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January 1981. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 92 × 44 ×36 in.
Triad belongs to a transitional group of works in which I began lifting stone away from the floor onto tall, attenuated steel structures. Three pieces of found Vinalhaven granite are elevated on slender steel-rod supports, emphasizing the contrast between the weight and mass of the stone and the apparent fragility of the structure supporting it. Writing about my 1981 Osuna Gallery exhibition, critics recognized this shift from the more complex, interlocking structures of my earlier tensegrity work toward taller, more linear configurations while retaining the underlying concerns with gravity, balance, and the possibility of collapse. Jo Ann Lewis similarly described these works as tall, stilt-like structures in which weight and balance remained central.
Although Triad moves away from the tightly interlocked vocabulary of the Brute Series, it preserves its sense of real physical tension and precarious balance. The thin steel legs seem almost inadequate to the task of supporting the massive stones, making gravity—and the possibility of falling—an active part of the sculpture. At the same time, the elevation and simplified vertical structure give the work a more architectural and increasingly image-driven presence. In retrospect, Triad points toward the broader transition that would become explicit the following year in Tripod with Umbilical, when I began deliberately breaking away from work that was primarily structurally driven.
January 1981. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 92 × 44 ×36 in.
Triad belongs to a transitional group of works in which I began lifting stone away from the floor onto tall, attenuated steel structures. Three pieces of found Vinalhaven granite are elevated on slender steel-rod supports, emphasizing the contrast between the weight and mass of the stone and the apparent fragility of the structure supporting it. Writing about my 1981 Osuna Gallery exhibition, critics recognized this shift from the more complex, interlocking structures of my earlier tensegrity work toward taller, more linear configurations while retaining the underlying concerns with gravity, balance, and the possibility of collapse. Jo Ann Lewis similarly described these works as tall, stilt-like structures in which weight and balance remained central.
Although Triad moves away from the tightly interlocked vocabulary of the Brute Series, it preserves its sense of real physical tension and precarious balance. The thin steel legs seem almost inadequate to the task of supporting the massive stones, making gravity—and the possibility of falling—an active part of the sculpture. At the same time, the elevation and simplified vertical structure give the work a more architectural and increasingly image-driven presence. In retrospect, Triad points toward the broader transition that would become explicit the following year in Tripod with Umbilical, when I began deliberately breaking away from work that was primarily structurally driven.