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January 1971. Carved cement. Dimensions: 27 × 16 × 12 in (69 × 41 × 30 cm).
The Soldier was created while I was an undergraduate at St. Lawrence University as an introduction to carving and the subtractive process. A block of cement was poured and, before it fully hardened, I carved directly into it. The resulting standing figure is reduced to an arrangement of geometric masses and voids—a soldier at attention, holding a weapon, with clenched fists and a conspicuous circular opening where the head or brain might be.
Created during the turbulence of the Vietnam War and widespread student protest, the sculpture was also an early, somewhat instinctive expression of my feelings about war and unquestioned authority. Looking back, the empty head suggests to me a soldier deprived of independent thought—or perhaps brainwashed into obedience. Although political commentary has never been the primary focus of my sculpture, The Soldier foreshadows my occasional use of art to respond to political and social concerns, something that would reappear decades later in works such as the Pyxis Awry Series, addressing a society or humanity adrift and off course, with personal, political, and environmental consequences.
January 1971. Carved cement. Dimensions: 27 × 16 × 12 in (69 × 41 × 30 cm).
The Soldier was created while I was an undergraduate at St. Lawrence University as an introduction to carving and the subtractive process. A block of cement was poured and, before it fully hardened, I carved directly into it. The resulting standing figure is reduced to an arrangement of geometric masses and voids—a soldier at attention, holding a weapon, with clenched fists and a conspicuous circular opening where the head or brain might be.
Created during the turbulence of the Vietnam War and widespread student protest, the sculpture was also an early, somewhat instinctive expression of my feelings about war and unquestioned authority. Looking back, the empty head suggests to me a soldier deprived of independent thought—or perhaps brainwashed into obedience. Although political commentary has never been the primary focus of my sculpture, The Soldier foreshadows my occasional use of art to respond to political and social concerns, something that would reappear decades later in works such as the Pyxis Awry Series, addressing a society or humanity adrift and off course, with personal, political, and environmental consequences.