| |
 |
| Crossing Paths: Installation, 2001. St. John the Divine Cathedral. Cloth tape, vinyl type. Approximately 20' in diameter. |
| |
 |
| Crossing Paths: Installation Details, 2001. |
| BUILDING, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA |
| Made of porcelain, a ceramic material with a rich history, Building results from the complex processes of three different techniques: mold-making and casting; painting; and assembly. It is significant that the marking is thus joined with the very substance of the cast objects -the surface is the form. Creating a very visible spectrum from light to dark, this unusual process embodies the cyclical quality of life, an important principle in Buddhist thought. The gray scale of Building is also an urban reference, evoking the colors of New York Buildings and making a reference to newsprint, one of the most prevalent sources of news and information. These details provide the viewer enough information to imagine how the structures were made; they contribute to the vibrant tension behind the work's impact and meanings.- Elizabeth Brown, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions & Collections, Henry Art Gallery of the University of Washington, Seattle |
| |
 |
| BUILDING : Installation, Henry Art Gallery. Cast, reconstructed, glazed, fired porcelain. |
 |
| BUILDING : Installation (detail), Henry Art Gallery. Cast, reconstructed, glazed, fired porcelain. |
| |
 |
| BUILDING : Installation (detail), Henry Art Gallery. |
| THE WHEEL TURNS, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, 2003-04 |
Arlene Shechet's installation "The Wheel Turns," so that the room recalls this whole place, from the original ceiling frescoes of anchors and ships' lines and knots, to all the meanings of the glinting waters of the harbor I can see through the window....Shechet continues the ceiling themes above us, positioning at waist height ropes cast of the palest bluish crystal so that they seem to have been threaded in and out of the four walls, strands at one point broken and frayed. In the center of the floor where we must turn and turn to read them (and with our feet, as the artist invites us to do,help erase them) proverbial words printed in concentric circles speak a poetry of ghost, our existence "a sphere which is neither Earth , nor water, nor fire, nor air," nor infinity of inscribed whirlpool to find in the center of the old decorated ceiling a captain's wheel to tell us we are somehow on course. -Joseph McElroy, Novelist and critic / Shambhala Sun, March 2004 |
| |
 |
| The Wheel Turns, 2003. Cast crystal and copper transfer type. Snug Harbor Cultural Center |
| |
 |
| The Wheel Turns, 2003. Cast crystal and copper transfer type. Snug Harbor Cultural Center |
| |
| |
| The Wheel Turns, 2003. Cast crystal. Installation Detail. Snug Harbor Cultural Center |
| IN THE WAY, Brydcliffe, Woodstock, NY, 2007 |
| In The Way makes use of a "found" wall in the once flourishing garden at Brydcliffe, an early 20th c. utopian artist colony founded in upstate NY. What was once a wall became a walking path due to the growth of trees and overgrown nature of the garden. The piece leads people to a "walk" by imbedding the path stones with a silvery film of drawings and text loosely based on notebooks of Zulma Steele, an original resident of the Brydcliffe colony. As visitors walk the path, following the thread of inlaid drawings, their presence was recorded by a gradual wearing away of my intervention. One year later this open process leaves only small traces of silver flecking the stone and marking the spot. |
| |
 |
| ALL PHOTOS: IN THE WAY, Byrdcliffe, Woodstock, New York |
|
