Sculpture #1: Medallion
Sculpture #2: Medallion 2
Sculpture #3: Spread
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Drape
The focus of much of my work has been an investigation of weight
and weightlessness, primarily in relation to stone. I use this
contradictory interplay to challenge one's perceptions of stone
as a fixed material. The suggested un-grounded ness establishes
a subtle tension or anxiety with the floor/ground, while maintaining
an inherently quiet appearance.
Over the past several years, I have been working with elements
of architectural facade salvaged from buildings slated for demolition
in Toronto. My interest in working with physical fragments of architectural
facade lies in the cultural significance that these remnants still
carry when displaced. The exterior surfacing still maintains the
authority of its functional origin, not having been reduced to
mere material.
Their physical presence when isolated and placed at ground level,
within a human scale, also establishes a bodily relationship that
is immediately confrontational. While the structure from which
it came has been dismantled, the sheer weight of the decorated,
cultured material challenges one's own physicality. The facade
may also be seen as a separation between the subjective and the
objective experience, for while we may observe a facade we experience
and assume the authority of its contents.
In some of this work, monumental column pieces removed from the
former Toronto Postal Delivery Building have been worked horizontally,
so as to displace them from their monolithic origins, challenging
their former institutional authority. These seemingly fallen idols
have been notched and interlaced to make mechanical connections
that are suggestive of the possibility for movement, though they
also restrain.
In more recent work, drapery has been carved onto the inside surface
of architectural facade stone. This surface was originally the
unseen interior, a layer of surface that was sandwiched between
the exterior and the inner structure of the building. It was an
ambiguous space that was neither facade nor structure. I am interested
in working with this indefinable layer that is both physically
and perceptually shaped by the interior and exterior simultaneously.
In preparation for this work, drapery has been laid on the ground
and photographed from above. The imagery has then been transposed
and carved onto the stone surface that stands upright. The result
is that the drapery does not respond gravitationally to this new
placement, but maintains the characteristics of a projected image.
In contrast to classical drapery, carving that depicts underlying
form, the fabric has weight in a static, horizontal direction,
sticking to the stone and hovering ambiguously as one attempts
to find a logic that fits this situation.
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