Here is the scale model of Spire in its entirety. 
As you can see, Spire will encompass three floors surrounding the elevator shaft of the abandoned commercial building on Division and Fulton in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Month: May 2011
Envisioning the installation
The following videos show the empty commercial building on the corner of Fulton and Division in downtown, Grand Rapids where Spire will be installed. The videos should give you a good idea of grand space and scale that I will be working with.
This video shows the building from the second floor looking down into the basement.
This video shows the elevator shaft from the basement looking up through to the second floor.
The Scale Model Unveiled
It is with great pleasure that I share this image of the scale model of Spire for ArtPrize 2011 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
I created the model on a one-inch-to-one-foot ratio out of plywood, basswood, aluminum mesh, and paint. As mentioned in an earlier post, this work will be installed in an empty commercial building made of cast concrete at the corner of Fulton and Division in downtown Grand Rapids.
My inspiration for Spire
When envisioning a work, in addition to getting a sense of the space, I spend a lot of time thinking of the physical form, the shape that I want to create and how that form interacts within the space.
Although not quite as complex as the interior of the Salisbury Cathedral spire, my work will have a similar feel to that of the wooden frame used in clad spires from the Gothic Era.
And perfectly enough, the Old English root of “spire” means “to sprout.” As you know, I will be constructing my piece from within an abandoned industrial building occupying a central, vertical space throughout three floors. My work will look and feel as if it were sprouting from the basement, growing through the space and eventually shooting through the roof awakening the building with new life.
Site of Spire
As much of my work is site-specific, I spend a lot of time in the space to get a sense of its capacity and potential (as well as taking photos and measurements as a base for my renderings and scale models).
Prior to envisioning Spire, I traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan, to check out the site – an abandoned industrial building – that SiTE:LAB is sponsoring for ArtPrize. SiTE:LAB is a non profit that organizes temporary art exhibits in commercial and industrial buildings in Grand Rapids, Michigan and they have asked me to participate in their space for ArtPrize.
Here are some photos of the space where Spire will be installed:
Previous projects
- Allotropisms, 2011. Photo by Rainer Hosch
Before I go into the details of how I create a work, I would like to give you a background on my previous artistic endeavors.
My work exists at the intersection of art, architecture, fashion and design. My forms are surreal and my materials are simple in the tradition of Frederick Kiesler and Buckminster Fuller. I make large-scale installations and small scale sculptures. My interests lie in exploring environment, light, time and space via geometry.
- Allotropisms, 2011. Photo by Marc Lins.
My most recent work entitled Allotropisms was my most ambitious project to date measuring fifteen feet high and spanning a length of sixty-five feet at the Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York City. My preparation for this work took about three months in which I created a scale model with precise measurements from the space using the existing architecture as my inspiration and my base. With a team of two assistants, the installation of Allotropisms – from the wooden latice to the lighting – took three weeks.
In addition to Allotropisms, I have had site-specific installations in Austria, the Czech Republic, New York City, and the Delano Hotel in Miami, Florida.
Spire will be even larger than Allotropisms and will take three floors of SiTE:LAB in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
