The project created for LAMOA
considered first the site. In this case the site as an idea and a
reality. The site being a pavilion located at the end of a long
driveway in front of a set of artists’ studios. A domestic
pavilion that is also a public pavilion modeled on historical ideas
of pavilions as ‘showcases’ – as separated spaces with single
subjects. They in fact are designed to distinguish something;
separate topics. Even social pavilions in parks create a separation
both of space and of view. Those that are dancing or congregating
separated from those that are strolling or loitering. Often
pavilions represent nations. In the art world the most significant
group of pavilions represent nations via culture. When these
national pavilions are not in use, they lie dormant allowing weeds
and animals to inhabit their privileged spaces.
The two sculptures were created with
both the view and the object of the view in mind. The two can be
reversed and conflated depending on the viewer’s location. As both
sculptures are locations and objects simultaneously, the interjection
of sound completes or rather unifies the area between the works. The
inside and the outside become defined. The use of the mirror can
assist in melding the two works and the two areas of LAMOA, thus
extending the perception of the pavilion. The materials of the
work, the wood, the paper, the photograph and the sound weave these
areas together and have allowed me to give a material form to the
ideas that served to create these works.
As the sculpture, Bouquet (Flower
Girl) Between Libya, the United States and Scotland, suggests an
association between elements, each of the elements refer to a
succession of ideas that have come together through a series of
associations. Links, as it were, in the process of constructing this
work. Starting perhaps with the Bouquet, the flowers of which, the
pomegranate, the red rose and the thistle, are the national flowers
of the countries in the title and refer to the Lockerbie incident;
the crash of the Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. Unfolding the conspiracy
theories surrounding this incident, which was such a huge incident,
one that signaled a change in so many ways, when air travel became
treacherous, political and even controversial. We began as a nation
to allow for the erosion of our civil rights; the acceptance of
surveillance and compliance with measures to insure our “safety”.
The allegations of blame and the political alliances that became
convenient and satisfying coalesced, much like the images of the
structure and viewers in the mirror of the sculpture. This fusing
and confusion of sorts as to where one is located and the literal
dissolution of the sculpture into the pavilion allowed me to realize
this manifestation of ideas in a more concrete form.
Monuments, gifts, and civic
presentations are among the ways we fuse our more private selves with
our more public displays. The platforms for presentation and
ideology merge into a presumed seamless whole. So starting with a
national identity and shifting from the presentational mode to role
of occupation and social dynamics with the second sculpture I think I
could create a moment where the two could collide. The stories of
bombs wrapped in children’s clothing and stuffed into a Toshiba
Bombeat began a series of inquires and following of threads to faulty
aircraft, Mumar Kadaffi, retaliation, Iran, Frankfurt, Malta,
Christmas lights, rogue CIA drug routes and a current television
program, just to name a few.
The Sculpture for the opening of a
Pavilion, is a continuation of my interest in public seating.
How we converse and position ourselves socially. At openings we
often stand in small groups or clusters, which allow us proximity to
our friends. This sculpture allows us to mimic or continue our most
natural clustering but in a seated position. We can relax and ease
our feet. Listen to the sounds… where composer Greg Lenczycki has
realized a composition in five parts of alternating lengths to
finally conclude a 75 minute work. The phasing in and out of the
electronic composition includes the anthems of the three countries
and various spoken word texts referencing the Lockerbie crash. The
view of the pavilion from a distance, displays the body of the
sculpture paying homage to the agit prop works of Varvara Stepanova
in dissolution.
To start with a reference to a
revolutionary form and to think about the representation of nations
and gestures of generosity and leisure and possibly the confluence of
meanderings that an investigation into an international action of
enormous consequence might lead; this is where I start. The logic of
stepping from one type of sign to another; to associate in the way
the forensic scientists did when investigating the ‘incident’ is
a model of intrigue that morphs into a kind of fact. It is a
question of belief. The ability to decipher it remains both uncertain
and open ended.
