January 1973. Welded steel. Dimensions: 12 × 84 × 52 in (30 × 213 × 132 cm). Destroyed.
Above and Below was created in 1973 while I was an undergraduate at Kent State University, in response to an assignment exploring line as an expressive element in sculpture. Constructed from welded steel, the work uses strong linear forms that appear to enter and emerge from the ground, visually penetrating the floor plane and suggesting that portions of the sculpture continue unseen beneath the surface.
Looking back, I see the work as an early indication of my interest in where sculpture begins and ends and how its surroundings influence what we perceive as art. By implying that the sculpture continues beyond the visible space, Above and Below begins to question the physical boundaries that contain an artwork. This concern would become more explicit several years later in my Gallery Drawing and Easel Landscape series, where I explored the gallery—and the frame—as devices that define and, in a sense, sanction what lies within them as art.
January 1973. Welded steel. Dimensions: 12 × 84 × 52 in (30 × 213 × 132 cm). Destroyed.
Above and Below was created in 1973 while I was an undergraduate at Kent State University, in response to an assignment exploring line as an expressive element in sculpture. Constructed from welded steel, the work uses strong linear forms that appear to enter and emerge from the ground, visually penetrating the floor plane and suggesting that portions of the sculpture continue unseen beneath the surface.
Looking back, I see the work as an early indication of my interest in where sculpture begins and ends and how its surroundings influence what we perceive as art. By implying that the sculpture continues beyond the visible space, Above and Below begins to question the physical boundaries that contain an artwork. This concern would become more explicit several years later in my Gallery Drawing and Easel Landscape series, where I explored the gallery—and the frame—as devices that define and, in a sense, sanction what lies within them as art.
