Dear Hans:
The most passionate times in the studio is the birth of a new idea. It gets all the juices that make being an artist flow. Sadly many wonderful ideas are not realized because one is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I chose to live a relatively quiet life in this small town in Northern New Mexico, I didn't think thal l was choosing a certain amount of obscurity also. It seemed to me that my studio activities had an importance to everywhere that there was a dreamer. In this sense I am a very naive person. At the same time I live on hope. I wish it was more palatable. If hope were food I would be fat as a pig.
Some years ago, I devised a plan for a sculpture that incorporated video into falling water. I spent a vast amount of calories and money in the development phase of the idea. Some years before l had seen an example of pulsed light in water. The water was ejected from a hydrant to a drain, but appeared to be flowing from the drain up to the hydrant.
It gave me the idea of doing something similar in the form of tiny drops of water falling as a thin wall from a long manifold that that was oscillated, the ambient light in the room was also oscillated but a litte faster than the water. the sheet of water which was 25 foot long (aprox 8 meters) and one inch thick became a projection screen. Video images, some live, some recorded were projected into the pulsed water.
Because the ambient light and projected images were of a different nature, the combination had a very weird presence. The fact that the falling water ionized the air in the room added another dimension to the affect. The whole thing had a charming and surreal quality.
I was given the opportunity to do a show of this piece at the Boise Museum of Art in Idaho. There is a large paper making company in that town, and I figured that it was just the thing for the lobby of large company.
With this naive plan and nothing more, I proceed to make the plans and build a working piece. The budget for the show was about $5000. I must have spent $45,000 on the installation. It was amazing, and I was able to improvise the installation of the work in such a way that it had a very theatrical presence.
The viewers entered the room at one end of the wall of falling water. The water Appeared to be rising from the containers that it fell into. Going to the ceiling. As the viewer walked to the front of the water fall, they found their own image projected into the water. At first it looked as though it was a reflection, but there was not enough light to be a reflection. As they proceeded along the waters surface the drops continued to appear to go upward. At the end of the wall the viewer found another version of themselves projected in the surface.
As they walked to the other side of the wall of water they found the drops continued to go up. At the center area they confronted a vision of a ghostly naked woman, having an animated conversation with an empty white chair. This apparition would then leave the black chair she was seated in and move to the white chair. This would continue with the woman changing chairs. No voice, just the sound of water falling, but the water appeared to rise.
Seen on the floor of the real space were the white and black chairs.
Need I say that the paper company never even came to the gallery? It was fun anyway.
This project grew out of a project that was proposed to the IBM company for the new world headquarters in New York. I proposed a large pyramid type shape that would be at the corner of Madison Avenue and 56th Street. On one side of the pyramid was a sheet of falling water. It flowed at high pressure, on an angle to a slot in the sidewalk. the water was pulsed. Under the drainboard of the surface was the light that was also pulsed. On the sides of the drainboard were prism type barriers that contained the water within the boundaries of the surface. The prisms emitted light that was pulsed at the same rate as the water.
The effect was that the water in the center of the drainboard appeared to flow upwards. The water at the edges appeared to stand still. I called the piece "The Improbable Flow".
IBM liked the piece, but did not like the title as they did not want the company to be associated with anything that was "Improbable".
History remembers that which is sustaining:
Almost twenty years ago I was gjven a commission for the city of Abilene Texas. It was to mark the centennial of that small Texas city.
I designed a glass sculpture that was to sit in a pond of water near a small lake that is next to the zoological gardens. the park is used by most of the people in the town. I designed and built the piece to face into the prevailing winds that came off the lake. The piece was called the WINDWEOOE.
It was made from a series of triangular pieces of glass that each had a base width of ten foot. The components were seven pairs of triangular glass plates that had an ascending height from three foot to six foot. Out the edge hypotenuse edge of the triangles was a prism. The glass pairs 3', 4', 5', 6', sat nested into each other with a space of three foot between them. Each pair of panels had a gradient density reflection that was highly reflective where the panels joined at the apex of 90 degrees, and faded out to the clarity of the glass at the tips of the triangles.
