Smack Mellon Proposals
Here are two installations proposals for Smack Mellon, a non-profit gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and some other works for consideration. I have posted all the images and proposal documents below:
This first one is my third version of the “Monitor Landscape” installation proposal, which is based on my year long video and photographic documentation project titled “Monitor”.
Proposal #1 Summary: “Monitor Landscape” utilizes the concrete columns in the main part of the gallery, and is based on a year-long video and photographic documentation of an environmental intervention project. After placing a computer monitor in a field, I proceeded to videotape and photograph the monitor several times a week for the duration of a year. During that time, I performed a burning and minor excavation around the perimeter of the monitor that mirrored its rectangular shape by manipulating perspective and point of view. Over time, the excavation eventually filled in with new growth, asserting the regenerative power of the cyclical seasons in nature over the destructive machinations of mankind.
Description: The installation will consist of a single channel video loop approximately 6 to 10 minutes in length (with sound), and approximately 320 individual photographic prints mounted on the 5 main concrete columns in the central gallery. It is assumed that the photos will be printed in groups on long canvas rolls, 18” wide by 18’ tall, but size and format can be adjusted to accommodate the actual scale of the columns. Principal photography and videography is complete, and photographic printing and video editing is currently in progress. This proposal requires very little support from Smack Mellon, except for assistance with the bucket lift for hanging the photographic banners on the columns. A video monitor and DVD player will be provided, and the DVD will be set to autoplay as a loop. For detailed visuals, please see accompanying DVD with sample video, and CD with images and proposal drawing.
Artist’s Statement about this specific installation: As I refer to in my Artist’s Statement, I approach my specific subjects with open-ended questions about time, site, archetypal structure, the entropy of nature, and the longing for meaning. Viewers are prompted to consider their own individual complex relationship with both nature and technology. This installation of both video and still images uses a variety of time frames, metaphor, and the contrast between personal interior space and global exterior environment to question this relationship and the industrial infrastructure which supports our technological way of life. The images of a discarded computer monitor in an “empty” field over the span of a year confront the viewer with their own place within the environment on a fundamental level, and how our sense of time and space are often limited and narrow. The implied conclusion is that nature will outlast us, and ultimately surround our discarded attempts at technological perfection with the messy but loving embrace of flowers and greenery, but the implied question of our own mortality as a species remains unanswered. The title of the installation, “Monitor Landscape” is seemingly straightforward, but also has a dual meaning. The images are of an object called a “monitor” in a “landscape” , but I am also “monitoring the landscape” over the period of a year, for signs of distress, but also for signs of new life and regeneration. The intended effect is to offer the viewer an open-ended look at the ramifications of a few simple actions over a long period of time, rather than simply offering a dialectic about e-waste and the negative impact of technology on the environment.
This second proposal is a new sculptural installation proposal called “Doomsday Hourglass”:
Proposal #2 Summary: “Doomsday Hourglass” will utilize the back corner of the gallery, mainly for its more claustrophobic setting, but also for the ability to limit ambient light that will negatively affect the viewing environment. This sculptural installation will consist of a pyramid constructed out of electronic devices, covered in clear plastic, and acting as a waterfall fountain with a large plastic “funnel” perpetually spilling water over the structure.
