Memoriam
1980
36´x 12´x 2´, Concrete, steel re-bar, blue stone gravel, and ice.
Installed in the center of a large grassy mall at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York during an invitational show. The piece is oriented east/west as is the lot, while the ground under it slopes toward the west dropping approximately one foot in the 36´ length.
We built a plywood screeding form around the perimeter the top of which was kept level throughout and filled the form with 300-pound cakes of ice, cutting them as necessary so as to leave approximately four inches above the ice surface to the top edge of the form. We then placed a thin layer of gravel over the ice providing separation and support for 4´ x 4´ pre-tied grids of re-bar which were placed on it in a discontinuous pattern of reinforcements before the concrete was poured. A sand-mix concrete was screeded level through the patches of re-bar and into the gravel. The following day the screeding form was removed and the piece was allowed to enjoy the sun curing and adjusting its form as the ice slowly melted during the following few weeks. As the ice, its foundation, disappeared the concrete slab gave way cracking in a pattern reflecting the discontinuity of the reinforced sections, recalling common sidewalk fracturing. As weeks passed it continued to reshape, ultimately settling into a comfortable image of urban ruin then commonly occupied by students, sprawling on it eating al fresco.
In this piece some of the changes were predictable and thereby design, while others were there as invited by chance.
Initially as seen from above, from Pratt's main building, it resembled a large burial site. With the passage of time as it matured and grasses grew around it, it settled in as a comfortable ruin familiar in Brooklyn.
We built a plywood screeding form around the perimeter the top of which was kept level throughout and filled the form with 300-pound cakes of ice, cutting them as necessary so as to leave approximately four inches above the ice surface to the top edge of the form. We then placed a thin layer of gravel over the ice providing separation and support for 4´ x 4´ pre-tied grids of re-bar which were placed on it in a discontinuous pattern of reinforcements before the concrete was poured. A sand-mix concrete was screeded level through the patches of re-bar and into the gravel. The following day the screeding form was removed and the piece was allowed to enjoy the sun curing and adjusting its form as the ice slowly melted during the following few weeks. As the ice, its foundation, disappeared the concrete slab gave way cracking in a pattern reflecting the discontinuity of the reinforced sections, recalling common sidewalk fracturing. As weeks passed it continued to reshape, ultimately settling into a comfortable image of urban ruin then commonly occupied by students, sprawling on it eating al fresco.
In this piece some of the changes were predictable and thereby design, while others were there as invited by chance.
Initially as seen from above, from Pratt's main building, it resembled a large burial site. With the passage of time as it matured and grasses grew around it, it settled in as a comfortable ruin familiar in Brooklyn.