Gold Corner
1969
16' x 6' x 6' Steel, gold, and resins.
Elephants in the wild are a natural wonder, a classic image of power wandering freely. Here, we construct huge cages to imprison them. Heavy steel bars purposefully curve inward along their tops to make doubly sure of their confinement. As artifacts of our time these cages are emblematic of certain disturbingly ubiquitous proclivities to capture and confine. They stand as icons of embattlement.
This "Gold Corner" started with the image of those elephant cages. Hiding the upper section of one such cage in urethane foam I encased the steel within using it as the infrastructure for an architectural fragment; a corner of a structure of indeterminate size having two-foot thick walls and a radiused interior fiberglass skin vacuum-plated with pure gold. I wanted the referenced structure to be grand, and to allude to the secure sedating atmosphere of an ancient cathedral, temple or mosque. Its apparent massiveness asserts the weight of authority, riches and power while its cloud-like urethane mass simultaneously denies it. Beneath the fragment, the cage extends formally down to the ground as a formidable array of black steel bars emphatically establishing that demarcation between that which is within and that which is outside. Along the foamed edges at the top of the structure, six steel cage ends protrude cannon-like in two directions. From the rear the exterior of the mass remains pillbox simple, free-foamed and rough-cut.
A less visible aspect of this piece is that it is an assembled structure consisting of many fitted, numbered, and coded parts. The steel cage itself is assembled with many sections of steel tubing pins and setscrews, while the mass consists of only four foamed-in-place elements plus the inner skin. The four outer sections of the fragment, interlock with each other and attach to the back of the interior skin, each at four points on each side, visible on the outside and on the top. The gold skin acts as the key locking all parts together and on to the steel cage. From this perspective it resembles many of our favorite objects, from music boxes to cars, trucks and on. I think of this factor as anchoring it to the here and to the everyday, acting in counterpoint to its other more distant reachings.
This "Gold Corner" started with the image of those elephant cages. Hiding the upper section of one such cage in urethane foam I encased the steel within using it as the infrastructure for an architectural fragment; a corner of a structure of indeterminate size having two-foot thick walls and a radiused interior fiberglass skin vacuum-plated with pure gold. I wanted the referenced structure to be grand, and to allude to the secure sedating atmosphere of an ancient cathedral, temple or mosque. Its apparent massiveness asserts the weight of authority, riches and power while its cloud-like urethane mass simultaneously denies it. Beneath the fragment, the cage extends formally down to the ground as a formidable array of black steel bars emphatically establishing that demarcation between that which is within and that which is outside. Along the foamed edges at the top of the structure, six steel cage ends protrude cannon-like in two directions. From the rear the exterior of the mass remains pillbox simple, free-foamed and rough-cut.
A less visible aspect of this piece is that it is an assembled structure consisting of many fitted, numbered, and coded parts. The steel cage itself is assembled with many sections of steel tubing pins and setscrews, while the mass consists of only four foamed-in-place elements plus the inner skin. The four outer sections of the fragment, interlock with each other and attach to the back of the interior skin, each at four points on each side, visible on the outside and on the top. The gold skin acts as the key locking all parts together and on to the steel cage. From this perspective it resembles many of our favorite objects, from music boxes to cars, trucks and on. I think of this factor as anchoring it to the here and to the everyday, acting in counterpoint to its other more distant reachings.