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Socrates Sculpture Park
Broadway @ Vernon Boulevard,
P.O. Box 6259
Long Island City, N.Y. 11106
Height 22’ width 18’ length 14’
Red oak, steel
Prone develops from a long body of work that began as an investigation using fairly simple steel objects in order to construct vessels of darkness, containers of the unknown. Each piece in this body of work is conceived as an intriguing container where the volume within the object is inaccessible to the eye and therefore is constructed in the imagination as a void with a distinct shape. The act of constructing a conceptual space initiates a second presencing of the object : the object and all its apparent referents in material and form and the world of the imagination, a ghost of the subconscious. Therefore the piece presents the aspect of the void as equally important as the material substance of the work, it gives the work volume and presence, it is a paradoxical transformation of materiality. The intention behind the work is simply to evoke resonant qualities, to provoke curiosity and thoughtful observation on the part of the viewer. By engaging the space of the imagination, the forces of analogy begin to search for referents with which to place this object in the world.
Prone acts on the imagination by making at least three principal analogies; to gender, primitive objects and the industrial past. In other words, the piece can be read as a statement about identity, form and material. Prone is at once an archetypal form that appeals to deeper collective memories and a unique physical presence in the here and now. The simple rectangular volume is formed into irregular biomorphic shapes and punctured by black apertures. These fertile forms refer to the female aspect, while other aspects refer to the male. It is this ambiguous relationship, the overlapping of gender references, that engages interpretation and presents the viewer with a series of unresolved issues. Atop, sits a trough-like form, a funnel to the interior, with access through a narrowing aperture. On the deck lays a cradle-like piece, a place for the dormant body, a litter. Both recall moments key to all human experience: birth, death and nourishment. The base of the piece is like a pier, possibly a fragment of a larger construction.
Prone is a title with two very distinct meanings: it refers to the immobile nature of the piece that is vulnerable to weather and to all the activities that take place on this boundary between the river and the land, between park and city. The name also refers to the piece as a site for potential occurrence, an object poised to change, to interact, to provoke thought. Prone is a site specific construction, the use of steel and wood is meant to refer to the industrial past of the East River area. At one time this site was home to many of the factories that fueled the nineteenth-century industrial revolution in the New York City area. Prone is sited on the edge of the water in order to engage the interactive potential inherent in all boundary conditions as a critical aspect of the work.