worth it, but I definitely needed some down time last summer to recover, and now I’m being more strategic with my yeses!
Laura Raicovich is President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum, where she directs all aspects of the Museum’s activities and is charged with envisioning its future.
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6 Questions for Laura Raicovich on At the Lightning Field
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photo credit: Michael Angelo
A couple of weeks ago I recommended the book-length essay At the Lightning Field by Laura Raicovich, recently published by Coffee House Press. It is a beautiful example of a long essay that responds to a work of art in a uniquely linguistic manner, the sort of thing that I myself enjoy writing, and which I feel we should see more of from creative nonfiction writers. In addition to deploying various ideas around memory, mathematics, and aesthetics, the book combines quotations from authors like Vladimir Nabokov, as well as Raicovich’s own descriptions and thoughts, often made in enjambed free verse.
Since I made that recommendation, I was able to interview Raicovich to find out a little more about her lengthy fascination with The Lightning Field, how her book came together, and some further reflections on some of the ideas found therein.
In addition to being the author of At the Lightning Field, Raicovich works as the president and executive director of the Queens Museum. She is also the author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties (Publication Studio), a book based on Viagra and Cialis spam, and an editor of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (OR Books).
Scott Esposito: Your book revolves around your experiences with The Lightning Field, a work of art left in the New Mexico wilderness by sculptor Walter De Maria. How many times have you visited The Lightning Field? (if you could, please elaborate a little here as to the time frame you’ve made these visits over, how long it takes to get out there from where you live, etc)
Laura Raicovich: I made at least 7 trips to The Lightning Field over a ten year period. At the time, I worked for Dia Art Foundation, the entity that maintains the Field, and part of my work involved ensuring the continuing isolation of the Field. At the time, there was interest in development of the high dessert throughout this area of central, western New Mexico. Many of the old school cattle ranchers were retiring or moving to ranch in areas that were literally greener and less challenging to ranch. During this period I learned a great deal about what it takes run a cattle ranch in the high desert, and eventually we were able to create some long term protections for the land surrounding the Field by partnering with the State of New Mexico and a third generation ranching family to purchase a conservation easement on their land that would ensure they could ranch for at least another generation, and that a major piece of land just south of the Field would be protected from development in perpetuity.
From where I live in Manhattan, it takes a fair amount of time to arrive at The Lightning Field, and this became, for me, a part of the process of shifting from NYC tempo to something altogether different. There were no direct flights to Albuquerque so I usually switched in Atlanta. From Albuquerque, I would arrive, stay overnight, and depart the following day by car. Getting to the Dia office in Quemado was a few hours’ drive, and from there another hour to get out to the cabin in the truck with Robert, the main caretaker. Each leg of the trip had a different texture and vibe, ending (or beginning?) in the austerity of the high desert and its unexpectedness.
SE: Why were you continually drawn back to The Lightning Field, and when did you know that you wanted to write about it?
LR: My first visit to the Field changed the way I experienced the world around me. I loved being there, recalibrating the relationships between sky, earth, poles, landscape, weather, and all of the ideas and thoughts this process evokes for me. Of course, I was lucky that some of my trips were necessary for my work at Dia.
I began to think seriously about writing about my experiences in graduate school. I tried to write some straight-up art history, and in the process located some compelling coincidences of history. I then took a class with Wayne Koestenbaum, and as we wrote homages, or parallel texts, to some of the works of literature we were reading, I began to wonder what writing something similar in relationship to The Lightning Field would look like. It seemed like the coincidences and my experiences out there could combine in compelling ways.
SE: The Lightning Field has been identified as a work of Land Art, an artistic movement based in interacting with the landscape, and of which perhaps Spiral Jetty is the best known example. Could you tell us a little about this movement and how The Lightning Field fits in?
LR: There were a number of artists who came to prominence in the 60s and 70s who decided to leave the confines of big cities to experiment in the landscape of the Western United States. Among them, Donald Judd went to Marfa, Texas where he created a complex of architectural and art installations. Michael Heizer made drawings with his motorcycle on dry lake beds, and started a monumental project in Nevada called “City”. Nancy Holt created her miraculous “Sun Tunnels” in Utah’s desert. And Robert Smithson envisioned and built “Spiral Jetty” in the Great Salt Lake. De Maria had been making artworks in the desert for some time, including his Mile Long Drawing from 1968, before searching for the location for The Lightning Field.
SE: In the book you talk about the poles being “a device for seeing something larger, infinite.” This comes in the context of a discussion of certain irrational, or maybe disorderly, systems that The Lightning Field made visible to you. For your text, did you want to mimic this effect at all, in terms of making your writings a gateway toward the perception of things adjacent to the text?
LR: Yes, I wanted to do this both literally and lyrically. In fact, it happens formally with some of the line break choices. If you look at some pages (like 14, or 42, or 82) and turn the book on its left side, the lines of text mimic the poles in the desert. Sometimes the lines appear in an almost-pattern like the work does when meandering off the orthogonal within the grid of poles. And of course, there is a lot that is left out, not recorded, omitted, and left to another imagination.
