Ghost Nets
Ghost Nets (1990-1991) was a multipart habitat restoration project where Trigger Point Theory was developed. Situated on the former coastal town dump of Vinalhaven island in the Gulf of Maine, the project restored 2.5 acres of habitat through conceptual and practical actions that explored soil, land, animal and water relationships: Trigger Point Garden, KindWind, and Traffic Dance.
Aviva Rahmani purchased the site of a former coastal town dump on a fishing island in the Gulf of Maine for Ghost Nets. There, she developed Trigger Point Theory: the idea that small points of carefully selected intervention might effect large systemic transformations.
Ghost Nets restored 2.5 acres of habitat, in the middle of an Atlantic seabird Class A Fly Zone, to a flourishing wetlands system and personal residence. Rahmani designed a passive solar home on the site with Steve Robinson (AIA) and created a complex uplands riparian zone garden and water buffer zones. The project was divided into three parts: 1) the Trigger Point Garden, 2) KindWind, 3) Traffic Dance. Each part was performative, transformative, and explored another aspect of soil to land and water relationships conceptually and practically.
“Ghost Nets, will continue during the decade of global choice, the time period during which urgent ecological choices must be made, according to many environmental groups...Rahmani gave up her sunny 2,500-square-foot loft in New York to move to a remote island off Maine with her dog and cat, a small wood stove and a party line phone. In Ghost Nets…Rahmani will examine how we abuse our natural environment and in so doing, she will seek alternative solutions...Ghost Nets addresses future survival. Human change and commitment can weave together the fragile and the primitive in nature and mankind to shelter the planet...Rahmani will use the processes of building and collaboration during the next nine years of Ghost Nets. This will be accomplished by forming partnerships in Maine with local fishermen and by performing and documenting housekeeping tasks for her own home as part of a wider global effort.” - December 1990 Ghost Nets press release.
'Ghost Nets' Swamp Quarry 1930 Date: 1930 Size: Variable Materials: Black & White photograph Description: Early photograph of what was to became the Ghost Nets site. Photograph courtesy of the Vinalhaven Historical Society.
'Ghost Nets' Bed of Nets Date: 1992 Size: 4' x 4' x 6'7" Materials: Installation of drift nets on a painted iron bed. Description: This installation of recovered drift nets from the former town dump, was part of my meditative practice during the completion of the Ghost Nets project. The bed represents what we collectively “get in bed with” that has resulted in environmental degradation. Photograph by Aviva Rahmani.
'Ghost Nets' Traffic Dance Date: 2013 Size: Variable Materials: Photograph Description: Aerial detail of bioengineering and excavation for 1/3 wetlands acres portion of Ghost Nets which restored a total of 2.5 acres in a Class A Migratory sea bird intercontinental corridor in the Gulf of Maine site. Photograph by Ben Magro.
'Ghost Nets' Storm Surge Line Date: 1997 Size: Variable Materials: Digital photograph Description: Fresh water meeting saltwater across the storm surge line of the Ghost Nets site for the first time in one hundred years at the Ghost Nets site. Photograph by Aviva Rahmani.
'Ghost Nets' Before and After 1.997 and 2007 Date: 1997 and 2007 Size: Variable Materials: Photomontage Description: Aerial shots of the Ghost Nets site showing changes to the uplands riparian zone and estuary over a 10 year time span. Photographs by Ben Magro.
Provenance:
Stills from Ghost Nets have been shown in the following exhibitions: GROUNDED VISIONS: Artistic Research into Environmental Issues, Zurich, Switzerland, November 27, 2015 - March 23, 2016; Works on Water, Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA, October 5th - Feb 5th, 2012-2013; Beyond Landscape Marin Community Foundation, Novato, CA, June 15th - Sep. 28th, 2012; New Perspectives on Urban Ecology, curated by Alex Tolman Max-Born-Saa, Berlin, Germany, 2010; First International Art and Ecology, invitational workshop and installation, Society for Ecological Restoration, British Park, Jerusalem, Israel, 2000 and Rock Rescue, The Art Center at Kingdom Falls, Belfast, ME, 2000.
Publications:
Tallmer, Jerry. “Artist’s ‘Ghost’ is a 9-year Haunt.” New York Post December 28, 1990.
Schwendenwein, Jude. “Breaking Ground: Art in the Environment.” Sculpture Magazine, September/October, 1991.
Rahmani, Aviva. “Ghost Nets: The Medicine Wheel Garden.” Leonardo 25:1 p. 96, 1992.
Harris, Craig. Leonardo Almanac Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1993.
Rahmani, Aviva. “A Pilgrim’s Progress Experiences in Wetlands Restoration.” Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News November p. 8, 1995.
Lippard, Lucy. The Lure of the Local. New York: The New Press, 1997.
Rahmani, Aviva. “Restoring a ‘pocket’ saltmarsh.” Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News 11 April p. 16, 1998.
Rahmani, Aviva. “Ghost Nets: art meets ecological restoration.” The National Wetlands Newsletter March-April, pp. 3-4, 2000.
Spaid, Sue. Ecovention: current art to transform ecologies. Cincinnati, Ohio: Contemporary Art Center, greenmuseum.org and ecoartspace, 2000.
Sutherland, Amy. “Art-Eco on Vinalhaven.” Maine Telegram. June 10, 2001.
Orenstein, Gloria “The Greening of Gaia: Ecofeminist Artists Revisit the Garden.” Ethics and the Environment. Vol. 8 no. 1, pp:103-111, Spring 2003.
Strelow, Heike. Aesthetics of Ecology: Art in Environmental Design: Theory and Practice. Basel, Berlin, Boston: Birkhauser Verlag fur Architektur, 2004 .
Auses, Jack, Kester, Grant and Strayer, Jenny Eds. Groundworks. Pennsylvania: Carnegie Mellon University, 2005.
Rahmani, Aviva. “Birthing A Virtual Residency.” Available online: http://greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=268, 2005.
Carruthers, Beth. “Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice and Collaboration.” online posting available at: http://greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=263, 2006.
Rahmani, Aviva. “The Butterfly Effect,” Soundscapes The Journal of Acoustic Ecology, 2007.
Kagan, Sacha and Steinbrugge, Bettina. Eds. Everything Will Be Fine. Germany: Universitat Lueneberg, 2008.
Rahmani, Aviva. “Collaborating with the Earth. Trigger Point Garden” Public , Vol. 41 pp.158-165, 2010.
Boetzkes, Amanda. At the Limit of Form: The Ethics of Contemporary Earth Art. Published by University of Minnesota Press, 2010.
Kagan, Sacha. Art and Sustainability: Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity. Bielefeld, Germany: Transcript Verlag, 2011.
Ingram, Mrill. "Sculpting Solutions: Art-Science Collaborations in Sustainability." Environment Magazine July/August: 24-34, 2012.
Rahmani, Aviva. “A Community of Resistance: Collaborative Work with Science and Scientists.” WEAD Magazine. Online publication Issue 7, CREATING COMMUNITY, available at: http://weadartists.org/communities-art-science, 2014.