About this project

Pressure- A Large Scale Installation

January 21st through February 15th, 2012

Pump Project Art Complex, Austin, TX

Projected Budget: $2500

 

The project is to pull off my first solo show incorporating sculpture, light, sound and video as a large-scale installation at the Pump Project Art Complex gallery in Austin, TX. The show is set to run for 3 weeks, opening January 21, 2012.

 

Current work:

I create sculptural light boxes, which are miniature installations complete with internal lighting. In this project, I want to take my work to a larger scale by expanding one of my ‘miniature’ compositions into one that fills an entire warehouse, surrounding the viewer with its forms.

 

The space:

The Pump Project Gallery is within an old wooden warehouse built in the Fifties in east Austin. Currently providing workspaces for 30 artists, the studio complex houses a gallery with 35-foot ceilings. At one end of the space is a pump that once ran the sprinkler system throughout a maze of steel pipes in the rafters. This pump is the starting point for the idea that follows.

 

The project:

The concept of the work is 'pressure', and the idea of it being a necessary component for change. In order for new things to happen, there must be enough strain and struggle for one to not merely want to act, but need to act. As they say, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” In light of the changes in the world, how is it that we remain apathetic? When we overthrow an oppressive force in our own lives, what is the final straw? How is it that a project makes the leap from an idea to a reality? My hope is the viewer will ask themselves these questions as they wander throughout the forms in the installation.

 

The installation will incorporate sculptural forms from materials such as rubber tires, newspaper, tea kettles, sounds of drips and air escaping. As visitors enter the dimly lit gallery, they will encounter sculptural forms hanging from the steel piping in the ceiling and peer into a video projection set up behind one of the walls. Being enveloped by the installation, a sensation of pressure and a quickening to act will be created for my audience.

 

The pipes leading from the old pump in the warehouse up to the ceiling and back down will be covered by newspaper headlines. They will lead up to a 10 foot tall funnel hanging from the ceiling. The piping will turn into constructed tunnels leading downward from the funnel into a tear drop form.  A video of a slow drip will be projected through the tear drop form, and onto the floor.

 

One wall of the gallery will be punctured by the sculptural ‘steam’ of sideways tea kettle, which will emerge on the backside of the wall into a room lined by rubber tires. This room behind the wall will only be visible by a tiny viewing hole. The steam will join into the pipes in the rafters,  and eventually join the other forms at the funnel form, where they all descend into the tear drop form.

 

On the last wall of the gallery will hang 3 light boxes, conveying similar themes based on pressure.

 Installation logistics:

 

-I will be covering 300 feet of steel piping and pump with newspaper.

-I will be hanging an upside down funnel made of 8 x 10 x 8 foot tall form, which I have already constructed. I need a scissor lift to get to the ceiling of the warehouse to securely fasten it to the beams in the rafters just below the ceiling.

- I will be constructing a teardrop form 5 x 5 x 8 feet, which will hang from the funnel form and dangle just above the ground.

-Within this funnel/ tunnel/ teardrop form will be a video projection of media clips overlaid with a slow drip of water. The drip and the flickering light of the screen will be the only ambiance that seeps into the gallery space.

- On one wall of the gallery, a 5 x 2 x 2 rectangular plexiglass form (in progress in my studio) will protrude from the wall and suspend a tea kettle in mid air, from the tea kettle will be a side lying column of steam made from sculpted newspaper which will continue on through the wall and emerge on the other side. Another projector will be lighting this form up with a video of steam.

- Next to the rectangular form will be openings punctured into the wall, which will be viewing portals into the space behind the wall. This inaccessible room will only be able to be seen through the holes in the wall and be lined in black rubber from tires.

- The newspaper steam will pierce the space behind the wall and continue upward and turn into several columns of newspaper covered fabric tunnels which will attach to the piping in the rafters, which will in turn navigate toward and finally empty into the funnel form.

- In addition to the installation, there will also be 3 light boxes (24 x 36 x 6 inches) and will follow the theme of the show.

 

Project budget:

-A scissor lift rental for 2 days in order to reach the ceiling during installation/ tear down ($500)

- Video projector (I have one on loan, need one more) for the internal projection within the funnel. ($800)

-Payment to the Austin based jazz trumpeteer, Ephraim Owens, to play at the opening ($400)

-Supplies: fabric, sheetrock, mold-making supplies, lighting, contact paper ($600)

-promotional materials ($ 200)

 

=$2500

 

Report this project to Kickstarter