Trading Dirt (No Borders Here)

Trading Dirt --- NO BORDERS HERE

The beauty of Allan Kaprow’s Trading Dirt piece was the curiosity  and the dialogue it stimulated in the people he approached for the trade and the re-defining of traditional artist/viewer relationship.  With that in mind, I invited my siblings who live thousands of miles away  to trade dirt with me.  My sister Sandra lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, my brother George lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, my other sister Silvana lives in Saronno, Varese, Italy and then there is me, living here in Los Angeles, California, USA.  I am primarily a painter, a solitary art practice, re-enacting this piece would provide a way to connect/collaborate with my family and include  them in process as activity.  A common goal and effort would be contributed by all parties if they agreed to participate.  More over the dirt collected from what is considered separate places not only geographically but in terms of sovereignty, would connect the four locations and re-identify them simply as terra firma, mother earth---one world interconnected.   
This would all have to happen through the use of emails and the postal system, which would leave much of the process up to chance, especially getting the dirt through the postal system.  Because I was the one who invited my family to participate, I included two American dollars for the cost of postage at their end of the exchange.  What follows are the email requests, replies and jpegs images of the packages of dirt sent and received.

THE EMAILS

Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:28:37

To: sandra, george, silvana
From: gina
Subject: Trading Dirt

Dear Sandra, George and Sil,
As you know I am currently going to Claremont Graduate University.  My “New Genre” class will be part of a retrospective at Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art honoring  artist Allan Kaprow. He was an important California artist and instrumental in the creation of The Happening, art as collaboration/performance centered around time, place and community.  Some of the Happenings will be recreated by artist and performed around Los Angeles and at the museum.
We choose to recreate “Trading Dirt”, which he kept going for a long period of time.  He started with a bucket of dirt from his garden and asked complete strangers if he could have a bucket of dirt from their gardens in exchange for his.
I am inviting you my  to send me a small amount of dirt from your gardens, ( an ounce or so?).
This would be a symbolic of one earth, no boundaries and a way to collaborate and connect with you who live far away around the globe.  Of course the kicker are the postal restrictions of sending dirt thru the mail. I leave it to your ingenuity as to how to pack the dirt for mail delivery.
I will send you each a small amount of dirt from my garden.  I will be using a small zip-lock baggie and will include postage for you to send me your dirt. If you feel inspire to include a short note of your experience in collecting and sending the dirt, that would be great but not necessary. I’ll include every part of this exchange in a final presentation for the event.
Let me know if you have any questions or if you don’t want to participate. I know you are all busy and I would greatly appreciate your part in this collaboration.

Thanks in advance!
Love,
Gina

Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 16:17:42

To: gina  
From: Sandra
Subject: Re: Trading Dirt

Hi Gina:
 Sounds like a great idea. I'm in, however the dirt is pretty frozen and covered in snow right now.  When do you need it?
Love
San

Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 21:12:37

To: sandra
From: gina
Subject: Re: Trading Dirt

Great ! As soon as you can scrape a little dirt to send...a tablespoon or two would be perfect.
Thanks San!

Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 07:41:58

To: gina
From: george  
Subject: Re: Trading Dirt

Hi G...belated Birthday wishes to you & Zig...............when would u like me to send the dirt...? when the snow thaws ?
or would frozen dirt do it ?
G

Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2008 09:10:08

To: george
From: gina
Subject: Re: Trading Dirt

Hi George, thanks for the birthday wishes.
The exhibition is in March so as soon as you can dig a little dirt up to send, would be great. I will send you some dirt form my garden soon too.
Sandra also has to deal with frozen ground. Just do your best, I really appreciate your participation and the exchange of terra firma.
Drop a note when you mail me the dirt so I’ll know to look for it.
Hope all is well with you.

                    Gina

Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:54:23

To: sandra, george, silvana
From: gina
Subject: Trading dirt

Hi you three, Did any of you finally receive the dirt I sent? Please get back to me as soon as you can.
Gina

Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 20:20:21

To: gina
From: sandra
Subject: Re: Trading dirt

Hi Gi:
The dirt got here today, and it was not tampered with.  I'll put it in the garden tomorrow before we leave for Vancouver.  We bought an Escape and are picking it up tomorrow.  Maybe we'll call you from Chrissy and Dylans over the weekend.  Don't work too hard..and give our love to Zig.

Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 07:46:08

To: gina
From: george
Subject: RE: Trading dirt

got it tuesday......still waiting for snow to melt here...seems to snow every second day here at least  a half foot at a time..
 G

Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 00:13:12 (PST)

From: silvana
To: gina
Subject: Trading dirt

Hi Gi
Sorry about the tremendous delay - March April and May are the busiest months of the year for me and the Toronto Vacation Study Trip is proving to be very exciting indeed!  There are now 7 of us and I have decided to rent a house instead of looking for other accommodation, it'll be cheaper with this number of people.  At the moment, I've got to choose among  3, one in the beaches, one's in the Annex and the last one is Woodbine and Danforth (which I hear has developed quite a bit since the race track isn't there anymore) Anyway... and so on...I'm really excited (but really exahausted!)
I have 3 courses in progress in addition and am also in the process of renovating Julia's and our room - lots of dumping (excess baggage - the constant growth - before you know it, there's stuff all around, where the fuck did it all come from??)  anyway, you get the gist, right?
So.....  SORRY FOR THE DELAY, I had to open up the package and add the dirt, along with the spices and stuff I sent.  it has been sent by FEDERAL EXPRESS and they were so great - not normal here.  So...
ON MONDAY I WILL SEND YOU A ORDER NUMBER. THE GUY SAID THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO DO ON YOUR END (EVEN THE SAME DAY AS PROMISED DELIVERY DATE) IS CALL FED EX WITH THE ORDER NUMBER, AND TELL THEM WHAT TIME YOU'LL BE HOME AND THEY'LL DELIVER IT ON YOUR TERMS, ONLY IF YOU CALL, THOUGH.  OTHERWISE, THEY'LL COME EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT HOME.
They told me that Fed Ex prefers to deliver on your terms because it saves time for them, so if you can, CALL THEM.  I will not receive an order number until Monday sometime via email so when I get it I'll send it to you right away.
promised DELIVERY DATE - TUESDAY.
AGAIN...SORRY FOR THE DAY
Love Sil
P.S.  When you get some time on the weekend maybe, can you call Julia? You forgot one promised weekend but she didn't, no biggie, just a reminder - you know how much she loves you - just send her an email if you haven't got the time - any pics of your cats, garden, house - she loves that stuff and when it's sent to her personally, it really makes her day.  It's not the most positive period of her life right now so any external distractions WOULD BE WELCOME (anything, really) especially from her favourite auntie .........
 

Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 08:30:56

From: gina
To: silvana
Subject: Re: Trading dirt

I will call Julia. Did you get my dirt?

Date: Sat, 8 Mar 2008 09:03:28  (PST)

From: silvana
To: gina stepaniuk
Subject: Re: Trading dirt

I got the dirt
Sil

Date: Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:28:24

From: gina
To: silvana
Subject: Re: Trading dirt

Great! thanks Sil.
XO,G

MAILING THE DIRT FROM LOS ANGELES

Toronto                                 Kelowna                                   Saronno

DIRT FROM Sandra, KELOWNA BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA


As of today March 8th, 2008:
A successful trade with my sister Sandra in British Columbia.
Because of the dirt is frozen in Toronto, my brother George has not sent me dirt yet.
Dirt is on it’s way from my sister Silvana in Italy.  
To be continued...