Stream 1 – Performance / Landscape/ Ritual
This stream reflects the essential theme of the conference – iron forming art, ritual, and landscape. Presentations and other activities will expand on these elements and the relationship between the environment, the artist and the creative process affecting the five senses.

Space-Mass-Consciousness – Keynote Speech
Keynote speaker:
Ojars Feldbergs
Sculptor; Director and Founder, Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum, Latvia

Big Art, Big Iron: Sculpture Parks and Contemporary Cast Iron Art
Contemporary cast iron art has found a supportive environment at residential sculpture parks world-wide. The conference site creates a platform for dialogue between the founders and representatives of some of these amazing places. Why has such a strong relationship developed between sculpture parks and contemporary cast iron art? How do the space, the scale, and the emphasis on community make sculpture parks and iron so compatible? How do they inspire one another?
Panelists:
Anthony Cafritz Founder and Director, Salem Art Works, USA
Laura Feldberga Artist, Butoh dancer, Book illustrator based in Riga, Latvia (Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum)
Villu Jaanisoo Professor, Head of Sculpture, Finnish Academy of Fine Arts; Curator, Pirkkala Sculpture Park, Finland
Eden Jolly Sculptor, Instructor, and Studio Manager, Scottish Sculpture Workshop, UK
Moderator:
Tamsie Ringler Conference Director, Professor, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN; Board Member Franconia Sculpture Park, USA

Site + Action: The Environmental Furnace and Performance
In response to the theme of the International Conference ‘Iron Forming Ritual’ this panel explores the role of site, process and performance in the making of iron art and its apparatus. The furnace is a mirror to the earth’s process speeding up the work of nature as we steal the unripe fruit ‘iron ore’ and dare to transform it. Does working with fire and iron also talk about our relationship to earth’s resources, spiritual and physical, if so how and why are we driven to build such elaborate devices? The panel will look in detail at the Jani Iron Furnace Performances taking place at the conference.
Panel Artists:
Coral Lambert – Volcano Furnace, Sculptor; Head of Sculpture, Alfred University, New York, Director of the National Casting Center
George Beasley – Basket Furnace, Sculptor; Performance and historical furnaces; Regents Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University, Atlanta Georgia
Stephen Coles – Tractor Pour, Sculptor, Performance furnaces UK; MFA-Sculpture, Alfred University, NY, USA
Matt Toole – Master and Acolyte, Sculptor; Performance furnaces; Professor in Sculpture & Foundations, Savannah College of Art &Design, Savannah, Georgia, USA

Iron. Stone Symposium
The Iron.Stone Symposium and Exhibition at the Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum is a unique feature of the 7th International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art. Focusing on sculptural and land-based works integrating iron, stone and landscape, large-scale works were built on-site at Pedvale in the two months prior to the conference. The work produced in response to the symposium is a unique exchange between landscape and iron. The opening of the Iron.Stone exhibition is an opportunity both to celebrate the work produced and celebrate the 15th Anniversary of sculptural iron casting at Pedvale.
Panel Artists:
Ben K. Foley Sculptor- Massachusetts, B.A. Architectural Sculpture, Colorado College, 2009, USA
Elizabeth Helfer Cast Metal and Mixed Media Sculptor- New England; Franconia alumna, BFA Alfred 2010, USA
Paige Henry Foundry and Wood shop Technician, Alfred University; Landscape Designer; BFA Alfred 2010, USA
Daniel C. Postellon Sculptor based in Michigan, USA
Tamsie Ringler Conference Director, Professor, St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN; Board Member Franconia Sculpture Park, USA
Araan Schmidt Sculptor; Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Colorado Mesa , MFA-Sculpture University of Minnesota
Moderators:
Carl Billingsley Sculptor; Professor, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA; Iron.Stone Curator, USA
Ken Payne Professor of Sculpture, Buffalo State College, New York; Iron.Stone Curator. USA

Sound’s Art: Story in a Shifting Landscape
This session explores, through the reading of a multi-genre narrative, the effect of sound on a surrounding landscape. The four characters in the narrative—Sound, an owl, a deaf man, and a villager—offer varying responses to a specific sound, and when Sound reacts to those responses and stops, offer responses to sound’s absence. Those responses allow insight into the ways sound sways us. The session looks at the malleability of the “real,” explores the possibility of internal as well as external landscapes, and suggests that there is equivalence in the way tangible and intangible phenomena shape our world.
Presenter:
Melanie P. Carter Writer and Poet, Department of Rhetoric and Composition, The American University in Cairo, Egypt

Ritual in Traditional Sacral Forms and in Contemporary Practice
This presentation considers two traditional groups of artists, who have generated images of deity archetypes in Hindu and Buddhist temples. Also considered are contemporary artists whose studio practices employ ritual to cultivate transformational experience. Correlations will be sought between current and traditional systems bridging the material and the sublime.
Presenter:
James A. Cook Sculptor; Associate Professor 3-D and Extended Media Division, School of Art, University of Arizona; Fulbright Fellow, USA

