April 2020. Bronze, pigmented and sealed steel. Dimensions: 8 × 10 × 4 in (20 × 25 × 10 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
April 2020. Bronze, pigmented and sealed steel. Dimensions: 8 × 10 × 4 in (20 × 25 × 10 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
