Satellite #5: Pioneer

Explore the inside of the sculpture by clicking around with your mouse.

Talasnik is planning a series of nomadic wooden compositions for Tippet Rise, scattered throughout the land: structures that "converse" with each other, creating an itinerary and a study of art through nature.

Tippet Rise is also a working ranch. Cattle and sheep roam and graze the undulating hills, often near, even beneath, the land art. Our ranch manager and his help often ride the land on horseback, herding and checking on the livestock.

Talasnik requested that the sculpture be sited in a place that would allow it to fold into and accentuate the contours of the surrounding landscape.

"It was important to try to make the connection between manifest destiny of both those situations, the idea of human beings wanting to go beyond what they knew, to risk everything to go, and that somehow the risk-reward was really what it was about.

Whether it was the early settlers coming to a wonderful place like this or the satellites and eventually, people, astronauts, who would go out into space, there were so many similarities to me..."

-Stephen Talasnik

In the summertime, tours allow our guests to visit each sculpture, by van, bicycle or on foot. Guest numbers are limited to provide visitors with a quiet and intimate experience on, and with, the land and the artwork.

John Luther Adams' Inuksuit was performed at Satellite No. 5: Pioneer during the art center's inaugural season. Musicians moved across the landscape in a percussion-centered performance.

"We want to take art out of the museum, to take down the walls."
-Tippet Rise co-founder, Peter Halstead