SUSPENDED INTIMATION SOFA Chicago 2018
As I was creating this piece, various thoughts—of which many were vague—came to mind as what this piece could possibly suggest to an observer: that is, what is the message behind it? At first, I had no clue, or inkling myself, the answer essentially “suspended” as a mystery from what the final form, its orientation and its support might reveal.
One answer is that I wanted to avoid a cliché of what the resultant piece is “supposed” to look like, or address. That is, the presumption that still, even after manipulation: (1) wood is a solid, stable, pleasant, familiar material, and therefore comfortable to be around; and (2) as a maker of lathe-turned wood art of familiar iconic work for more than 45 years, the piece for this special exhibit would just be one more of the same. So, the resultant piece began as a solid cube of hard, dry Mesquite, and ended up with most of the wood removed (plus a hint of some lathe work in the process).
I felt that inherent in the piece there should be the quality of “mystery,” invoking a curiosity of how and why it was created, and its meaning. The idea of “mystery” also suggested an unusual orientation of the work: a supposed dichotomy between the presumed stability of a six-sided geometric form sitting at rest on one of its sides, and the form dynamically presented in its most unstable position, most surely to fall by the slightest provocation….Why?
Another important consideration was the base upon which the piece appears to be suspended. Selecting a completely different material, shape, color and texture was based upon an idea out of curiosity--dichotomies: could the more diverse the form and its base are, successfully work together? Material: a common granite cobble, an inorganic material shaped by nature within the eons of its existence—the essence of stability; in opposition to wood—a relatively short-lived organic material in the natural world. Shape: the round, flat shape of the stone distinctively in contrast to the wood’s manipulated and embellished geometric form, and additionally to contrasts in Color and Texture. Thus, selection of a particular stone was important: the more diverse the dichotomies, the more complementary the combined forms may become.
The message? In the eyes of the observer, does it work as a successful piece? As the title of the exhibit implies, the heart of the matter is “Innovation.” And after more than 25 years of making, the “why” of being an artist begins and ends with this, in my view.
J. Paul Fennell, 2018