May 1979. Colorado flagstone, steel. Dimensions: 11 × 50 × 128 in (28 × 127 × 325 cm).
The Ballast Series is part of my tensegrity, or Brute Series, in which gravity and the pressure of the stones provide the energy—or “glue”—that holds the sculpture together without welding. The title refers to ballast—the weight placed low in a vessel to provide balance and stability. Here, the mass of the stone serves a similar function: its gravitational force is transmitted through the forged-steel bars, creating an interdependent structure in which weight and counterweight become active stabilizing forces.
Rather than carving the stone or using it to represent something else, I allow its inherent form, mass, and weight—and the structural behavior of the steel—to become the subject of the sculpture. Gravitational forces are channeled and made visible through the interlocking forged-steel bars, creating a static energy event—a sculpture held in arrested motion. In this sense, the Ballast Series is deliberately self-referential—sculpture about sculpture, assemblage about assemblage—while exploring a recurring concern in my work: how opposing forces—weight and lift, mass and movement, tension and stability—can be brought into expressive balance.
May 1979. Colorado flagstone, steel. Dimensions: 11 × 50 × 128 in (28 × 127 × 325 cm).
The Ballast Series is part of my tensegrity, or Brute Series, in which gravity and the pressure of the stones provide the energy—or “glue”—that holds the sculpture together without welding. The title refers to ballast—the weight placed low in a vessel to provide balance and stability. Here, the mass of the stone serves a similar function: its gravitational force is transmitted through the forged-steel bars, creating an interdependent structure in which weight and counterweight become active stabilizing forces.
Rather than carving the stone or using it to represent something else, I allow its inherent form, mass, and weight—and the structural behavior of the steel—to become the subject of the sculpture. Gravitational forces are channeled and made visible through the interlocking forged-steel bars, creating a static energy event—a sculpture held in arrested motion. In this sense, the Ballast Series is deliberately self-referential—sculpture about sculpture, assemblage about assemblage—while exploring a recurring concern in my work: how opposing forces—weight and lift, mass and movement, tension and stability—can be brought into expressive balance.
