Annalise Flynn

This course explores the rich genre of vernacular-built environments - where personal spaces like homes, studios, and gardens have been fully transformed into continually evolving, site-specific, and life-encompassing endeavours. Frequently such spaces are understood as works or art because they include strong visual and crafted elements. Such structures include mosaic-covered homes, painted mountains, found object gardens, hand-built concrete compounds, and much more. In this course, we will explore the expansive ways that those creating environments push the canonical limits of artmaking and the idea of who the artist is through their interactions with material, landscape, and community. We will examine historical and contemporary art environments within their social, political, and cultural contexts, consider the ¿lives¿ of ephemeral sites via preservation initiatives, and discuss where these artists and their work intersect (and do not intersect) with the mainstream art world. The artists included in this class present a demographic and geographic cross-section of America (and elsewhere), and readings, lectures, and class discussion will support the development of a more inclusive understanding of artmaking and placemaking in the United States. Artists¿ sites examined range from Sabato Rodia¿s Watts Towers in Los Angeles, California to L.V. Hull¿s home in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Students are expected to attend in-person class, complete a variety of readings and research-based projects, and participate in class discussion. Sign up for this class requires instructor consent and is by application to Professor Annalise Flynn. If you would like to register for this class, please send a brief description of your interest in the above content and any questions you may have to aflynn2@saic.edu.