Long View Installation I / Age of Wonder

I'm pleased to be taking part in "Age of Wonder," a group show around the theme of art engaged with the natural world. My new sculpture, LV Installation I, marks my first exhibition of The Long View project, which has been in progress since 2009. Featuring four custom-built shelf units to create a semi-enclosed space, the installation juxtaposes discarded material I collected from Antarctica with a recent series of mixed-media art panels whose diagrammatic graphics reinvent visual codes of scientific and design theory. I've combined these objects and elements to create a sculptural narrative describing Antarctic science, history, and environment with the larger goal of examining humankind's relationship with the natural world over time. Recycling is a central theme to the piece. I used wood to reference Ernest Shackleton's repurposing of wooden crates to make Antarctic hut shelving and book covers a century ago — an early instance of polar resourcefulness. In homage to Shackleton's Aurora Australis, the book form appears on every scale of the installation, from the hinged shelf pairs to the art panel 'spreads,' down to the small wooden faux-books between and throughout. The well-produced exhibition catalog is authored by Bay Area art writer, critic, and curator DeWitt Cheng, who wrote of the show: [The artists] link human survival with the reuniting of reason and emotion, intellect with spirituality. These artists, so fascinated with the natural world, point the way toward genuine human stewardship of the planet. The passage accurately describes what I strove for with this installation and hope to achieve to a greater degree as the Long View Project progresses. Age of Wonder runs through December 31, 2011 at the Turtle Bay Museum in Redding CA. Participating artists are Michael Bartalos, Tiffany Bozic, Mark Brest Van Kempen, Isabella Kirkland, Judith Selby Lang & Richard Lang, Carrie Lederer, Aline Mare & Olivia E. Sears, Susan Middleton, Rick Prelinger & Megan Prelinger, and Gary Brewer who curated the show.