image 1:
Tower Study
1990
collage, drawing on paper
30 x 21 cm
exhibition venue:
Torenhoog, Esplanade, Eindhoven, 1991
images 2-3:
Model #2
1991
polychromed bronze
33 x 24 x 20 cm
exhibition venue:
Phoebus, Rotterdam, 1993
image 4:
Musical Chair (maquette)
1988
bronze
40 x 32 x 26 cm
exhibition venue:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas, 1990
The Chair Series
1986-1991
The Tower of Impeccable Notes is a direct extension and development of the Chair Series, and more specifically the Musical Chair (1988-1989). This began by investigating the chair as a sculptural motif in 1986, starting with Sitting Chair (scroll to bottom), appropriately described as…”someone both present and absent is sitting here in an armchair both absent and present.”* This process included innuendos of historical examples, exploring the “animalness”, and thereby also the “humanness” of four-legged objects, in turn becoming even more animated, and a series of sculptures - linear drawings in 3D space - began to emerge.
In one of the early maquettes, Musical Chair (1988), a celebration of music and dancing, the chair seeks to free itself, wanting to float upwards. A year later, having started enlarging some of the most appealing chair models, a simple but unique means of construction was developed, which took on its own significance, issuing a power and intensity in the more complex dialog between the structures: the part holding/supporting, and the part being held, the intended sculpture. Although these first larger works were finished as intended, I returned to this more complex imagery, being intrigued on the one hand by the introduction of architectural gestures into the chairs with their many associations and possibilities. And on the other, as the constructions became more complicated due to the overlapping layers and visual vibrations inherent to these 3D drawings - the front layer rubbing against the background layer as the viewer changes position - these developments eventually lead to a concept for a tower, and ultimately the realisation of the Tower of Impeccable Notes.
* Daniel Milhaud, “Forward”, David Smithson - New Work (exhibition catalog, 1990), pg. 2.
image 1:
bronze
175 x 120 x 114 cm
images 2-5:
bronze
175 x 120 x 114 cm
Fonderia Mariani, Pietrasanta
images 6-10:
wax, brass wire, bamboo
175 x 120 x 114 cm
artist's studio, Pietrasanta
exhibition venue:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas, 1990
Musical Chair
1989
As the chairs continued looking for ways to animate and free themselves, they suggest participating in a musical celebration of their own making; playing, listening, dancing. Even though its title alludes to the children’s game we all played at one point or another, however cruel it might seem in retrospect, the maquette for Musical Chair (1988), including the enlarged version, are about something else. The idea that there is always a loser until there is only one winner left fits perfectly into the dogma of any capitalistic society - basic training for elitists - so what could be more perfect than this to teach our kids about the trials and tribulations coming their way. Having said this, my musical chairs are more concerned with what happens before the music ends, the uplifting act of making and listening to music, of dancing, and how it might even free a chair from its static function, the sculpture from its bondage, humans from their fate, ourselves from ourselves, or even better, the human in us from the elitist.
Developing the enlarged version of the Musical Chair (1989), with its inherent architectural process, I became fascinated and inspired by the dynamic between the rational/structural and the organic/poetic elements of the constructions. Where does an element need support before it comes crashing down? What is music without a rhythmic basis? The original ideas were to be finished as planned. These new structurally complex notions would be explored in separate works related to the evolution of the Tower of Impeccable Notes, like Model #2, Catapulta Umana and Kabeau Jalou.
image 1:
bronze
106 x 122 x 95 cm
images 2-3:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas
Big Chariot
1989
Another of the larger sculptures derived from the earlier Sitting Chair, realised first in the model Chariot (1988) appears almost as a phantom, a hybridization of a chariot, horse and driver/rider combined into one, possibly with the hint of a rickshaw. This apparition tells a short history of human mobility and coping, a ghost of centuries gone by, before industrialisation really kicked in and seemingly blew the game wide open. The resulting composition portrays some mythic figure, a nostalgic presence thrust into the throb of contemporary life, looking for a sense to it all, teetering on the verge of commentary, or confession.
image 1, 5:
bronze
163 x 85 x 71 cm
images 2-4:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas
La Piazza
1989
Having decided that the small maquette, The Silent Street (1988) would be the first chair to be realised life-size, I began resolving the structural problems of modelling larger works directly in wax. The goal was to be able to cast them directly in bronze, saving several stages in the casting process, thereby creating a fast-track to one-of-a-kind artworks.
The chair’s demeanour, its contemplative aspect - deliberating about whether to sit on the sidelines watching the game, or if not, where, when and how to get involved - informs this artwork. Sitting in a piazza, watching the world go by, feeling the power and hope of endless possibilities, La Piazza became the obvious title for this sculpture.
polychromed bronze
46 x 33 x 27 cm
exhibition venue:
Phoebus, Rotterdam, 1993
New World Order
1991
What started out to be Pro-creation III - as with Pro-creation I & II, blatant parodies of creation theory thinking in the form of copulating chairs - a divergence took place when I decided to start painting the bronzes instead of finishing them with a dark patina. There was something duly kinky and subversive about painting such a “noble” material like bronze with a “cheap”, “fake” silver color made out of aluminum. Playfully painted rings of colour suggest socks, wrist and ankle bracelets, garters, etc., enhanced by painted toenails, or in this case hoofs.
