1985. Painted granite, painted steel. Dimensions: 3 × 5 × 2 ft. (destroyed)
It Takes a Year marks the very beginning of my interest in celestial ideas and the relationship between sculpture, the sun, and the passage of time. The large circular steel form suggests the sun or a celestial cycle, while the granite and steel create a landscape-like arrangement governed by weight, balance, and implied movement. At this stage, however, the work is a representation of these ideas rather than a functioning astronomical instrument.
That distinction became important the following year with my large-scale public commission Solstice Calendar at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. There I moved from suggesting celestial cycles to creating a sculpture that actually uses sunlight and shadow to mark the solstices, equinoxes, and annual passage of the sun. It Takes a Year can therefore be seen as an early conceptual step toward the Celestial Works that became a major focus of my public sculpture beginning in 1986.
1985. Painted granite, painted steel. Dimensions: 3 × 5 × 2 ft. (destroyed)
It Takes a Year marks the very beginning of my interest in celestial ideas and the relationship between sculpture, the sun, and the passage of time. The large circular steel form suggests the sun or a celestial cycle, while the granite and steel create a landscape-like arrangement governed by weight, balance, and implied movement. At this stage, however, the work is a representation of these ideas rather than a functioning astronomical instrument.
That distinction became important the following year with my large-scale public commission Solstice Calendar at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. There I moved from suggesting celestial cycles to creating a sculpture that actually uses sunlight and shadow to mark the solstices, equinoxes, and annual passage of the sun. It Takes a Year can therefore be seen as an early conceptual step toward the Celestial Works that became a major focus of my public sculpture beginning in 1986.
