A Timeless Space
Sitka Spruce, 6 ½ x 20 x 8’
1st British International Wood Sculpture Symposium, 2002
Blair Atholl Castle,Scotland
A PERSONAL REFLECTION
The sculpture is a wood dolmen or cairn-like structure in an open ‘u’ plan with orientation and siting of the piece to consider the seasonal sunrise and sunset. It has three irregular trapezoid-shaped (wider sides down) sides angling inward giving a sense of weight and timelessness.
A dialogue developed between the Scottish landscape and the sculpture during construction on the site: it became something “about” and “within” the landscape. Much of the influence for the installation comes directly from my travel in northernScotland, the Orkneys and Callinish, Isle of Lewis, and with recent experiences of Japanese Zen gardens inKyoto and the pueblos of southwesternAmerica inNew Mexico. This is quite an assortment of cultures, but they all seem to resonate within me in their structure, massiveness, presence, and sense of place and ‘connection to the ground’.
Sunrise and sunset at the Winter Solstice were determined. Siting the central element directly to the south, the left plane is directed toward the Solstice sunrise and the right plane to the Solstice sunset (which is particularly early as the sun sets into a mountain side). The work symbolically and allegorically embraces and captures the sun for the shortest of winter days.
The unfinished materials, feathery edges, rough textured planes enhance the sense of naturalness and the sense of belonging to the landscape.
The piece developed into a shelter, a house, a place of protection. It became a carving of space rather than carving of object.
The angles of the ends of the ‘u’ planes seem to create a precariousness of balance but in so doing create a visual tension and mystery. The layering and interlocking corners of the wood 2×12″ timbers forms create an inherently, integral stable structure.
27 September 2002