Created in the spring of 1991, during the height of the Gulf War, this finished work ultimately refers to, and comments on one of the most memorable proclamations coming from then President George Bush, Sr.: his reference to the “new world order” being ushered in by the US led coalition.
Whether the artwork in the end refers to this elevated slogan, or rather to the “highness” of fine art, to simply say, what a farce, is not quite clear.
polychromed steel and bronze
41 x 28 x 16 cm
exhibition venue:
Phoebus, Rotterdam, 1993
Kabeau Jalou
1991
Initially building a life-size sculpture from wooden log sections and forged steel inter-connectors, I became dissatisfied with the result and decided to work out some of the issues in a small model. Beginning with a forged and welded steel armature, I then modelled wax onto the areas which were originally in wood, and cast these parts in bronze directly onto the armature. When painting the maquette, the notion of hiding the bronze under a layer of cheap silver aluminum paint appealed in a way I could not resist.
As this “Pan-figure” of the forest emerged, somehow taking on a kind of James Bondish flair, and needing to humour myself through to the end, I invented a new language for the title, not quite English, Latin or Italian, which loosely translated means jealous cowboy. Whether this was an allusion to Pan reflecting on the world at large, or James Bond reflecting on himself, I did not feel a need to clarify further.
image 1:
wax, brass wire, bamboo
54 x 42 x 20 cm
images 2-4:
polychromed bronze
54 x 42 x 20 cm
exhibition venue:
Phoebus, Rotterdam, 1993
Catapulta Umana
1991
Created during the tower development, this maquette began with both chair and tower elements taking a more architectural approach, with figurative insinuations added in the form of arms and legs. This became my earliest work specifically portraying issues of social justice, precisely questioning the value of a human life, and how quickly and easily they seem to be thrown away.
Again, as with Model #2, the cast bronze was intended to be painted to look like the original materials, modelling wax and bamboo, with one exception: the matt red priming paint used as an undercoat was left unpainted on all the wax parts, both figurative elements and connecting welds. This color suggested the red phosphorous used on many matchheads, with its inherent associations: latent power, danger, fire, etc., or simply precariousness and vulnerability. Stumbling onto these little double-headed bamboo matches in this way, I would return to and amplify this theme a year later with Minimalist Vacation.
bronze
40 x 21 x 17 cm
exhibition venue:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas, 1990
The Silent Street
1988
Whereas Sitting Chair (1986) had the relaxed and ready demeanour of an extrovert, when I picked up the thread again in 1988, the next chair composition emerged more introverted, legs crossed, wrists resting on the bat/stick, the ball displaced to the background, a more contemplative yet alert presence came into focus. Returning from my studio late at night, I would be greeted by a streetlight in front of my apartment. Seeing this conical glow cast into the dead silence, I tried to capture this meditative presence by giving the chair a white patina - as though sitting in the spotlight on an empty stage - which led to the title, The Silent Street.
bronze
39 x 19 x 16 cm
exhibition venue:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas, 1990
Sitting Chair
1986
While sitting in a sidewalk cafe in Pietrasanta, gazing at an empty chair several tables removed, letting my thoughts wander, I felt the presence of a person, maybe the last person who had been sitting in that chair. I envisioned the person with one leg extended forward, one arm draped on the arm of the chair, the other arm resting on their leg, hand on knee. Later, I played with this apparition in my studio, modelling casting wax directly onto a thin brass wire armature, the person and the chair fused into one animated image, suggesting presence, intention and motion, but still frozen by its sculptural essence, its static “sculpturalness.”
This maquette, capturing the moment a chair took a first step - subsequently cast directly into bronze - became the inspiration and point of departure for the entire Chair Series, culminating in the Tower of Impeccable Notes in 1991.
image 1:
Hubbly (One, Two) Bubbly
Big Chariot
artist's studio, Pietrasanta
image 2:
Hubbly Bubbly & Morning Thunder
1988
brass wire, silver solder
58 x 55 x 22 cm
image 3:
Hubbly (One, Two) Bubbly
1990
welded steel
280 x 254 x 91 cm
image 4-5:
Poppycock
1988
brass wire, silver solder
45 x 37 x 36 cm
exhibition venue:
Trammell Crow Center, Dallas, 1990
The Heads...
1988-1990
Exploring parallel interests in heads and portraits, I applied this new fascination with filigree linear sculptures to several head drawings as well, which resulted in Hubbly Bubbly & Morning Thunder (1988), the model for Hubbly (One, Two) Bubbly (1990), and Poppycock (1988). Constructed from brass wire and silver solder in the model formats, and welded steel in an enlarged format, the beauty of these spatial drawings was having found a form of expression to portray two people, one inside the other, where it is impossible to tell who is inside of who.