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My work involves reclamation and transformation. In late the 1990s I found myself compelled to collect jettisoned tire remnants and detritus found accumulating on urban and suburban highways. The crow, a supreme scavenger, figures prominently in this environ and subsequently in my work, simultaneously as a symbol of renewal and of fate. The crow’s ability to find sustenance in decay provides a cyclical metaphor my work revolves around. Early on, I fashioned small scale sculptures and assemblages featuring crow forms made from strips of tire evoking eeriness found in Southern narratives. As the work has evolved it has become more environmental in its concerns and its manifestation. In my process; reclamation and transformation of highway detritus serve as symbolic, redemptive gestures. Working primarily with reclaimed tire, welded steel, wire and reclaimed concrete fragments my sculptures and installations in recent years have assumed the form of whirling funnel clouds and wall like expanses of strata attended by crows; migrating groups of dome like forms suggesting turtle shells hovering slightly off walls or above floors and profusions of decaying sunflowers cascading from a dubious horn of plenty. All suggest the returning of the industrial materials to nature and imply a larger question; can art provide an impetus for creative action and collective responsibility to buffer the impact of environmental storms brewing? |
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