Nadin, Uchino, Toledano
“The First Mark”
Introduced by Nadin and Toledano
Super 8 and 16mm film to video, 9'
Year: 2008
The First Mark is a poetic, immersive observation of Peter Nadin’s Old Field Farm. Both a diary and a poetic reverie, the film opens the doors to Peter Nadin’s activity in which art and agriculture come together. By following the documentation of the farm’s activities—chicken feeding, bee-hiving or pig breeding—we are taken within Nadin’s extraordinary thoughts and visions.
Aimée Toledano: There are two locations in the film, Cuba and your farm in upstate New York. What is the connection between the two?
Peter Nadin: I first went to Cuba about 15 years ago as a US representative to the South American Bee Keepers conference. I was there for a couple of weeks and went around the island looking at farms. I met a number of farmers who were integrating different elements into farming… Theater, music, dance, and art. I very much enjoyed talking with them as I had developed a strong relationship between the work on my farm and the work on my art. Miguel Salcines had a remarkable urban farm outside Havana who is great example of this.
AT: How did the First Mark exhibition come to be in Cuba?
PN: When I was there I met a number of artists and curators and I spoke with them about what I was doing on the farm with my artwork, and Rubén del Valle Lantarón invited me to show it at the Wifredo Lam Center in Havana, which he directs. The show took place in February 2007.
AT: But at that point I understand you hadn’t exhibited your work in some time. So why in Cuba?
PN: That’s right I stopped exhibiting my artwork in 1990. I had tired of the rhythm of exhibitions. I wanted the paintings to able to evolve over a much longer period of time. I loved Cuba and the Cubans so why not.
AT: What does First Mark refer to?
PN: I wanted to explore the random marks made by the activity around the farm as a starting point. To accept there was always a possibility [that] there was no further meaning than the residue left from the movement of the hand or the activity itself. Also the possibility that it may have no further meaning than the thing itself. That it may be meaningless or the meaning may be inherent in the mark.
AT: Did the Cuban’s see meaning or meaningless?
PN: Well the response was great. They showed it at the Convento de San Francisco de Asís, an extraordinarily beautiful space, and the people responded very positively. They understood it very well. I used a lot of materials from the farm. At that point we had cashmere goats and I used the cashmere in the paintings. An artist said to me he loved the fact that I hadn’t painted a representation of the goat but had represented the goat itself by its fleece and the same with honey, wax etc. It seemed to be viewed through a different filter. They recognized it.
AT: In the film you have the exhibition in different locations other than the convent. How did this come about?
PN: Rubén del Valle Lantarón organized the exhibition and, after the reception in Havana, he suggested we travel it around Cuba so it went to several other towns and cities over a period of 18 months—Pinar Del Rio, Holguin, Matanzas, Gibara, Cienfuegos It was a great warmth, generosity, engagement; it was a wonderful.
AT: Let’s talk about how the film came into being. It was made slightly backwards.
PN: It was by coincidence and chance. Natsuko Uchino came with me to Cuba to help with the exhibition and she had her old Super 8 camera and filmed when she felt like it. Then on the farm we have a 16mm Canon camera. I would film sometimes—other people, my daughter, visitors—who ever felt like it really. Color, black and white, whatever was at hand.
AT: And then we met in New Orleans through Kirsha Kaechele. You were exhibiting First Mark at KKProjects and she knew you had all this footage and suggested we make a film.
PN: Yes it evolved very much in the spirit of the artwork. Natsuko and I handed all the footage to you to see if you could come up with a narrative thread.
AT:I was seeing all of these images of the farm for the first time though I’ve now spent a bit of time there. So I asked you to write about what I was seeing. It evolved more like a painting than standard film process. You’d look at some images and then write something. You’d write something and I would find the images. I think you were staying at Soniat House and recorded the whole thing in a couple of days.
PN: Yes the only part that wasn’t in that process was the poem and piano. That was in New York. I was thinking of Noel Coward while doing that one.
