"CARBON"
My daughter, Elena, collected a bin full of books from the library loading dock that were destined for recycling. I couldn't be there to get them myself. I had had an idea and I asked her for some hard bound editions, roughly the same size, and she gathered all the Reader's Digests (among many other books).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaW8tzo9iWg
Those editions were destined for an experiment at turning books into bio-char. Bio-char is a way of using charcoal, by grinding it up and digging it into the soil, to improve the soil's nutrients and its ability to retain moisture. It is a way of recharging the earth so that the carbon of life can be productively reused. It seemed right to me that if trees give life to these pages of our cultural wealth then we should return those pages to the soil for new wealth. The work is called "Carbon". Though I know that burnt books have emotional impacts well beyond their constituent materials it is a recognition of that shared constituent that I am after.
"PEBBLED VOLUME"
The first book I worked on, from the crate of books my daughter brought me, was a hard bound edition whose size, shape, and content called to me. It's title "Inside the Third Reich" promised so many emotionally conflicting themes. Could I make it into an object of quiet reflection on the passage of time and the possibility of wisdoms gained? I must thank my daughter, who identifies as Jewish though I do not, for her thoughtful gathering of materials for me to use for this show. This was an opportunity to think about contemporary violence in the world and Albert Speir's warning about the danger of individual power, especially combined with the exponentially more lethal weaponry that technology has placed in our hands. Time and a river's pebbling of rock point to a gentler way of shaping the shards of our angers.
