Outside Outsider Art That's Out There
A local percussionist plays inside a Crater.
By Audra Schroeder, 2:50PM, Mon. Dec. 10, 2007
While perusing this story in the November 25 issue of the New York Times about James Turrell, the Flagstaff artist who's turning the Roden Crater into a mysterious work of art, I noticed the name of local percussionist Chris Cogburn. As one of the handful of people actually invited to the Crater each year, he participated in the Austin to Arizona leg of last year's Poetry Bus tour as the sole musician, playing in the Crater's eye.
"The work itself is massive, celestial in scope, and truly inspiring," Cogburn relates. "It made me think alot about a person's relationship towards his/her work and, perhaps, amplified the notion that what is most communicated through one's art is the energy put into, and the relationship towards, one's own practice. Really, I don't think any of us could have anticipated the scope of the work and its effects. It was very much a moving personal experience, as well as a deeply shared collective experience for, and with, everyone involved."
An audio sample of Cogburn playing in the eye can be heard here. Scroll down past the photos. The renovated Crater is scheduled to open to the public in 2011.
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