I only had three and a half days for the installation of this solo show. Because of that, I had to plan every single detail and time it to a tee in order for everything to go smoothly once I had access to the gallery space.
I started brainstorming ideas right at the beginning of the fall 2018 semester, towards the end of August. I knew I wanted to build a structure that twisted in and out of itself, but I had no idea what that would look like or how I would pull it off. So, I began to do research. I looked at a few of my most favorite artists, as well as researching various sculptors that were working in the mediums of wood. Once I decided I wanted to do the instillation in wood, I began to collect bendable, weathered, light and dark wood and bark everywhere I went. I still had no idea at this point how the sculpture would actually come together, but slowly, a picture was starting to develop in my head of what I wanted it to look like. A few weeks into the semester, several different people I was talking to, told me I needed to start to nail down a design for the sculpture and start building it. I am so glad I listened to them, because without that drawing, I believe the sculpture would have gotten out of control towards the end, and would not have been finished properly. I decided I wanted the sculpture to become more of a site-specific instillation, so I took a photo of the empty space and started sketching different designs over it, on my iPad. Once I decided on a general shape, then difficult task of figuring out how to build my twelve foot tall, and extremely wide instillation, began.
I started by making a small version of a simple cardboard structure. That consisted of round cardboard disks in the middle connected to each other by thin vertical strips of cardboard, with an outside shell of various wood that was forming the final shape. That worked great on a small scale but I quickly realized I needed something stronger to hold up a twelve foot tall, twisting and bending structure. I also came across the issue of how I was going to work on and then transport this structure. What ended up working for the inside structure support, was using thick blocks of wood as a base. Those were about 12”w by 5” tall, and was 2” thick. I then attached long 2x4’s and screwed them together (to be taken apart for transportation) to build the desired height and general shape.
Once the general shape of the sculpture was built, I took a little bit of a break from building and started work painting. In my search for wood to cover the sculpture, I came across a pile of plywood that I had to break apart to be able to fit into my car. This ended up working perfectly because the sheets were too difficult to pull apart for my sculpture, but were the perfect canvas to put my paint on. Something that was conceptually very important to me for the whole show, was the juxtaposition of rough elements transformed or used along side something that is smooth and shiny. I decided to take the rough pieces of plywood and fill the cracks in with wood filling putty in the shape of what I wanted to paint. After sanding, gessoing, and then sanding some more, I was finally able to have created a smooth canvas to pain on. I got to work on five different paintings; each of which was finished by masking off the wood parts, and covering the paint with a clear, high gloss spray paint. In between the drying of all of the various processes for the painting, I kept working on my sculpture. In order to get the shape to the sculpture finalized, I used thick cardboard disks and chicken wire for support. That was sturdy enough to transport, pliable enough to bend and mold while still holding shape, and light enough to transport while not falling apart under the weight of the wood that would be on it.
The next step to making this show happen was the transport and instillation. I ended up renting an enclosed seventeen-foot moving truck. My dad and I packed all the wood I had collected into the truck, and braced and tied down the sculpture on its side. Thankfully we were able to get it all there in one piece. The instillation began on the Saturday before the show. Once the structure was in the space, I began putting all the elements together to make it fit into the space like I had imagined. My amazing assistants and I went to work covering the chicken wire in butcher paper, which allowed for the wood to stick onto the whole structure. The next day we started the daunting task of covering the instillation in the bark I had collected, in a twisted, moving, active way. That continued right up until the Tuesday afternoon of the show. That was also when I hung all of my paintings, lit them, and lit the sculpture as well.
This whole process was tiring but so fulfilling as well. I learned more than I could have ever expected about doing such a large instillation. While I have put on a large gallery opening before, and generally knew what to expect, I have never done a solo exhibition before. I could not have done this without the advice from my professors, and help during the instillation days from my family members. I can honestly say that this whole experience has really prepared me for further work I hope to make in the future.
