NEW WORK
HAIKU GATE
Tall wooden frames support objects and assemblages that move in the wind. The frames themselves are easily rearranged and transported; likewise the dangling elements can be swapped in and out in minutes, so that the piece resembles a portable chalkboard, or a printing press with movable type, than a forever-fixed-in-place sculpture. Some of the kinetic elements also chime, creating a sonic as well as visual experience.
CLick on the image below for audio and video.
BELLS
24"-36" tall. Made from found objects and steel. Click images for video and audio.
CHAPEL
Triangular panels 9 ft on a side are easily moved and connected to create various shapes. About 7 feet tall.
DISCOVERY
19 ft tall x 25 ft long, x 6 ft deep, plant material woven and tied.
SKY LINES
.
Pieces shown here range from 24" to 72" high.
Pieces shown here range from 24" to 72" high.
OTHER WORK
The pieces below are between 6 and 9 ft long, and are made from plant matieral, found objects, and steel.
CLICK ON PHOTO BELOW FOR A TOUR OF THE SCULPTURE PARK
NOTES ON NEW WORK
These sculptures were created between March and December 2020. Generally speaking, my intention is that my artwork, arising from the recesses of my psyche, connects with your extra-rational consciousness, making words of explanation counterproductive to the entire enterprise. The goal is to spur experience and feeling, not thought.
Having said that, isometimes words are wanted, so here some words and ideas that came to my mind, before, during, and mostly after the work was done, for those who favor that route:
GENERAL
The unique presence of this art in this place, at this moment, experienced through your senses and integrated with your consciousness.
HAIKU GATE
This piece began as a scaffold from which to hang kinetic sculptures, using the sky as a background to make it easy to see the sculptures. Gazing at the finished product I was reminded of the Torii gates of Japan, which I was very surprised and pleased to learn are meant to mark passage from the more or less mundane world of everyday life into a sacred space. Haiku Gate can experienced as a catalyst from small-mind (ego) consciousness to big-mind consciousness (appreciating the oneness of all things), regardless of which side you are on. The idea is not to turn a profane space into something sacred, or to mark a place that is somehow special; rather it is to help awaken awareness and appreciation of the sacredness that resides everywhere.
The bells that chime in the wind are repurposed industrial objects – items that did work in manufacturing now have an opportunity to express their sonic/vibrational and aesthetic qualities. “Useless” things revived as objects of power and beauty.
It was important to me that the bells make appealing noises in both light and heavy wind, so each of the Haiku Gate pendula can be very easily moved, rearranged, or removed, as heavier wind demands more space between the bells, and lighter winds want the pieces closer together so that they can touch and ring more frequently.
The following aspects of traditional Haiku are embedded in this installation:
CHAPEL
DISCOVERY
A line drawing in space
Sailing across the desert - a dreamy ship in a dreamy landscape
Humans are crustaceans bound to the sandy bottom of an ocean of air….birds cruise overhead, like fish….a forest of creosote bush-sea fans stirs in the current
SKYLINES
Line drawings in space
Glyphs, pictograms, calligraphy – visual language as an expression of the collective unconscious
The beauty of script distinct from the meaning of the words
Energetic expressions, suggestions, propositions - familiar, distinct, unnamable
Having said that, isometimes words are wanted, so here some words and ideas that came to my mind, before, during, and mostly after the work was done, for those who favor that route:
GENERAL
The unique presence of this art in this place, at this moment, experienced through your senses and integrated with your consciousness.
HAIKU GATE
This piece began as a scaffold from which to hang kinetic sculptures, using the sky as a background to make it easy to see the sculptures. Gazing at the finished product I was reminded of the Torii gates of Japan, which I was very surprised and pleased to learn are meant to mark passage from the more or less mundane world of everyday life into a sacred space. Haiku Gate can experienced as a catalyst from small-mind (ego) consciousness to big-mind consciousness (appreciating the oneness of all things), regardless of which side you are on. The idea is not to turn a profane space into something sacred, or to mark a place that is somehow special; rather it is to help awaken awareness and appreciation of the sacredness that resides everywhere.
The bells that chime in the wind are repurposed industrial objects – items that did work in manufacturing now have an opportunity to express their sonic/vibrational and aesthetic qualities. “Useless” things revived as objects of power and beauty.
It was important to me that the bells make appealing noises in both light and heavy wind, so each of the Haiku Gate pendula can be very easily moved, rearranged, or removed, as heavier wind demands more space between the bells, and lighter winds want the pieces closer together so that they can touch and ring more frequently.
The following aspects of traditional Haiku are embedded in this installation:
- a very short poem that embodies and expresses the eternal coincidence of the relative (what is present in a particular moment) with the absolute (universal aspects of existence);
- a combination of physical and sensory elements that suggests something beyond a simple accumulation of these elements;
- a stable yet flexible framework in which elements can be endlessly inserted and rearranged to create new experiences and meanings;
- includes everything that is needed, and nothing superfluous;
- a connection to nature;
- sound contributes to the overall effect of the work.
CHAPEL
- A pseudo-shelter, an intimate space in a vast plain
- Walls as windows, window as walls, a disturbance of usual notions of separation and connection
- Looking through interlocking branches at the sky, like looking through stained glass windows in a church --looking through stained glass windows in a church, like looking at the sky through interlocking branches—a Temple of Nature.
- Modularity – each configuration of the triangular panels is just one possibility among an infinite number
- A triangular structure made of triangles –the mathematical symbol Delta (a triangle) is used to indicate change or (more to the point) the rate of change. Everything is always changing, it has never paused and never will, but the current, hugely accelerated rate of change on this planet far exceeds anything most of us are equipped to manage fluidly – so the triangle, Delta, represents a (the?) fundamental challenge we, as individuals and as a species) face today.
DISCOVERY
A line drawing in space
Sailing across the desert - a dreamy ship in a dreamy landscape
Humans are crustaceans bound to the sandy bottom of an ocean of air….birds cruise overhead, like fish….a forest of creosote bush-sea fans stirs in the current
SKYLINES
Line drawings in space
Glyphs, pictograms, calligraphy – visual language as an expression of the collective unconscious
The beauty of script distinct from the meaning of the words
Energetic expressions, suggestions, propositions - familiar, distinct, unnamable