These are sculptural works and installations that do not include video or photography:

Yggdrasill

Yggdrasill is a permanent outdoor site-specific sculptural installation on the remote island of Hrísey, Iceland. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasill is the “life tree” or central axis of the universe which connects all of the nine worlds. The various elements of the sculpture correspond to these worlds as described by Snorri Sturluson in the Prose Edda. This project was created while I was in Iceland as part of a Fulbright grant that I recieved in 1997. The project was completed in 1998, and consists of steel, stone, concrete, gold leaf, birch tree, earth, and is approximately 8’ high x 12’ diameter.

Life Cycle

This installation was my MFA thesis project at Montana State University in 1997 and is loosely based on Hindu cosmology’s three main deities representing Birth, Sex and Death.  The installation includes a long plastic sewer pipe of running water that emerges from the “vaginal birth canal”, then winds around the “sex stage” and empties into the skull of the “death stage”.  The materials and dimensions are as follows:

  • Birth Stage: copper, ceramic, lichens, latex, sprouted barley, flowing water, light, steam.

  • Sex Stage: Styrene and urethane foams, wax, latex, acrylic, steel, plastics.

  • Death Stage: steel, ceramic, plastics, copper, imitation gold leaf, lead, soil, light, water.

    • Overall installation is approximately 20′ x 30′ x 10′ high.

    Entropy Serpent: Simulation of Growth and Decay in Four Stages

    This installation from 2004 consists of 4 styrofoam modules in various simulated stages of decay. Each module contains a back-lit circuit board covered with a gel that gets progressively more moldy and covered with various insects, and are encased in epoxy resin to preserve each stage of decay. There is also an operating ventilation system with fans and duct work. The installation is made from steel, styrofoam, electric lighting and ventilation, circuit boards, mold and insects on growth medium, and various plastics. It is approximately 1’ high x 2′ wide x 10′ long.

    Simulated Tree Cycle

    This is a permanent site-specific installation from 2002 residing at the Woodstock School of Art’s sculpture garden, located in Woodstock, NY. The copper pipe structure was built into a decaying tree stump. Bluestone, moss and pine tree saplings were gathered from the surrounding forest and to create a base. The trees are meant to grow around the sculpture and eventually overtake it, perhaps even destroy it. As of 2008, the trees are all healthy and have nearly reached the top of the sculpture.