INSTALLATION FOR PALMS & Speakers/ 2 ROOMS / STUDIO VIEW
“From traditional gallery and field work to adventure-driven parties, Beletic’s intention is to evoke wild instincts within the context of the art world. And so the motives such as primeval rituals, vast natural spaces and liberating journeys carry throughout her work, inviting the viewers – or participants – to recreate the experience of their ancestors.” - IGNANT
RECENT EXHIBITIONS: PRIMITIVE LIGHTING
Exhibited T Los Angeles in Culver City. Ali’s work reviewed by curator and art critic Corrina Piepon (Hammer Museum).
The Primitive Lighting series are simple beautiful objects the create ceremonial and experiential ways for collectors to interact with the element of fire. They are part of both my broader sculptural projects Reflections on Artifacts and Modern Objects for Primitive Living, as an artistic take on experimental archeology as well a more modern expression of bringing these ancestral inspirations into our modern every day venture.
The Brass and Ceramic Firebowls are elegant sculptural objects built to hold small celebratory and ceremonial fires. The architecture is built as portable and breaks down into 8 pieces, so the fire can be shared in any environment.
Chandelier #1 is both part of Ali’s modern objects for primitive lighting series as well as her Icons of Party series.
Group Exhibition: Rosemarie Auberson, Ali Beletic, Molly Berman, Eric Chakeen, Daniel Fletcher, Katy Krantz, Martinet & Texereau, Claire Oswalt, Matt Trygve Tung, and Anna Valdez
Symmetric RAY
Mirrors have been a captivating symbol throughout history, representing self-reflection and introspection. In both art and fashion, mirrors have played a significant role as icons. In art, mirrors have been used to explore themes of identity, perception, and the human experience. Artists incorporate mirrors into their works to challenge viewers' perspectives and invite them to question the relationship between reality and representation. In fashion, mirrors are embraced as a way to make bold statements. Mirrored sunglasses, reflective fabrics, and statement jewelry serve as visual cues, allowing individuals to express their unique identities and showcase their personal style. Mirrors, as icons, continue to hold a profound meaning, encouraging us to delve into the depths of our inner selves and boldly express who we truly are.
RURAL sYMMETRY
Mirrors have been a captivating symbol throughout history, representing self-reflection and introspection. In both art and fashion, mirrors have played a significant role as icons. In art, mirrors have been used to explore themes of identity, perception, and the human experience. Artists incorporate mirrors into their works to challenge viewers' perspectives and invite them to question the relationship between reality and representation. In fashion, mirrors are embraced as a way to make bold statements. Mirrored sunglasses, reflective fabrics, and statement jewelry serve as visual cues, allowing individuals to express their unique identities and showcase their personal style. Mirrors, as icons, continue to hold a profound meaning, encouraging us to delve into the depths of our inner selves and boldly express who we truly are.
RECENT EXHIBITIONS: alivenique merch bar
Let's Light this Candle
Installation work for 100 Shells with flame, to be installed across the globe via collectors to create a serene ceremonial, sensual environment.
In this work, the shells are vessels for quite literally carrying the torch of our shared ancestral sensuality and survival paired together.
Released in collection with Ali’s music project Alivenique.
→ Join the Collection
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MODERN OBJECTS FOR PRIMITIVE LIVING / THE GLASS SERIES/ STUDIO VIEW
The GLASS series takes anthropomorphic signatures and morphs pop-art ceremonial motifs into vase structures that discuss the element of fire. They are part of a broader sculpture project Modern Objects for Primitive Living, that seeks bespoke moments to create objects from a broad swath of culture and humanity.
MODERN OBJECTS FOR PRIMITIVE LIVING / Remaining Still
In the realm of symbolism, where each image reflects, there is a landscape adorned with floating palms, swaying gently. As time passes, the immersive art of observation catches the reflections upon the surface of the tranquil mirrored enigmatic floating reflection pools.