The prism refracted the light. The winds caused the water to ripple and the shape of the pond caused the ripple to encircle the sculpture. The water appeared to climb up the hypotenuse on the edge of each panel.
Something caused one of the glass panels to crack. I replaced it assuming that the panel was defective to begin wilh. A few months later the same panel cracked again in exactly the same place. I knew that there were forces at work that were not visible, so I hired an engineering firm to look at the problem and tell me what to do.
It was my opinion that the problem came from the way the glass was mounted. Each panel was held in the water with a small concrete pier. On the top of each pier was a piece of aluminum that held the glass on each side. Silicone rubber was used to glue the glass in place.
The engineers could not find a problem with the mounting, and told me the problem was with the glass. When the same panel broke in the same place a third time I decided to change the mounting. The city of Ahilene had built the pond and the mounting piers.
A new set of mounts were made and brought to the site. It was January and very cold in this part of Texas. The pond had frozen to a sheet of ice. We were obliged to break the ice up to remove it, and found that there was a layer of duck shit on the bottom of the concrete.
After the pond floor was cleaned, we went about the job of removing the sculpture by cutting apart the silicone rubber that held the triangles together. The plan was to lift the outer corner of each triangte to break it free of the silicone that held it to the aluminum. As we lifted the glass from the corner, the concrete piers that they were mounted on came up from the bottom of the pond attached to the glass. these piers were supposed to be part of the concrete floor of the pond.
All of the piers lifted off the bottom of the pond with the exception of the pier under the panel that kept breaking. In other words the entire sculpture was loose on the pond floor with the exception of the panel mounted to the pier that was not loose. This was the panel that kept breaking.
We found that the pond was inconsistent in its making than the engineering drawings told us. My new mounts would not work until the pond was construncted again. It took two years to rebuild the pond. When we installed the piece again, someone came along and finished it off with a blast from a shotgun. I never returned to Abilene. Cest la vie.
My dear Hans: If the above is OK, let me know, if you think pictures would help, Jet me know, I have them. If its not any good at all for the project you are doing, I have endless nightmares more .
Cheers.
Dear Hans:
The most passionate times in the studio is the birth of a new idea. It gets all the juices that make being an artist flow. Sadly many wonderful ideas are not realized because one is in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I chose to live a relatively quiet life in this small town in Northern New Mexico, I didn't think thal l was choosing a certain amount of obscurity also. It seemed to me that my studio activities had an importance to everywhere that there was a dreamer. In this sense I am a very naive person. At the same time I live on hope. I wish it was more palatable. If hope were food I would be fat as a pig.
Some years ago, I devised a plan for a sculpture that incorporated video into falling water. I spent a vast amount of calories and money in the development phase of the idea. Some years before l had seen an example of pulsed light in water. The water was ejected from a hydrant to a drain, but appeared to be flowing from the drain up to the hydrant.
It gave me the idea of doing something similar in the form of tiny drops of water falling as a thin wall from a long manifold that that was oscillated, the ambient light in the room was also oscillated but a litte faster than the water. the sheet of water which was 25 foot long (aprox 8 meters) and one inch thick became a projection screen. Video images, some live, some recorded were projected into the pulsed water.
Because the ambient light and projected images were of a different nature, the combination had a very weird presence. The fact that the falling water ionized the air in the room added another dimension to the affect. The whole thing had a charming and surreal quality.
I was given the opportunity to do a show of this piece at the Boise Museum of Art in Idaho. There is a large paper making company in that town, and I figured that it was just the thing for the lobby of large company.
With this naive plan and nothing more, I proceed to make the plans and build a working piece. The budget for the show was about $5000. I must have spent $45,000 on the installation. It was amazing, and I was able to improvise the installation of the work in such a way that it had a very theatrical presence.
The viewers entered the room at one end of the wall of falling water. The water Appeared to be rising from the containers that it fell into. Going to the ceiling. As the viewer walked to the front of the water fall, they found their own image projected into the water. At first it looked as though it was a reflection, but there was not enough light to be a reflection. As they proceeded along the waters surface the drops continued to appear to go upward. At the end of the wall the viewer found another version of themselves projected in the surface.
