On a sunny afternoon in late September, AskaNewYorker got on the Metro North train headed for Peekskill, NY to see the “Peekskill Project”. A handful of curators, notably Jeff Koan Baysa, gathered 100 artists to do installations all around this quaint town on the Hudson. We were particularly interested in Carla Rae Johnson, whose work generated some controversy in the town. (see HERE for more)
Ask a New Yorker: Tell us about your show, please.
Carla Rae: I decided to do a piece about war. I’m deeply upset about our country’s involvement in killing and bombing other parts of the world. I’m concerned about loss of lives with our soldiers, the loss of life and limbs of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq. As an artist, I wanted to find something to do about that. When the Peekskill Project started I proposed to do this piece in Pugsley Park, which was to spray the trees about five feet up from the ground with a non-toxic washable children’s temper paint and entitle the piece “Flood”. Each tree has a tag on it with a quote from the likes of Ghandi, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Audrey Lord, Alice Walker, and more. The quotes are all in reference to basically the fact that war is not only not the answer but that war should be out of the question.
Ask a New Yorker: Thank you. Your van is an installation itself!
Carla Rae: (laughs) The van is notorious in Peeksville. Every year I go to the Clearwater Arts and River Revival and I get more bumper stickers and I’m glad I drive a van because I have a big billboard and people have to drive behind me and stop and have a read. I also got one of the yellow ribbons (signifying support for our troops) and added something to it…”bring them home”.
Ask a New Yorker: I love your necklace.
Carla : There’s a wonderful African gift shop here in Peekskill called the Fern Tree. The jewelry is beautiful and very affordable.
Ask a New Yorker: Regarding your installation in Pugsley Park, could you tell us about the controversy and what exactly happened?
Carla Rae: Two things. One thing that upset me is that I got a call on Monday (less than a week before the project was to begin) that the city council had resinded it’s permission for me to do this piece because they thought it was too political and too controversial for public property. So, I began to find different ways to try to make it happen anyway, like a court injunction. I decided not to go forward with that, but I probably would have won. I didn’t want to be an adversary to the city that I live in but I didn’t mind being confrontational, so on Wednesday I put out a press release. But the thing that kind of broke my heart about all that was that this became an issue about censorship and First Amendment rights, but it was crucial to me to have the focus of discussion be about war, and what we, as citizens of the United States, have as responsibilities when our country goes to war.
Ask a New Yorker: And they folded, thank goodness!
Carla Rae: I think the city got pressure from a number of different directions and then they contacted me for some copies of the quotes. Once they got the quotes they decided it probably wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
Ask a New Yorker: Good thing. What’s the harm of having a few quotes attached to a few trees anyway?
Carla Rae: Right, how can you go wrong with Mahatma Ghandi?
Ask a New Yorker: Last thought…I just wanted to comment on how cool your hair looks.
Carla Rae: Thank you! I earned this hair! If it wasn’t white before this controversy it probably would be now!
Albert Einstein: “…if the workers of this world, men and women, decide not to manufacture and transport ammunition, it would stop war for all time”.
John Davidson: “and blood in torrents pour in vain always in vain, for war breeds war again”.
