Fallbrook Art in Public Places

August 27, 2010 - North County Times, FALLBROOK: Navajo, nature inspire latest public art Friday ceremony to unveil Peter Mitten's 'Yeibichai'

Four towering metal structures evoking a Southwestern canyon and Najavo spirituality will be unveiled at 6:30 p.m. Friday as the latest installment of public art in Fallbrook.

"A lot of my work has related to land forms and how geography and topography forms are an understanding of the reality around us," said Fallbrook artist Peter Mitten about his piece "Yeibichai."

Mitten installed the piece Thursday evening on the corner of Alvarado and Vine streets and is expected to be present for the unveiling.

The work will be in place as a two-year loan to Fallbrook's Art in Public Places.

Mitten, a Fallbrook resident since 1997, said "Yeibichai" (pronounced YEB-a-ki) was created in 2005 and last displayed in Santa Fe, N.M., where it was on exhibit until 2007. It has been on his Fallbrook property since then.

"Yeibichai" translates as the Navajo term for "night chant," but has many other meanings, he said. In another definition, the word means a spiritual being the Navajo believe helps them live in harmony with the universe.

The four cast-bronze pieces are about 8 feet tall. In Santa Fe, the pieces were spaced several feet apart, but Mitten said he has reconsidered their relationship with one another and how a viewer can interact with them.

With that in mind, the new exhibit will look considerably different from how it appeared in New Mexico. The greatest distance between them now is about 30 inches, and the tightest distance is about 4 inches, he said.

"They're arranged in a way so you can squeeze through them," he said. "Hopefully, kids will play with them, walk up to them."