J.T. Kirkland on “Site Singularity”
In this post on his “Thinking About My Art” blog, J.T. Kirkland describes a site-specific installation project that he was recently involved with. An excerpt:
“During the month of September I have had a site-specific installation on view at The Bridge PAI in Charlottesville, VA. The show is called “Site Singularity” and was curated by Leah Stoddard, an independent curator in Charlottesville. Leah included two other artists as well: Suzanna Fields and Sean Lundgren.
The concept of the show was for each artist to create an installation that utilized only one material, the material that we work with primarily. For Suzanna, it was acrylic paint. For Sean, it was clay. For me, it was wood. Leah was first introduced to my work at the last Artomatic exhibition. There she saw my 8′ x 12′ piece executed in plywood (with hand-drilled holes). She was also first introduced to Sean’s work there as well. You never know what opportunities are going to come from participating in Artomatic!
Several months ago, Leah approached me about doing this show. Her idea was for me to work with the main long wall in the gallery. The wall measured 8′ tall (it was elevated off the ground and went up almost to the ceiling joists) and was 40′ long. I was excited for the opportunity to work in such scale and I eagerly anticipated the site visit to see the space firsthand.
At the site visit, I was immediately drawn to the age and character of the space. My eyes were captured by the exposed ceiling joists above me. 2″ thick joists ran across the ceiling and ended at my wall. Between the joists was an intricate system of support pieces, all in wood. Decades of patina showed on the surface of the wood. It was a sight to behold. What must have been some sort of industrial or retail space had a ceiling supported by a beautiful arrangement of wood. I doubt many people who entered the space took the time to look up, so I knew that whatever intervention I did with my wall would have to somehow incorporate the ceiling.
The solution, as it turned out, was to carry the ceiling down the wall. I decided to mount 2″ x 3″ stud lumber boards to the wall positioned so that they aligned perfectly with the ceiling joists just above. The viewer’s eye would immediately connect the wall lumber to the ceiling lumber. It should be noted that an interesting development happened at this point. Whenever the ceiling was constructed 2-by boards were truly 2″ wide.
Today, when a stud is advertised as being 2′ wide, it is actually only 1.5″ wide. This slight difference is apparent in the installation and represents an interesting study in how our – shall we say accepted tolerances – have changed, or been forced to change. Regardless of the difference, the movement of the eye is not hindered as it travels up the studs and into the joists.
With the position of the studs determined, I realized that the viewer would first encounter them but they would not immediately connect to the ceiling. This assumes that the viewer didn’t assume the wall was simply unfinished construction.”
Click here to read the complete post, which includes images of the final installation.
Image in the post is one of those images, from Kirkland’s post.
