Headlands Center for the Arts

Artist Statement

I use collaboration, publishing, place-based objects, video, and performance to investigate the relationship between humans and nature and how that understanding changes over time. My recent work engages with the more-than-human and anthropogenic world through research, video, and public talks. My publishing practice involves creating books and collaborative publications and activating them through organized events, workshops, and performances. I operate a Risograph printing press called A Magic Mountain, which focuses on artist publications and collaborations.

While at Headlands

My work this year will continue to investigate the Headlands as a series of ruins constantly in the process of crumbling and being formed. During this third year as an Affiliate, I will continue researching and working with the materials of this place–rocks, cement, tar, fog, smoke, and native/non-native plants.

I’ll continue work on a long-term project on the Point Bonita cabbage, which grows near the lighthouse and in my yard in Oakland. I am researching its dispersal as intertwined with human activity, resilience in a time of planetary uncertainty, and frequent proximity to coastal concrete military defenses. Next steps will include a seed dispersal program and a new iteration of a public talk.

I will continue using human-made rocks to create a series of Suiseki Viewing Stones. Prized finds include wave worn marine foam, concrete fragments, and asphalt chunks from roads destroyed in landslides.

Selected Video

Alex Arzt, Cabbage, Coast, Concrete, 2020; public talk and multimedia slideshow given at The Prelinger Library as part of Place Talks, 30 minutes.