Credits
Written by Peter Nadin
A film by Peter Nadin, Natsuko Uchino and Aimée Toledano
Produced by Art and Agriculture
Photography: Natsuko Uchino
Editing: Aimée Toledano
Additional Photographer: Anna Page Nadin
Vocal Performance: Irwa Swan
Post-production: CecilFilm Productions
Nadin, Uchino, Toledano
“The First Mark”
Super 8 and 16mm to video, 9'
Introduced by Nadin and Toledano
Year: 2008
The First Mark is a poetic, immersive observation of Peter Nadin’s Old Field Farm. Both a diary and a poetic reverie, the film opens the doors to Peter Nadin’s activity in which art and agriculture come together. By following the documentation of the farm’s activities—chicken feeding, bee-hiving or pig breeding—we are taken within Nadin’s extraordinary thoughts and visions.
Aimée Toledano: There are two locations in the film, Cuba and your farm in upstate New York. What is the connection between the two?
Peter Nadin: I first went to Cuba about 15 years ago as a US representative to the South American Bee Keepers conference. I was there for a couple of weeks and went around the island looking at farms. I met a number of farmers who were integrating different elements into farming… Theater, music, dance, and art. I very much enjoyed talking with them as I had developed a strong relationship between the work on my farm and the work on my art. Miguel Salcines had a remarkable urban farm outside Havana who is great example of this.
AT: How did the First Mark exhibition come to be in Cuba?
PN: When I was there I met a number of artists and curators and I spoke with them about what I was doing on the farm with my artwork, and Rubén del Valle Lantarón invited me to show it at the Wifredo Lam Center in Havana, which he directs. The show took place in February 2007.
AT: But at that point I understand you hadn’t exhibited your work in some time. So why in Cuba?
PN: That’s right I stopped exhibiting my artwork in 1990. I had tired of the rhythm of exhibitions. I wanted the paintings to able to evolve over a much longer period of time. I loved Cuba and the Cubans so why not.
AT: What does First Mark refer to?
PN: I wanted to explore the random marks made by the activity around the farm as a starting point. To accept there was always a possibility [that] there was no further meaning than the residue left from the movement of the hand or the activity itself. Also the possibility that it may have no further meaning than the thing itself. That it may be meaningless or the meaning may be inherent in the mark.
AT: Did the Cuban’s see meaning or meaningless?
PN: Well the response was great. They showed it at the Convento de San Francisco de Asís, an extraordinarily beautiful space, and the people responded very positively. They understood it very well. I used a lot of materials from the farm. At that point we had cashmere goats and I used the cashmere in the paintings. An artist said to me he loved the fact that I hadn’t painted a representation of the goat but had represented the goat itself by its fleece and the same with honey, wax etc. It seemed to be viewed through a different filter. They recognized it.
AT: In the film you have the exhibition in different locations other than the convent. How did this come about?
PN: Rubén del Valle Lantarón organized the exhibition and, after the reception in Havana, he suggested we travel it around Cuba so it went to several other towns and cities over a period of 18 months—Pinar Del Rio, Holguin, Matanzas, Gibara, Cienfuegos It was a great warmth, generosity, engagement; it was a wonderful.
AT: Let’s talk about how the film came into being. It was made slightly backwards.
PN: It was by coincidence and chance. Natsuko Uchino came with me to Cuba to help with the exhibition and she had her old Super 8 camera and filmed when she felt like it. Then on the farm we have a 16mm Canon camera. I would film sometimes—other people, my daughter, visitors—who ever felt like it really. Color, black and white, whatever was at hand.
AT: And then we met in New Orleans through Kirsha Kaechele. You were exhibiting First Mark at KKProjects and she knew you had all this footage and suggested we make a film.
PN: Yes it evolved very much in the spirit of the artwork. Natsuko and I handed all the footage to you to see if you could come up with a narrative thread.
AT:I was seeing all of these images of the farm for the first time though I’ve now spent a bit of time there. So I asked you to write about what I was seeing. It evolved more like a painting than standard film process. You’d look at some images and then write something. You’d write something and I would find the images. I think you were staying at Soniat House and recorded the whole thing in a couple of days.
PN: Yes the only part that wasn’t in that process was the poem and piano. That was in New York. I was thinking of Noel Coward while doing that one.
Credits
Written by Peter Nadin
A film by Peter Nadin, Natsuko Uchino and Aimée Toledano
Produced by Art and Agriculture
Photography: Natsuko Uchino
Editing: Aimée Toledano
Additional Photographer: Anna Page Nadin
Vocal Performance: Irwa Swan
Post-production: CecilFilm Productions