From the start, I loved the location...
right in the middle of traffic, alone, without
any other context.
on a small island created by the
angular conjunction of two adjoining
street grids. The plot was in one of two
voids that resulted from splicing 4 street
approaches together with 5 intersections.
plenty of sidewalks and the entrance
to one of Atlanta’s signature hotels
provided pedestrian access... though
essentially, exposure to the work would
be vehicular; fleeting and, for many locals,
repetitive.
. . . . . . .
I wanted to make your awareness of
the piece from one direction radically
different than from any another.
I wanted moving around the sculpture to be
a continuous transition, revealing and
enigmatic, capable of surprise and
new observations, even over time.
. . . . . . .
The contradiction of the piece is basically
between observing the work as an object,
with shapes and surfaces that vary as you
move around it, and thinking about the
work as a subject, a figure, trailing all the
questions we consider because of that.
When you view the piece from certain
points, the figurative presence is enough
that you can overcome its cropping and
project the wholeness of the figure
into the space beyond the forms you can
actually see. That sensation brings a feeling
of symmetry and animation that really isn’t
present at all in the structure of the piece.
So, depending on where you are in the
space around the sculpture, the balance
between what’s in your head and what’s in
your vision varies and promotes different
assumptions and perspectives.
For example:
The natural sense of balance and
symmetry we project on the human
element is contradicted by the cantilevering
of the whole upper part of the sculpture
from a narrow, almond-
at the top of the left leg. Without the hidden
and constant structural strength at just that location, the whole upper portion of the piece would simply fall down...hardly the
impression the figure itself presents.
. . . . . . .
I framed my only narrative clue about
my position in the drama between the
sculptural and figurative forms by one
particular act:
...just where I sliced the figure’s head
away and what expression I gave to
the remaining portion of the face.
I thought that my cut would seem the
most dramatic if placed right at the tip
of the nose. But because that’s a pretty
brutal move, I was determined that nothing
in the facial expression reinforced an
implication of violence or negative intent.
The subject itself would clearly show no discomfort or even acknowledgement
of that act.
. . . . . . .
I left a hand print in the plaster to be
cast with the outside of the left leg. I
did it as an personal act of graffiti, to break
the narrative surface tension of the
whole piece but also, like my prehistoric
predecessors, just to mark my spirit
in place and time.
. . . . . . .
didn’t especially like the idea of placing
the piece on a pedestal, but I just had to
get it up above the traffic.