SE: In a discussion of memory and your engaging idea of “the curve of memory,” you remark that “There is great pleasure in looking at the infinitesimally / small aspects of an experience / as well as the infinitesimally large.” I think I have some idea of what the infinitesimally small aspects of an experience might be, but I wonderful if you could elaborate on the idea of the “infinitesimally large” and how they might relate to your experiences at The Lightning Field.
LR: Infinitesimally large means to me connection to the cosmos, to the expanding universe, to really, really big things that are difficult to comprehend in our day to day frame of reference. Maybe it is because I have just finished Cixin Liu’s Three Body trilogy, these things include the unknown space of black holes, and space in more or fewer than 3 dimensions. Being at the Field decidedly connected my thoughts to the heavens and where this particular artwork sits on the surface of the Earth, and its relationship to the universe.
SE: Much of At the Lightning Field consists of beautiful poetic renditions of your phenomenological experiences of The Lightning Field. Did recounting these memories as poetry revise your experience of them? Did they lead to certain discoveries?
LR: Recounting them certainly changed them. Particularly as I left things out, inadvertently or intentionally, and as I edited the text over time. I realize now that there emerged very specific rhythms that I kept returning to in the text, as well as my desire to make connections that felt important to me, like to calculus, chaos theory. But I also wanted to make an invitation to anyone reading it to make their own associations. My discoveries, and the coincidences of history that drove me to write about The Lightning Field are really just a small gesture or homage to a work of art that has changed the ways in which I experience the world.
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Raicovich, Laura: AT THE LIGHTNING FIELD
Kirkus Reviews.
(Feb. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Raicovich, Laura AT THE LIGHTNING FIELD Coffee House (Adult Nonfiction) $12.95 4, 11 ISBN: 978-1-56689-
466-1
A contemplation of an outdoor art instillation sparks meditations on time, distance, infinity, memory, and the
interrelationship between the work and the viewer.Queens Museum executive director Raicovich's previous book, A
Diary of Mysterious Difficulties (2013), interwove Dickens with erectile-dysfunction spam, and this one is just as
difficult to pigeonhole. She explains in the acknowledgements that it took her "over a decade to complete," though the
text runs little more than 80 pages of observations, often typographically resembling free verse rather than prose, in
what might be an attempt to slow readers down, to focus attention on detail as the author has. "These writings are
dedicated to the recall of highly specific, vivid experiences of a work of art," she writes. The work is The Lightning
Field by Walter De Maria, comprising 400 stainless steel poles of varying heights in a desolate stretch of central New
Mexico. One generally stays overnight to view the expanse of the artwork at various times, in various light and weather
conditions, as the author did on four visits between 2003 and 2008. She quotes another critic on De Maria's work,
before Lightning, that "the burden of response is based not on the sculpture but on the spectator. The degree and quality
of spectator engagement becomes crucial." Though Raicovich writes very specifically about her experience in viewing
the work, the book is less about the work itself than about the nature of perception, the malleability of memory--
presumably, some or much of this was written well after the visit--and the elasticity of time. She frequently invokes
Nabokov (Speak, Memory, in particular) and occasionally calculus. She also quotes De Maria: "The land is not the
setting for the work but a part of the work....Isolation is the essence of land art." On one occasion, she saw the poles as
levitating. A detailed observation of what it means to make a detailed observation.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Raicovich, Laura: AT THE LIGHTNING FIELD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Feb. 2017. General OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA479234511&it=r&asid=02ffaa0ba1bcefc198d37752654cf472.
Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A479234511
10/9/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1507606466323 2/2
At The Lightning Field
Publishers Weekly.
264.7 (Feb. 13, 2017): p62.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* At the Lightning Field
Laura Raicovich. Coffee House, $12.95 trade paper (104p) ISBN 978-1-56689-466-1
By turns critical and lyric, this essay concerning sculptor Walter de Maria's The Lightning Field gives readers a rare
entry into an experience of the singular work of land art, and into the essential nature of experience and memory.
Raicovich, the director of Queens Museum and author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties, made several visits to The
Lightning Field, which consists of 400 steel poles located in an isolated, mile-long field in New Mexico. She combines
her intimate, studied observations with the writings of a vast array of mathematicians and thinkers, including Benoit
Mandelbrot and Gertrude Stein. Attempting to answer the question "How reliable is memory?," the essay is a
beautifully chaotic map of thought and experience that both mirrors the experience of a work of art and probes its
essence. The vivid language renders a landscape lush with "brown eyes of pooled rainwater," where "each pole
appeared to bear a tiny flame against the sky." Raicovich's sharp, almost scientific concessions to confusion and
disorder make the essay, like de Maria's work, a fiercely poignant treatise in which "concentration is more easily
achieved, revealing the remarkable." (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"At The Lightning Field." Publishers Weekly, 13 Feb. 2017, p. 62. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA482198204&it=r&asid=1b72270ab6003b4cc386008fa928130b.
Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A482198204