The surprise of emptiness. This is from around 1995.

In the collection of G. Noonan. 🙂

This is a self portrait I knitted in 2001, six foot long socks, of Icelandic Lopi wool (my maternal grandmother was Icelandic). An homage to Louise Bourgeois, whose sculpture “Legs” I saw in Montreal many years ago as part of an exhibition called “Stations of the Cross”. Hers was the piece that represented the station of the crucifixion.

 

 

 

dancers with appliances

These are two graphite drawings on board with layers of white paint, about 5′ long. Another example of why it’s good to get an actual photographer to do your documenting.

I guess those big faces are parts of my personality that loom large. These ones are still kind of mysterious to me after all these years.

 

 

 

These are little light boxes, 5×8″, with cardboard cutouts behind the drawings and little copper boxes to contain the light. (also an example of my very sketchy documentation skills)

 

 

 

A little house on stilts, about five feet high. Burned wood and steel wool, two of my favourite things to work with. I made this in 1994. The roof was copper. The house was around eye level and there was a mirror inside, so you would see your eye looking in. So I would see my eye looking in.

Now I’m wondering what the cloud was.

 

Galvanized steel, steel, motion sensor, cake. About 8′ high

When you looked into the little door at the bottom, the motion sensor inside would trigger the mechanism to pop the cake up. Then by the time you could stand up, the cake would go down again. The first time I set it up, the mechanism that lifted the cake up went so fast that the cake flew off and landed on the floor.

 

 

This is one of my favourite pieces ever, from 1989. It stands about 6′ high, made of two pieces of 3/8″ steel – one cut with a cutting torch and the other folded with great effort and a very good friend. The back piece is folded into three, so from the top the whole thing is like a hexagon with the front side open. With the piece lying down on its back, I sprayed the inside of the steel with water and sifted blue chalk-line chalk onto it with a flour sifter. For something so fragile and powdery, it was amazingly durable. After shipping it I used to just have to touch up the chalk a bit.

I remember how it felt to move the doors on the front, very heavy and the hinges only wanted to do certain angles. I got very good at moving this great big thing around by myself, balancing it.

Click on image below for one that fits on the screen:

 

 

“observer”

These are collages done in 1985 and 1986, from National Geographic magazines. They are about 5″ square.