To the light

Abstract

Wood is a warm, natural material that has a long history as a structural support in the construction of buildings and this role is deeply embedded in our minds. Left bare with minimal sealants, its grains reveal the course of the growth it took while still in an organic state. These qualities remind us of the living presence contained within certain inanimate objects. The scale of construction is miniature, revealing the numerous conscious decisions that went into building the passageways, levels, and thresholds that respond to each other as they define the spaces of the sculpture. The sculpture is intentionally taller than the human body so that we are physically overwhelmed and humbled by it. The constructed form also expresses the humbling qualities of gravity and time. The sculpture's appearance, as tenuous and struggling for uprightness, expresses the vulnerability all forms experience under the pressures of gravity and time. We relate to how our bodies feel physical vulnerability to these and other forces at work in the material world.