"Doomsday Hourglass" proposal drawing
Description: The installation will feature approximately 300 to 500 electronic devices stacked carefully in a stepped pyramid configuration. The devices will consist mainly of used VCRs, DVD players, and clock radios. The commonality will be that all devices will have an LED clock display that flashes “12:00” when initially plugged in without having the clock set. All devices will be plugged in to a confluence of extension cords and outlet strips that will eventually merge into 2 to 8 separate lines to be plugged in to separate circuits as needed. Since none of the devices will actually be operating at normal capacity, electricity draw will be minimal. The “device pyramid” will be covered with thick (6 mill minimum) clear polyethylene sheeting, protecting the electronics from the moisture of the fountain, but also allowing for viewing of the LED displays. The plastic sheeting will gather at the bottom into a “collecting pond” by using a metal pipe frame to raise the perimeter by 1’. Above the pyramid, an inverted pyramidal “funnel” will be created by attaching thick black polyethylene sheeting to a square metal pipe frame and suspending it from cables attached to either wall anchors or a free-standing metal frame. A fountain pump will circulate water from the collecting pond at the bottom to the hanging “funnel” above through a clear plastic tube. Water will cascade in a slow trickle down the plastic covered pyramid of electronic devices. The space will be darkened and quieted (perhaps with curtains), with the primary light source coming from the perpetually flashing LED clocks on all the devices and the only sound will be the trickling water of the fountain. Overall dimensions will be approximately a 10’ to 12’ square footprint with an approximate height of 8 to 12’. This proposal requires some support from Smack Mellon, both with acquiring materials and with use of the bucket lift for hanging the “funnel”. I have been collecting devices for some time, but would require some additional assistance from Smack Mellon staff. Possible sources for acquiring devices would include the city program “Materials for the Arts” and several other non-profit organizations, such as Salvation Army and Goodwill. Additionally, members and associates of Smack Mellon could be encouraged to donate devices. All devices will be returned or donated to charitable organizations after the exhibition period has ended. Another possible solution is to create a “rummage sale” afterwards, uing all proceeds to either benefit Smack Mellon directly, or more preferably to benefit a local community organization. For detailed visuals, please see accompanying proposal drawing.
Smack Mellon floor plan for both installation proposals
Artist’s Statement about this specific installation: The title of this piece refers to the symbolic “Doomsday Clock” maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The doomsday clock uses “minutes to midnight” as a symbolic way of measuring how close humanity is to global annihilation, as originally represented by nuclear war, but currently including climate change and nanotechnology. My version of this clock uses the symbolic shape of an hourglass to suggest that annihilation is slow and continuous, and the flashing “12:00” of the clock to suggest that doomsday has already arrived. The use of water instead of sand in a perpetually draining hourglass refers to the dependence on water for all life and civilizations throughout history. Ironically, this source of water is itself dependent on an electric pump and plastic hose, which are conspicuously revealed as part of the structure of the installation itself. The water also can be seen as threatening as it cascades over a mountain of powered up electronic equipment, as we all know the fear of “electricity and water don’t mix”. The flashing “12:00” also refers to that mild annoyance and inconvenience that occurs whenever there is an interruption in the power grid, which some day soon may occur more frequently. The stepped pyramid has symbolic reference to ancient structures that represented the pinnacle of a civilization, most notably the Mayan civilization, which coincidentally also had a prophetic calendar that ends in the year 2012, which some have associated with the end of the world. All of these symbolic references and paradoxes refer to our current civilization’s ambivalence about our own “mutual assured destruction”, as we continue to live a lifestyle that insistently relies on an electrical infrastructure for survival that ultimately may cause our destruction.
This is the portfolio of past work that I submitted along with my two proposals, in case they might consider me for other exhibition opportunities:
And last but not least, my ever-changing Artist’s Statement:
Working primarily with video, photography, sculpture and installation, I investigate the collision between nature and our post-industrial technological infrastructure. I often employ archetypal symbolic cosmological references, geometric forms and compositions to explore the complex relationship between these two opposing forces. This exploration also often suggests a metaphorical relationship between “self” and “environment” and promotes ordinary daily experiences as an instigator for metaphysical musings.
My art-making process has always been conceptually driven, being based on philosophical, psychological and metaphysical investigations of natural and human-made form and phenomena. However, I hesitate to refer to my work as “conceptual art”, as my use of symbolism, metaphor and cosmology are also responses to the implications of structure and all the formal design characteristics of the material world. Varieties of form and structure are compared and contrasted to extract underlying or implied metaphysical purpose or meaning, and longer time frames for observation are used to effect how the viewer perceives and considers ordinary and humble experiences of nature and technology.
My awareness of archetypal shape and cosmological symbolism comes from Jung, but is tempered with the post-modernist irony and loss of meaning recognized by Baudrillard. My work is not as utopian and spiritual as Jung, nor as ironic and critically removed as Baudrillard. Rather, I use the archetypal forms of spiritualism to re-evaluate the humble and subtle collisions between natural forces and the techno-industrial sprawl of the infrastructure that supports our civilization.