MODERN OBJECTS FOR PRIMITIVE LIVING / Lunar Symmetries
In Ancient Greece, gold was closely associated with the gods and was used to create magnificent statues and ornaments in temples. The Golden Fleece, a legendary artifact in Greek mythology, was made of gold and considered a symbol of power and kingship. In the Inca civilization of South America, gold had immense spiritual and religious significance. Gold objects were used in rituals and offerings to the gods. The Inca ruler, known as the Sapa Inca, was adorned with golden ornaments to signify his divine status.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: horizon parallel
Horizon Parallel
2015
Flame, Motorcycles
70' x 10" x 10"
The Mojave Desert is a place the American psyche has turned it’s heart to, a unique place in our personal mythology. The poetry of the harshest and most rugged terrain upon which some of our go west, rugged individualism, survivalist identity has been formed. The vastness, the quiet, the trackless landscape. The playas, dried remnant of a prehistoric time are symbol to the ever changing, and the slow timescale of the earth. There is an open story of abstraction and projection alongside the prehistoric remnants that makeup the Mojave. This famous California desert has the perfect intersection between off-road culture, speed trials and earth art, both in it’s history and also it’s present. I was inspired, and I wanted to work on a sculpture that dialogued with this mythopoetic space.
It only seemed fitting to create this piece out in the backcountry, taking a journey and setting out to see if I could find one of those iconic vast Mojave canvases that was that was blank, unpaved, off road and not accessible by anything but bike. This place existed in my mind, but I had to go find it.
Riding out into backcountry is tough. You aren’t really going fast. You’re in soft sand and picking your way through it. We were riding vintage enduros back there. And one of the bikes was from ’74. These bikes are different, they are heavier and they don’t handle like a modern dirtbike. But that’s the way it is out in the wild. Everything depends on you, having enough water, knowing how to read the weather, how to backtrack and know your orientation, how to stay warm, make your own light and so on. That is survival, you really have to learn to depend on yourself, but that feeling of independence, and ultimately interdependence with the earth, is really in my opinion, one of our most fundamental powers and a very real source of joy.
We were all packed up over the back of the bikes. And that’s why I love those bikes - they are tough and well built and you can take them anywhere. The whole world is there for you to roam and in the desert - it’s pretty wide open - so you can ride anywhere. We were picking over rocks and into new territory. We were riding on backroads and dried lake beds. We spied this small passageway up and through the rocks that we could slip through. Just through this rock crevice canyon was this phenomenal natural amphitheater, bowl shaped enclave, hidden. It was dusk, so we unpacked to the sounds of the coyotes down in the playa below.
Most of my art practice is based on getting us back in touch with some latent instincts that I think we left out there in the bush. While we were riding during night fall, we really got that sensation of the wide open blank vast space, the giant infinity around us, and the open sky. That’s not an intellectual experience, its a sensual one. No matter which direction, you are riding toward a horizon, something far and ahead of you that you can’t see. You are making a perpendicular axis, dividing the circular earth with parallel lines, dividing the circle boundary of your range of vision. You sort of spread out over the land spatially. You start to think of yourself separating yesterday and tomorrow and there’s a relationship to speed. It felt as though we were out there in the middle of nowhere cutting the day and night in half.
Human beings are a gold mine. Boldness, backcountry, riding, sensual experience that goes out beyond your skin, loudness, speed, these aren’t just concepts, these are lifestyles. Sometimes you have to burn a blaze, or head out into the middle of nowhere, or ride desert at night, to enliven your sensuality. You are a shapeshifter and you’ve got the power. It’s ancient, it’s in your skin.
NEW YORK ARCHIVE/ Icons of Party
The history of palms in art dates back centuries, with depictions of palm trees appearing in various forms of artistic expression. Palm trees have been a symbol of beauty, tranquility, and exoticism, often associated with tropical and coastal landscapes. In ancient art, palm trees were often depicted in paintings and sculptures as a representation of victory, triumph, and abundance. Throughout history, artists have captured the graceful silhouette and distinctive fronds of palm trees, showcasing their unique aesthetic appeal. From classical paintings to modern photography, palms continue to inspire artists, adding a sense of allure and escapism to their creations, featured as part of Ali’s Icons of Party series, installation view.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: Tule Surfboard
Tule Reeds, Lashing
6' x 22" x 12"
The 36th Hour of my long winded stay, rotary style on grassy pasture, surrounded by whims of cattails, local hollering, bright skies, crisp weather, a diverse reach of ranchers and earth ecstatic rugged life-folk, I found myself birdman style snaking through ponds filled with various valuable, murky, and beautiful reeds on one of those hot Idahoan mornings. Fresh, mossy and extraordinarily clean. I was taking a knife and a fairly sharp one at that, grabbing the Tule reed at its base, telling the reed, this is going to hurt and thanks in advance in case that helps. Lining the knife across at a diagonal angle and cutting the stalk free of the root. I stacked the cut reeds in various places afloat throughout the pond. Miraculously, yet unsurprisingly the bundles floated around me contentedly showing off their inner layering of hollow, yes, hollow reedlike buoyancy. I carefully meandered so as not to take too much from each patch and spied the duck hunters camo-ing up in the mud patch across the way. I laid the rushes in the sun to dry.