As they walked to the other side of the wall of water they found the drops continued to go up. At the center area they confronted a vision of a ghostly naked woman, having an animated conversation with an empty white chair. This apparition would then leave the black chair she was seated in and move to the white chair. This would continue with the woman changing chairs. No voice, just the sound of water falling, but the water appeared to rise.
Seen on the floor of the real space were the white and black chairs.
Need I say that the paper company never even came to the gallery? It was fun anyway.
This project grew out of a project that was proposed to the IBM company for the new world headquarters in New York. I proposed a large pyramid type shape that would be at the corner of Madison Avenue and 56th Street. On one side of the pyramid was a sheet of falling water. It flowed at high pressure, on an angle to a slot in the sidewalk. the water was pulsed. Under the drainboard of the surface was the light that was also pulsed. On the sides of the drainboard were prism type barriers that contained the water within the boundaries of the surface. The prisms emitted light that was pulsed at the same rate as the water.
The effect was that the water in the center of the drainboard appeared to flow upwards. The water at the edges appeared to stand still. I called the piece "The Improbable Flow".
IBM liked the piece, but did not like the title as they did not want the company to be associated with anything that was "Improbable".
History remembers that which is sustaining:
Almost twenty years ago I was gjven a commission for the city of Abilene Texas. It was to mark the centennial of that small Texas city.
I designed a glass sculpture that was to sit in a pond of water near a small lake that is next to the zoological gardens. the park is used by most of the people in the town. I designed and built the piece to face into the prevailing winds that came off the lake. The piece was called the WINDWEOOE.
It was made from a series of triangular pieces of glass that each had a base width of ten foot. The components were seven pairs of triangular glass plates that had an ascending height from three foot to six foot. Out the edge hypotenuse edge of the triangles was a prism. The glass pairs 3', 4', 5', 6', sat nested into each other with a space of three foot between them. Each pair of panels had a gradient density reflection that was highly reflective where the panels joined at the apex of 90 degrees, and faded out to the clarity of the glass at the tips of the triangles.
The prism refracted the light. The winds caused the water to ripple and the shape of the pond caused the ripple to encircle the sculpture. The water appeared to climb up the hypotenuse on the edge of each panel.
Something caused one of the glass panels to crack. I replaced it assuming that the panel was defective to begin wilh. A few months later the same panel cracked again in exactly the same place. I knew that there were forces at work that were not visible, so I hired an engineering firm to look at the problem and tell me what to do.
It was my opinion that the problem came from the way the glass was mounted. Each panel was held in the water with a small concrete pier. On the top of each pier was a piece of aluminum that held the glass on each side. Silicone rubber was used to glue the glass in place.
The engineers could not find a problem with the mounting, and told me the problem was with the glass. When the same panel broke in the same place a third time I decided to change the mounting. The city of Ahilene had built the pond and the mounting piers.
A new set of mounts were made and brought to the site. It was January and very cold in this part of Texas. The pond had frozen to a sheet of ice. We were obliged to break the ice up to remove it, and found that there was a layer of duck shit on the bottom of the concrete.
After the pond floor was cleaned, we went about the job of removing the sculpture by cutting apart the silicone rubber that held the triangles together. The plan was to lift the outer corner of each triangte to break it free of the silicone that held it to the aluminum. As we lifted the glass from the corner, the concrete piers that they were mounted on came up from the bottom of the pond attached to the glass. these piers were supposed to be part of the concrete floor of the pond.
All of the piers lifted off the bottom of the pond with the exception of the pier under the panel that kept breaking. In other words the entire sculpture was loose on the pond floor with the exception of the panel mounted to the pier that was not loose. This was the panel that kept breaking.
We found that the pond was inconsistent in its making than the engineering drawings told us. My new mounts would not work until the pond was construncted again. It took two years to rebuild the pond. When we installed the piece again, someone came along and finished it off with a blast from a shotgun. I never returned to Abilene. Cest la vie.
My dear Hans: If the above is OK, let me know, if you think pictures would help, Jet me know, I have them. If its not any good at all for the project you are doing, I have endless nightmares more .
Cheers.