February 1988. polychromed granite and steel, 85 × 22 × 27 in (216 × 56 × 69 cm). Private collection.
On the Edge II (Artist’s Passage) follows On the Edge I and continues my exploration of the vessel as a metaphor for passage—a form historically understood in art and literature as a carrier or container for the self, a group, or even humankind. Here, a fabricated steel vessel appears to cascade precariously from the top of a tall, thin wedge of stone, itself balanced on a solid steel, ringed, planet-like “wrecking ball.” The deliberately unstable arrangement creates a sense of movement, risk, and imminent passage, as though the entire sculpture has been caught at the critical instant between balance and collapse.
The work is also autobiographical, reflecting what I thought of at the time as the “artist’s plight.” I had recently stepped away from the security of a university professorship and felt myself teetering on a professional and financial precipice. The precarious vessel therefore became a metaphor for my own passage into an uncertain future, while also addressing the broader experience of the artist—continually taking risks, making choices, and moving forward without knowing exactly where they will lead. The sculpture extends the ideas introduced in On the Edge I and anticipates my later Portals and Passages works, in which the vessel increasingly embodies the energy and determination required to move from the known toward the unknown.
February 1988. polychromed granite and steel, 85 × 22 × 27 in (216 × 56 × 69 cm). Private collection.
On the Edge II (Artist’s Passage) follows On the Edge I and continues my exploration of the vessel as a metaphor for passage—a form historically understood in art and literature as a carrier or container for the self, a group, or even humankind. Here, a fabricated steel vessel appears to cascade precariously from the top of a tall, thin wedge of stone, itself balanced on a solid steel, ringed, planet-like “wrecking ball.” The deliberately unstable arrangement creates a sense of movement, risk, and imminent passage, as though the entire sculpture has been caught at the critical instant between balance and collapse.
The work is also autobiographical, reflecting what I thought of at the time as the “artist’s plight.” I had recently stepped away from the security of a university professorship and felt myself teetering on a professional and financial precipice. The precarious vessel therefore became a metaphor for my own passage into an uncertain future, while also addressing the broader experience of the artist—continually taking risks, making choices, and moving forward without knowing exactly where they will lead. The sculpture extends the ideas introduced in On the Edge I and anticipates my later Portals and Passages works, in which the vessel increasingly embodies the energy and determination required to move from the known toward the unknown.