A native Hawaiian, who came to California years ago to teach primitive skills, showed me how to lash the reeds as the Ohlone of Miwok Bay had done to make their fishing boats. Because of my love of surfing, we lashed the reeds together with two bundles and shaped them with rocker and tail.
Traveling on the road, through midnight skies, torrential rains, game commissions, in and out of houses, piled into and on top of the car, this now beatnik symbol came to reflect so accurately and intertwine among trips to the beach and new ventures in surf lifestyle.
Stopped by agricultural control at the border of California to check that the rushes had dried. We made it down to the Southern California coast and put it out on the water. king across continents, in many fields and mediums, we are honored and excited to have collaborators across the globe. We are commited to sustainability and our mission of integrity, and visionary development.
NEW YORK ARCHIVE/ Icons of Party / Studio View
Ceremonial storytelling is a powerful and ancient practice that has been used by cultures around the world for centuries. It is a way of passing down traditions, history, and cultural values through the art of storytelling. During ceremonial storytelling, stories are shared in a ritualistic and intentional manner, often accompanied by music, dance, and other forms of artistic expression. These stories serve as a means of connecting individuals to their community, ancestors, and the natural world. They provide a sense of identity, belonging, and wisdom, carrying important messages and teachings that can guide and inspire generations to come.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: under the same sun
Part of Moca Release Party and Cover Feature for La Motocyclette
Under The Same Sun
2014
Motorcycle, Dirt
1 Square Mile
I see my artwork in the lineage of the Earth Artists. One of my favorites being Michael Heizer, a renegade artist who left New York in the 60ʼs to make monumental sculptural works out West, most famously Double Negative. I have long been inspired by a series he did in the seventies called Land Drawings - some of which he made using a motorbike, literally drawing into the earth with bikes. I was excited to do a large scale work in the tradition of Heizerʼs piece as part of the series I am currently producing out in the Mojave desert.
As I was out there, creating the piece. So much was going through my mind. All of it had been pre-meditated, but still - the moment, the endurance, the perfect circle, a racetrack with no straightaway. The piece is about the sun, and the sun was blocking my view of the track, and i was marking its trace. The track was invisible, and I was thinking about the old Dakota saying, about being remembered by the tracks we leave behind, and here I am making a circle track. While I was working with this concept on paper, I was obsessing over circles and their historic relevance to societies and societyʼs architecture informing a societyʼs language, but even more so, fundamental understanding -- the profound effects of sitting in a circle as a discussion and so on.
I had wanted this piece to be three dimensional, whereas to my understanding Heizerʼs concept was more of a drawing. And the dust I was kicking up was 3 dimensional and being lit in a circle through the setting sunlight. Kicking up the dust - the dust from the tracks I was digging into the earth. I remember thinking about Kivaʼs being dug into the ground as a symbolic link, for the Pueblo people, to their ancestral underworld. Honestly, I have no idea what that means, but I was there circling, thinking about our ancestry, our history, the movement of the sun or the earth - depending on your perspective - it wasnʼt an ellipse though - it was a circle - with the same torque and the same endurance the whole way out - I would speed up, but I would skid. And I was thinking about the ruts we all create in our lives, the tracks, following that same track, with the same speed, and it felt very relevant that I was out there on my dirtbike, expressing all this, in this beautiful manner, remembering why we set out to dirtbike in the first place - and that giving us that sense of attention and present focus that is so specific to this work, Under the Same Sun, and being out on a bike.
I am not sure exactly the place where Heizerʼs work stopped and my own started, but I believe itʼs less about that and more about the human spirit.
And from a distance it looked so beautiful.
