November 1976. Pink granite, steel. Dimensions: 72 × 56 × 56 in (183 × 142 × 142 cm). destroyed.
Laramie Stone Totem was the first sculpture I made after moving to Laramie, Wyoming. The pink granite, transported with me from Ithaca, provided a physical and conceptual link to the tensegrity, or Brute Series, I had begun there. Gravity and the downward pressure of the stone provide the energy—or “glue”—that holds the sculpture together without welding. Weight becomes an active structural force as stone and steel interact through tension, compression, and balance.
The work also marks the beginning of my Totem Series. Its strong vertical stone element was a creative response to the natural stone towers and dramatic geological formations I encountered for the first time in the western landscape. The gravitational energy of the stone is channeled and made visible through the interlocking forged-steel bars, creating a static energy event—a sculpture held in arrested motion, with the weight of the stone generating the forces that clamp it firmly in place.
November 1976. Pink granite, steel. Dimensions: 72 × 56 × 56 in (183 × 142 × 142 cm). destroyed.
Laramie Stone Totem was the first sculpture I made after moving to Laramie, Wyoming. The pink granite, transported with me from Ithaca, provided a physical and conceptual link to the tensegrity, or Brute Series, I had begun there. Gravity and the downward pressure of the stone provide the energy—or “glue”—that holds the sculpture together without welding. Weight becomes an active structural force as stone and steel interact through tension, compression, and balance.
The work also marks the beginning of my Totem Series. Its strong vertical stone element was a creative response to the natural stone towers and dramatic geological formations I encountered for the first time in the western landscape. The gravitational energy of the stone is channeled and made visible through the interlocking forged-steel bars, creating a static energy event—a sculpture held in arrested motion, with the weight of the stone generating the forces that clamp it firmly in place.
