April 1978. Granite, forged steel. Dimensions: 56 × 180 × 18 in (142 × 457 × 46 cm). Destroyed.
Keystone is a transitional work combining the real force energies of my tensegrity, or Brute Series, with the more linear and graphic elements that developed in my Gallery Drawing Series. As in the earlier tensegrity works, gravity is not merely suggested but becomes an active structural force: the weight and pressure of the stone act upon the steel bars, locking the separate elements into a precarious but stable equilibrium. The extended steel rods also function as lines in space, giving the sculpture a strong graphic quality and suggesting a three-dimensional drawing.
The title refers to the keystone of an architectural arch—the central element that completes and locks the structure into a system of compression. In the sculpture, the stone assumes a similar physical and metaphorical role: it becomes the point around which forces are gathered, redirected, and held in balance. Remove or significantly reposition a critical element and the structure collapses. In this way, Keystone makes gravity, pressure, leverage, and balance visible, creating a static energy event—a sculpture held in arrested motion while marking a transition from the physically interdependent structures of the tensegrity works toward the more open, linear language of the Gallery Drawing Series.
April 1978. Granite, forged steel. Dimensions: 56 × 180 × 18 in (142 × 457 × 46 cm). Destroyed.
Keystone is a transitional work combining the real force energies of my tensegrity, or Brute Series, with the more linear and graphic elements that developed in my Gallery Drawing Series. As in the earlier tensegrity works, gravity is not merely suggested but becomes an active structural force: the weight and pressure of the stone act upon the steel bars, locking the separate elements into a precarious but stable equilibrium. The extended steel rods also function as lines in space, giving the sculpture a strong graphic quality and suggesting a three-dimensional drawing.
The title refers to the keystone of an architectural arch—the central element that completes and locks the structure into a system of compression. In the sculpture, the stone assumes a similar physical and metaphorical role: it becomes the point around which forces are gathered, redirected, and held in balance. Remove or significantly reposition a critical element and the structure collapses. In this way, Keystone makes gravity, pressure, leverage, and balance visible, creating a static energy event—a sculpture held in arrested motion while marking a transition from the physically interdependent structures of the tensegrity works toward the more open, linear language of the Gallery Drawing Series.
