Salvaged granite and wood columns, wood, concrete
30' x 32' x 40'
Artpark, Lewiston, NY
Nina Freudenheim (Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo) became familiar with my early, room-sized constructions. She asked if I had considered working outdoors and encouraged me to apply to the Visual Arts Program at Artpark. The park along the Niagara River, seven miles downriver from the Falls, supported temporary projects by 10–12 artists during summers 1974–1984.
On a site visit prior to making a proposal, the steep cliffs and tree-lined banks made me think of landscape paintings of the Hudson River School, in particular a work by Thomas Cole titled Dream of Arcadia. My skeletal structure makes reference to the classical Greek temples that Cole and others imagined in their idealized paintings of the new world civilization. Though I had no way of knowing it at the time, my experience at Artpark launched my interest in working beyond the gallery context. It led to my doing other temporary projects in the environment and laid the groundwork for creating commissioned permanent public art.
