Vision Thing

Sometimes you slowly feel a blog post building up, building itself. You slowly start to notice that maybe you have something to say. Maybe a few things.

I've begun my Burning Man project in earnest, even though the Burning Man organization is dragging its feet in getting the contracts issued (and more importantly, the money issued) more than I can remember ever happening in the past. Even though I've been prodding my Project Liaison Jeremy (who happens to be an old friend), letting him know that I really need to get going, for some reason it's taking forever. I know enough to understand it's not his fault... but Jeeze, I've only got something like 13 weeks before this thing goes into a shipping container! (Is that how you are supposed to spell "Jeeze?" WWJD? How would Jesus spell Jeeze?)

Anyway, fabrication is actually going fairly well, after the rough start at BBK.

Here is the upper part of the base, along with the mid-section containing the "windows," being fabricated upside down.

Here I have turned it right-side-up, using the overhead cranes. The upper part of the base has now been sheathed in 2mm sheet steel. This is where the frieze will go. "Window bars," or columns, are at bottom.

The bottom of the base, the part which actually sits on the ground, is now being added. May God and his son Jeeze bless overhead cranes.

If Burning Man doesn't get that check cut soon, I'm going to have to slow down on my fabrication. Fingers crossed.

So far I have been getting good help from Christina, a fellow named Guy who I connected with through the Berlin Burners group on FB, and a gal named Isabelle from KAOS.

Speaking of KAOS, I am simultaneously working there making silicone molds of the faces. 

I made an error in mixing the 2-part silicone (which, in my opinion, is not really my fault; the instructions are extremely unclear), and it's possible that I will have to start over. That would be a major hassle, as I would have to clean off un-cured silicone (which is like cleaning off... I don't know... I can't think of anything quite as awfully viscous), and also spend another €400 on silicone. Fingers crossed (again!).

Christina and Kodiak are having a dream vacation in Tenerife, allowing me to work. And Jeeze, am I working. When I am not fabricating steel at BBK or fucking up silicone molds at KAOS, I am at home working on a 1/4 scale cardboard model of the figure. 

There are lots of conical sections and curved planes on this figure, all of them intersecting at weird angles, and so a bit of model-making is in order. I imagined that I might tackle this through 3D modeling, but... I downloaded a highly praised program called Fusion 360 and after about 4 days trying to model and unwrap (flatten) a single cone, I realized my time would be better spent with cardboard. Maybe one day, Fusion 360... maybe one day.

(Actually I will probably use that program for modeling the frieze in preparation for getting it CNC milled... which is a considerably simpler task. So it wasn't for nothing.)

I do try to intersperse a few non-work activities into my schedule here and there... like going to museums to get inspiration for my work. Ha ha. I went back to the Museum of Photography, which I think was only given such a mundane name because "The Museum of Photographs of Sexy Women" didn't send the right message. Again, this is the home of the Helmut Newton collection, where you are not supposed to take photos. I guess photos of photos are a little like theft. Oh well, that never stopped me. It's fun trying to get the timing right, waiting for the security guards' attention to falter for a moment.

One of those photos actually had a mild influence on my cardboard model, shown above. I wonder if you can see it...

In the never-ending search for visual inspiration, I also visited a lovely Buddhist temple in the Berlin district of Spandau. 

I really do love Buddhist sculpture.

As a sculptor myself, I feel reasonably empowered when it comes to thinking about how to take an idea and shepherd it into 3D reality. But what about 2D? From time to time I come up with an idea that really should be expressed as an image. But I'm not really an "image maker." I have one of these ideas now. In fact, it really could be a series of images. And just like some of my sculptural work that I love the best, the ideas for these images have come from a place that feels more immediate, more subconscious, and less intellectually mediated or crafted. But how to make an image? If I knew how to paint, I would paint it. And I think it would look great as a painting, but only in the hands of someone who could really paint. No better way to screw up the transmission of an idea than to present it in a poorly crafted way. I could try collage, or photography. I'm a big fan of the little-known Anton Solomoukha, who worked in a kind of photo-collage style that he called "photographic painting." Still, though, anything having to do with photography would mean having to find models and actually interact with real people. Scary.

And OK, lastly... the latest installment of my series of "art-crushes." Readers of this blog will know that I have gone through several art-crushes in the last year or two... notably Damian Hirst, Björk, Francis Bacon, and Stanley Kubrick. What has become clear to me as I've thought about and written about these various characters is that I have a tremendous admiration for clarity of individual vision, and the boldness to see it through. 

I've always admired the fashion designer Alexander McQueen for similar reasons. I was a fan of his even before he died (which isn't saying much; he was pretty damn famous). I love him for all those reasons stated above (with the addition, in his case, of a strong tendency to think way outside the box), but I admit I am also additionally intrigued by his decision to kill himself. Or more accurately, I am intrigued by trying to understand what it was about his personality that lead him to that place. I am reminded of Ian Curtis, the singer of Joy Division. Anyone who has read more than just passingly about Ian Curtis knows that that poor bloke had a sensitivity and a rawness which simultaneously allowed him to write lyrics which have justifiably earned him an enduring place in popular culture, but also caused him to apparently be unable to cope with this world. He was just too sensitive. You can hear it in his songs, if you listen. I read somewhere once that one of the reasons Joy Division live shows were so intense was that Ian Curtis had no sense of stagecraft. The writer went on to explain that what he meant by "stagecraft" was the ability of a performer to pace himself (or herself), to only give as much to the performance as he could energetically manage, or even a bit less, and to save some of that energy, some of that personal space, for himself. Ian apparently couldn't do that; he put so much of himself into every lyric and every performance that he would collapse onstage or go into epileptic fits, until he finally killed himself. 

But back to McQueen. I don't actually know too much about him yet and so I can't comment authoritatively (I've finally given in and bought a book about him, so I will know more soon), but it seems he too was too sensitive for this world. He was hard-working and prolific, was extremely successful because of (and in spite of) the singularity of his vision, was occasionally self destructive, and was devoted to his mother. Apparently her death was too much for him; he killed himself a week after she died even though he was right in what looked like the middle of an extremely successful career. And yes, all this sensitivity and macabre-ness is intriguing, but at the end of the day it is his work which speaks the loudest. I don't care about fashion very much, but to me, McQueen was more like an artist. The web is full of images of his stuff, but here are a few just to illustrate the point:

Themes which emerge when you look at his work are things like the macabre, beauty, violence, nature, and elegance. And it was all presented with confidence and provocation. No wonder I like him so much.

I would have loved to see Savage Beauty, the museum exhibition of his work. 

I should get to bed. Gotta get back to BBK tomorrow morning and spend more personal money on steel, while I wait for Burning Man to get into gear. Jeeze.