90 degrees, 270 degrees. The final remaining drawing had 4 different sized circles, each which determined how fast I could ride, with openings to the sunrise and the sunset over the course of the week it took me to create it. Ending on the equinox, when the sun rises due east and sets due west - as well as for the week to follow - when it will degrade and return to the earth from the elements, the rain and the movement of the sun.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: illuminated passage, boxo projects
Illuminated Passage
2015
Light
1/4 Square Mile
Invited to create a site specific sculpture for the Joshua Triennial curated by Metacurator and Boxo Projects. I built a Light Sculpture into the boulder field for invitees to hike through. The sculpture revealed itself as the sun set. Installed at Boxo Projects in Joshua Tree as part of the Joshua Tree Arts Festival curated by Boxo Projects and Metacurator.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: oasis
Oasis
2016
Light
1/4 Square Mile
Light Sculpture installed into a dried rushes field that attendees were invited to meander through. The sculpture revealed itself as the sun set. Reflection in geography, as the sun sets creating an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, surrounded by the absent light of day.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: Tule Surfboard
Ali has built a studio centered around the ideas of the conversation between the classic and the ancient and the the hyper-modern, throwing parties, and collaboration on a global scale. While the Vanguard Projects studio headquarters is based in North County San Diego. The studio is comprised of thinkers and artisans dedicated to marrying business with visionary and forward thinking creative solutions and expressions working across continents, in many fields and mediums, we are honored and excited to have collaborators across the globe. We are commited to sustainability and our mission of integrity, and visionary development.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: Canoe fire
Celebrated by Ignant and by curator Corinna Peipon (Hammer Museum) for Range Magazine
Canoe Fire
2013
Acacia wood, Acacia branches, Canoe and Paddle, Flame
1 Square Mile
Humanity feels the liveliness, archaism, and the elemental beauty of fire naturally. It really doesn't take much provocation in an artistic sense. The eloquent movement of the flames in the wind, or the speaking of the fuel turning to ash when drawn near to it. The mysterious movement of light illuminating, reflecting cast onto, around and prohibited by the sculptural dimension of space and material that surround, creates a reflective and mesmerizing calm that so many of us sense as part of our evolutionary history.
Canoe Fire was a series of many small fires I floated onto a lake in Arizona to create a sculpture which moved and floated in the wind and the water. The ceremony was exquisitely beautiful.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: lunar ceremony
Lunar Ceremony
2015
Fluorescence
100' diameter
The fourth of my Installation series for the Mojave.
Always showing the same face, synchronous rotation, our only satellite, surrounded by a trace of infinite dust.
Waxing and Waning the formation of the most ancient calendars. Over the course of the Lunar cycle, from New Moon to New Moon - the course of 29.6 days, patterning the phases. Lighting up the the phases of the moon peacefully, from a hidden plateau in the Mojave desert. Ancient ritual, and symbolic parts of self, as rising and setting with the moon, however only revealed as the night falls to dusk. Circular in nature, but remaining parts, illuminated and drawn into Jungian shadow. Relevant and reflected into the sky
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation: desert table
Desert Table
2013
Oak, Rocks
30' x 30' x 28"
Site specific sculptural table built into the Sonoran desert - breaking the horizon, continuing the road. Hand carrying 30 foot oak beams up to the top of a Tucson Mountain through the raw desert was arduous and mythic for a team of 4. To celebrate the final build, an inagural party was thrown at the top of the hill as an ode to Gordon Matta Clark and Carol Gooden’s famous project Food.
Earth Art Ceremonies and Installation:
pray for rain
Pray for Rain
2013
Mahogany, Glass, Rainwater
242 x 57 x 12
Pray for Rain was inspired by the Kula Ring in the Massim Archipelago and many other gift exchanges of primitive cultures and aims to gift exchange with the earth - a return of these life giving waters for evaporation back into the cycle of water at the end of monsoon season in Arizona.
Installing the pools into a remote hike in location in the Sonoran Desert was arduous and mythic. Hand building the sculptures over the course of several weeks, hand carrying them into the desert, sourcing water and hauling in rain to be returned to the earth.
Invitees were given a map, to drive to the remote location and then hike in a mile to come to the art opening. The ceremonial aspect of the work began at dusk, unbeknownst to the attendees. This performance was inspired by a conversation I had while recording with the Drum group AFI in Cape Coast, Ghana in 2009. Kweku, the bandleader, and I talked about how their ancestors would use drums to communicate distances. I was excited to recreate this experience for those present. The mountain at the location talked back during the performance. The echo was at least a whole second delay. By the end of the performance it was last light and the full moon just rising. The drummers throughout the landscape created an intimidating and cacophonous drum experience. The ceremony continued using lights and the familiar fragrance of the creosote desert plant released by rain.