I was going through my digital files and was reminded of this piece that I made for a show at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Crafts. The exhibition was entitled “Visions from Voices” which featured visual art inspired by Kentucky writers and musicians. In other words, art inspired by other art. I had just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver’s great novel, “The Poisonwood Bible” and the idea for this piece came to me.
Much of my Falls project, occurs on-site, however, I do remove a lot of rubbish and haul it home where I make things in my basement. Once in awhile, I do find an object that is so complete by itself, that it requires the right moment to activate any additional meanings. Such was the case with the Styrofoam piece that had the word “Bible” embossed onto it. I came across this at the river years ago and wondered what I could do with this that would be interesting and do justice to it. I can only guess what this was originally a part of…perhaps some funerary decoration or maybe it was the cover of some inexpensive, cloth covered book? Anyway, I saved it hoping a good opportunity would present itself.
The Kingsolver novel came at the right time in more ways than one. If you are unfamiliar with the story (and by all means..read this book) it is set in the former Belgian Congo in the early 1960’s on the cusp of their independence. An evangelical Christian family moves to a remote village and sets up a mission. The minister-father of the family tries his best to “civilize” the local people and of course all kinds of misunderstandings occur. The minister can’t understand why he can’t get the people into the river for their full immersion baptism and the locals can’t understand why he is trying to kill them. Afterall, the river is full of man-eating crocodiles! It’s the classic clash of cultures. Although Kingsolver’s novel pre-dates the current Iraq War, our campaign there always smacked to me as an example of “evangelical democracy”… just because we believe this is right doesn’t mean it will be accepted, especially if we don’t respect the traditions that are already in place. This is one of the lessons in history that doesn’t seem to get learned.
I don’t have many shots of this piece, but here is one while it was on exhibit. It was purchased by a local artist/collector and now has a good home. Roughly, the piece was about six feet long and made mostly of Styrofoam, plastic, and driftwood. I did use a few reflectors, a couple of lathe-turned spindles, one of the eyes is rubber…the other is a buckeye. All the material elements traveled down the Ohio River (a baptism of their own) and washed up at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.
A beautiful spring day and a perfect time to sit by the river. The greening trees are alive with the fresh colors of migratory birds. Somewhere off in the distance is a sound or more accurately a vibration that piques your interest. Since the hearing is going you need something to focus the sound.
… diesel engines crossing over the bridge………. Alright, so it won’t win any literary prizes, but it was fun to do. The train picture is recent, but the figure is long gone…was it last year or the one before that? I think I need something to focus my memory too. This figure, as usual, is made from various found elements…polystyrene foam, driftwood, and plastic. The nose I remember was the handle of a broken paint brush. One of the eyes is a fishing bobber and the other…who knows? I thought the found bottle of sports drink added a nice color note. This piece was up for awhile, before it was carried away by a flood.
From a previous post…you know I’m into birds and since this is migration season, I’m at the Falls of the Ohio as often as I can get a few hours to get away. I do keep a list of what I see in this park based on their official checklist that includes 268 recorded species. I’m almost half way there! I suppose I would have to live at the park year round to not miss any opportunities as long as the birds were willing to cooperate. The birds, however, have their own time-honored agendas and I try to be present in their moments. This season is shaping up to be a late one and I haven’t seen nearly the number of species I saw last year, but there is still time. The last two days have brought some surprises which I was able to get a few snapshots to share with you. Here are two new species for me at the Falls of the Ohio State Park.
I come across and photograph enough of these gasoline containers that they form a subcategory of objects that I pay attention to. Gasoline is such a sign of the times that it seems particularly relevant. Where do these containers come from? I have never found one that still had gas in it. Because plastic is made from petroleum, as is gasoline, does putting gas into these containers become a redundant act?
Here’s a project from this April that shows some variation from my usual working process. I started this dog sculpture, but wasn’t completely happy with it. I did cut into the dog’s styrobody to inset the foam pieces that make up part of its legs. I also started with small fishing bobber eyes, but later changed them to hickory nuts.
Artist at Exit 0 Riverblog 