A Message for Nineveh.
Two years ago I made a piece for Texas A&M Corpus Christie Weil gallery. I worked with student volunteers and they were all great. I have included the text and drawings from this project to give an in-depth look into my process.
Be sure to watch the video.
My plan is to construct a massive form that will span almost the entire length of the gallery and will be 19-22 feet in diameter.
The color scheme will be dark brown on the exterior with a transition to lighter brown and cream/blush.
The piece will lie directly on the floor and will be torn apart at about 1/3rd from the end. In addition, there will be a cut down the center of the bottom,(not depicted) to allow visitors to walk into the sculpture and descend deep into the larger portion.
It is my intention to create the sculpture as carefully and precisely as possible and then rip it apart aggressively to illicit the most visceral experience for viewers.
The inspiration for the piece is drawn from the images of a beached whale and is steeped in symbolism.
The working title for the piece is A Message For Ninevah.
Ripped in half and laying lifeless, the form can be likened to the site of a beached whale, awesome in size and sadly grotesque as it decays. This may represent our fears of mortality and our feelings of helplessness to do what, deep down, we all know, is our true responsibility. When the leader of a pod of whales leads the pod onto the beach, the others generally follow. It can be difficult to break with the behavior we have been taught by our families and continue to see in our peers and our leaders. This ravished form is not intended to glorify violence or destruction of any kind, but should serve as a stark glimpse into the oncoming turbulence in our world if we continue to shirk our responsibility as stewards of this planet and one another.
The belly of the whale is a dark womb like place that can be associated with the blackness of the un-manifested realm. To enter it is a kind of death. To escape from the belly of the whale is likewise a Re-birth. This process can be seen as a transcendental journey from our lower nature ruled by selfishness and desire, to our higher awarness guided by kindness and respect.
Into the belly of the beast we must seek truth and diminish self. Here we must die not a physical death but die to our past and to the future. We die before we die, and realize there is no death. We must wake up to the present moment as the eternal connecting principle that joins all life and all things. We must make the transcendental leap into a higher consciousness where all is one.
