This sculptural work is anthropological (physical and to a lesser degree cultural) in its concerns, pseudo-archaeological if you will. I am interested in certain changes that occur in urban environments, the dis/integration of organic and industrial/utilitarian forms and the creation of sculptures that resemble societal remains. The construction of my images comes from ecological, phenomenological and ontological perspectives using found/recycled objects culled from the street, construction sites, city works and scrap yards.
In Element the addition of the stove elements to the sections of trees is one of material logic. The rings within a tree are testament to temperature and moisture change. The core of the tree acts as a memory to its environment. The spiral elements, while at first seeming to mimic the growth rings, in actuality replace the “body memory” of the tree with one continuous line. These stove elements are hooked up to sensors that are triggered to turn on and heat up in the presence of human movement, such as an outdoor light in a quiet suburban community.
The sculpture Transgression was inspired by my witnessing of trees growing in close proximity to chain link (or other metal) fences. The tree will often grow through, become part of and eventually deform the structure of the fence. This work uses different material logic. The chain link fence has been replaced with a metal mesh gurney (found at a construction site) that is used to lift humans from danger to safety, while at the same time keeping the body flat and straight as to not damage their internal workings. Instead of the fence, the gurney interrupts/is held in place by the tree. It is an anthropomorphic element horizontally posed diametrically with the tree. The idea of Spiral Log, runs parallel to the above two works, though in this case the two elements manifest themselves in the same formation.
When creating this sculptural series it is the process of what initially made me notice an object and what this object subsequently put me in mind of. This can be literal or symbolic in the materials’ formal or functional qualities. For example, Wishbone, is a found object, originally one of two support legs of a construction site barrier that has skeletal resonance. This image led to the creation of Carcass, which is made with the entire construction barrier, plus additional segments that I reconfigured to take on its biomorphic form. The same is true with the crutch. As an object, it looked to me as a single unit in a spinal column. I then searched the city Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, etc. (leaving a pair for someone who really needed them) until I had multiples to create the final sculpture Curvature of the Crutch.
The objects I choose as departures this work are informed by a moment of hallucination. I consider the resulting sculptures as “urban apparitions”. They are a narrative testimony to the paradox of creation through decay, of existence through remains.
My aim in this project would be further explore the “moment of hallucination” with a time-based medium such as video in conjunction with the sculptural form. I feel the “moment” could be extended to a state of mind when induced with extended images.
