November 2020. Bronze. Dimensions: 7.5 × 23 × 7 in (19 × 58 × 18 cm).
Over the years I have created many sculptures that feature openings or portals suggesting entrance or passages into spaces and places, both real and figurative. In the Portal and Passages 2020 Series a vessel form, historically understood as a metaphoric “container or carrier” of an individual, a group, or even society in its entirety, is typically careening through a portal or circular opening. In the context of 2020 it suggests a “passage” from a dark and politically stymied place into a new decade and a brighter more hopeful future.
In a more general sense, this passage suggests a moment of personal transition or breakthrough: moving beyond obstacles and from the known toward the unknown. The portal becomes both a barrier and an opening, while the vessel embodies the energy and determination required to pass through it toward discovery, transformation, and new possibilities.
John Van Alstine
November 2020. Bronze. Dimensions: 7.5 × 23 × 7 in (19 × 58 × 18 cm).
Over the years I have created many sculptures that feature openings or portals suggesting entrance or passages into spaces and places, both real and figurative. In the Portal and Passages 2020 Series a vessel form, historically understood as a metaphoric “container or carrier” of an individual, a group, or even society in its entirety, is typically careening through a portal or circular opening. In the context of 2020 it suggests a “passage” from a dark and politically stymied place into a new decade and a brighter more hopeful future.
In a more general sense, this passage suggests a moment of personal transition or breakthrough: moving beyond obstacles and from the known toward the unknown. The portal becomes both a barrier and an opening, while the vessel embodies the energy and determination required to pass through it toward discovery, transformation, and new possibilities.
John Van Alstine
