The Forest

Sara Newey and Christy McCaffrey endured hours of exposure to toxic chemicals and hamburger patties, emerging as a pair of friends who have created an alien baby, beautified Sea World Tokyo, survived a streetfight (against one another), constructed a boat, mastered the art of landscape architecture, and built a forest inside the Machine Project gallery in Echo Park. This interview by Drew Denny.What is the name of your forest?Sara Newey: Forest.Christy McCaffrey: I don’t think we every really named the forest. We just kept calling it ‘the forest’ or ‘the goddamned forest.’ There were a couple of volunteers who made a particularly impressive bush that they named Reggie, though.What is it made of? SN: Fake trees, real trees, fake dirt, real dirt, fake rocks, real rocks.CM: We couldn’t use too many real things because of the length of the show. All the realplants are shade-loving plants like ferns and moss.What types of flora and fauna are represented? Is this a representation of an actual forest? Did you consider real ecosystems and attempt to create a realistic combination of species or were you guided by aesthetics alone? SN: It’s probably closest to a Pacific Northwest forest, with elements of the woods of New York thrown in. Definitely not an exact representation. We really just went with what was going to be most visually rich—and affect people the most.What is your history with forests? Do you come from a wooded area? Do you have a garden?SN: I come from the foothills of the Adirondacks in upstate New York. Christy is from Long Island. A lot of parties in high school happen in the woods on the East Coast. So, that’s how we wanted to open the show—a kegger. I am starting graduate school at Harvard for Landscape Architecture in the fall.What was your inspiration for the forest? Is this your first foray into the world of forest construction? CM: Mark wanted us to do a bigger project with Machine and we had been tossing ideas around. We definitely wanted to do something that would transform the space and would use our experience in set design and construction. Sara had done a forest set for a snowboard company a while back and I had helped her. It was really fun and we thought it might be cool to expand on that.SN: We wanted to build a set without a client. Making a forest inside that could last through a month of activities seemed really challenging—and exciting. We built the forest for that photo shoot on a much smaller scale. It was nothing like this, time-wise. That is one of the interesting parts of this project. We are used to building and breaking down sets in a couple of days, but a month seems pretty permanent to us.How did you meet? CM: We actually went to the same college but never met there, which is weird because it’s a very small school. We both ended up moving to L.A. and met through mutual RISD friends out here. We were both looking for work and ended up getting a job doing scenic painting for a set shop together. The long hours and toxic chemicals really cemented our friendship. We did a lot of painting for places like Sea World in Tokyo or Magic Mountain. It sounds a lot more glamorous than it was. We also both made the jump into art department on commercials together. We were PA’s for some crazy but brilliant people who taught us a lot. Everything was very hands-on and we got to do some cool projects—we also got to wash condiments off of hamburgers all day but that’s another story.SN: One of the funniest jobs was our first when we ‘decided’ we were going to be production designers. We worked together on a low-budget sci-fi movie. For $1,000 we really made some movie magic—but I think we put way more work into it than anyone with any sense would have. Needless to say, we learned a lot about latex on that job since the story was based on an alien baby that we had to make. Fun, though. This has probably been the most exciting project, I think.CM: We’ve been doing commercials and film for eight or nine years now, but we’ve always tried to sneak different projects in on the side. Sara has done a lot of very artistic photo and prop styling and has started doing landscape architecture. I built a boat, and have continued doing illustration and graphic design jobs on the side.What do you enjoy about the collaborative process the most? Do you ever fight? SN: We have had our share of fights, but overall I think we work pretty great together. Generally we trade off minute-to-minute on who cares about the budget, or time, or how it’s looking. It’s sort of great, because neither of us end up ‘owning’ specific parts of the project. Also, we both commit to projects in a similar way—we are both willing to work a ridiculous amount. Really, a match made in heaven—except when we hate each other.CM: We always say that we take turns being the slacker and the perfectionist. One minute I’ll be telling Sara to relax and quit working on something and the next I’ll be freaking out about the color of something and decide we need to re-paint everything. We go back and forth and that helps keep us balanced, I guess. We are both sort of crazy work-a-holics though. The craftsmanship of everything is really important to us. For instance, with the Forest everything had to be really sturdy and last for a month. It wasn’t like a set which would just have to last a little bit and only look good from certain angles. We went back and forth on the ground structures so many times to get them strong and durable. We ripped up the styrofoam more than once—sort of a low point, but in the end we got it right. Which is good because so many people were at the opening that it could have been a disaster—trees being uprooted, art fans falling through tiny mountains and beer everywhere. We definitely fight. We were pretty good this time, I think we had it out before the project even started, but there was definitely some yelling. There have been tears and a particularly memorable street fight—in the middle of my street—that wasn’t very pretty, but we always make up. I think we both get over things pretty fast. It’s like, ‘I hate you,’ ‘this is about our art,’ pause, laughing, ‘let’s get a beer’—or something to that effect. In the end we did spend probably almost 200 hours together this month—around many dangerous power tools—and we’re both here to talk about it. For this project we had an overwhelming amount of support from Machine and their members. Mark and Michelle helped us get a grant from the Durfee foundation. Then when a movie approached them to film there, they helped coordinate it and put all the location money towards the forest. We also had so many great volunteers who came day in and out to help. It was pretty amazing. People were coming on the bus from the valley and driving from Irvine and Anaheim to help. We had former art students who were psyched to help out on a project and people who were just psyched about Machine. They helped make branches, picked up sand and rocks from Craigslist ads, they brought beer, carved styrofoam, donated the fake grass and built the beer stump. It was such a great out-pouring. We are very grateful to all of them.Do you talk to plants?SN: Sometimes. I have two baby redwood trees that I probably care too much about.What sorts of events are you hosting while this forest exists?SN: Double feature: Lost Boys and Twilight, lumberjack pancake breakfast, mushroom identification, lecture given by Bigfoot enthusiasts, ghost stories, etc.!What would happen if I released one hundred bunnies in your forest? Have you considered the possibility of catastrophe—forest fire, invasive species or drum circles?SN: We would probably end up with a thousand bunnies. Fire has been a concern, but I think we are cool. Drum circles are scarier. I don’t know how we would handle that.CM: I doubt you could convince even ten bunnies to go out to the forest. They’re so lazy and they hate art. As far as catastrophes… we’ve already filled the forest with babies, a pig, a gecko and a film crew, not to mention having a keg party in there so I think it’s pretty tough. I’m not sure how it would stand up to a drum circle though, and I wouldn’t want to find out. Everyone has their limits.