This is a preparatory "Drawing" for an installation that I am currently fabricating in my studio. The final piece will be made of approximately 15,000 feet of hand crocheted black rope. I am working with 1/4" polyester rope which I manipulate using an oversized hand made crochet hook. In mid May I'll take my work down to Bennington and over a few days we will wrap the column with my prefabricated sheath and then I'll stitch it up the back side.I will also complete the last few feet of crocheting on site as I expand the crocheted form to drape on the ground at the base of the column. All this with the help of some able assistants , a lift and a ladder.
One goal is to have an impact on the facade of the building, to undermine the established symmetry of the columns at the Museum entrance. I am interested in how a work of art can interface with it's architectural context and potentially transform or amplify the reading of structure. I am aware that I bring a traditionally "female" art form to the transformation of a neoclassical column , a column that interestingly blends both the male iconography of the Doric column with the female iconography of the Ionic. The netlike materiality of this piece may suggest the openwork of a fishnet stocking or a fishermans net while the choice of black material picks up on the ironwork throughout that courtyard and the facade. The gradient pattern , which darkens at the base of the work, emphasizes the heavy loads bearing down on the column from the Museum's roof and how these loads are transfered to the support of the ground plane/ foundation. This approach is inspired by an early warehouse design by the architects Herzog and de Meuron.
The opening is May 22, 2010 and coincides with the opening of the exhibit "The State of Craft". The installation will remain up until November 4, 2010.