Small Rituals, Big Ideas

A talk on the magic and power of small scale multidisciplinary, multicultural works of Performance Art. This is a journey that asks :”what is there to think about?” Ultimately, just two things; ourselves and the Universe. These small works are pathways to Universal Truths. By nature of small scale rituals are often more truthful, honest and complete than larger endeavors. Though performed by an individual these rituals can nevertheless incorporate many skills, disciplines and diverse locations and can be experimental and expressive of collective consciousness and large themes.
Presenter:
Justine Johnson Artist, Videographer, and Designer working internationally, US/UK

The Memory and Indexicality of Casting Processes
Casting processes lend a particular power to objects stemming from the idea of the index: meaning is captured through the physical relationship the casting has with the original positive. These ancient translation processes allow one to isolate a piece of reality into the “fixed condition of the art-image”1 This presentation examines what the index is and the ability that the rituals of casting have to grant art images, perhaps, a heightened presence. This power of presence comes from the translation processes that inherently leave behind signs connecting the object to its past. Where do we see these indexical signs in art and what role do, and, can those art-images have in remembrance?
Presenter:
Cecily S. Culver Sculpture, Video, Submersive Environments; Nathan Cummings Award winner; M.F.A Candidate, Arizona State University, USA

The Narrative Process and Narrative Identity
A desire to document and tell stories, both mine and others, can be linked to the narrative process. Research into the field of Narrative Identity can expand the narrative process through he labor intensity of the casting process. Speaking through images, the narrative process and how is manifested in Phelps-Rogers’ art practice.
Presenter:
Laura Phelps Rogers Contemporary Installation, Fabrication, Casting; Public art, Denver Colorado, USA

Storytelling and Folklore In Latvia
The presenters will discuss the Midsummer Evening’s storytelling event, as well as the role of iron and other metals in Latvian folklore and mythology. The history, tradition, and role of storytelling in Baltic and American cultures will be compared.
Panelists:
Nor Hall Mythopoetic writer, archetypal psychotherapist; lecturer; theatre artist; author “Irons in the Fire”, USA
Aldis Pūtelis Latvian storyteller and translator, the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, Riga, Latvia
Dr. Guntis Pakalns Folklorist, Researcher-The Archives of Latvian Folklore of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art at the University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
Moderator:
Deborah LaGrasse Sculptor, Performance Artist; Professor, Design School of Architecture, Florida A&M University, USA

Campfire Storytelling
Storytellers, selected by Dr. Guntis Pakalns, from Latvia and the USA will initiate with a Story telling session on the Grounds of Pedvale Sculpture Park focusing on Midsummer Night Rites, beginning the evening of performances and events.
Presenters:
Nor Hall Mythopoetic writer, archetypal psychotherapist; lecturer; theatre artist; author “Irons in the Fire”, USA
Aldis Pūtelis Latvian storyteller and translator, the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art, Riga, Latvia
Liesma Lagzdiņa Storyteller; principal Kurzeme Storytelling Festival „Ziv zup”;Participant, Zemgales Storytelling festival Kuldīga, Latvia
Dr. Guntis Pakalns Folklorist, Researcher-The Archives of Latvian Folklore of the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art at the University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia
Moderator:
Deborah LaGrasse Sculptor, Performance Artist; Professor, Design School of Architecture, Florida A&M University, USA

Duress/ With a Cast Bronze Handkerchief – Durational Performance
These solo durational performances fractures cultural constructs such as gender, beauty, and the body politic to expose, examine, and critique social and historical assumptions. For some time, fairy tales and fantasy have inspired the imagination and provoked curiosity about their effects on women’s roles and the construction of their identities. The piece Hovencamp will be doing at the ICCCIA will be a durational performance called “Duress.” For this work she will hold a cast iron handkerchief in her hand and suspend it with arm extended as if she was reaching out to comfort another individual. The weight of the object will exhaust her body and as the performance progresses and will cause her to drop the object involuntarily. She will perform this act repeatedly until her body can no longer endure holding up the weight.
Performance Artist:
Katie Hovencamp Sculptor, Video, and performance artist working with fairy tales and stories, MFA, 2014 Pennsylvania State University, USA

Stone Planting Ritual – Interactive Performance
All Conference Participants are invited to bring stones of special significance with them to the conference. On the evening of the 20th, Ojars will lead a ritual stone planting ceremony in the Stone Garden at Pedvāle Sculpture Park. Stones and wishes from all over the world will be brought together in this important opening event.
Ceremony Leader:
Ojars Feldbergs Sculptor; Director and Founder, Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum, Latvia

Drawn Through Time – Smelter Performance
Influenced by the alchemical explorations of Charlotte Law, two artists with various experiences in sculpture and performance are coming together to indulge in the alchemical creation of metal on the Latvian landscape. The project will present the artists re-enacting iron-age techniques through the night, to arrive at dawn with a bloom (a lump of iron!) This action will be surrounded by an automatic, ritualized, and physical drawing series. Multiple lengths of canvas will stretch out across the landscape to be marked with the materials, which undergo change within the furnace – charcoal and iron ore – alongside absorbing the effects of the furnace itself, sparks and scorch marks, etc. Taking turns to man the furnace, charging it with the materials, and returning rhythmically to the canvas to mark out the process and passing of time.
Performer:
Charlotte Law Sculpture, Site, Sound and Performance artist; MA Arts and Science. Central Saint Martins, UK, Conceptual Assemblage, Art Students League, NYC, USA