Thursday, June 26, 2008

Decisions, An Installation


(Click on images to enlarge.)

I created a sculptural installation called Decisions in the spring of 2008. It was displayed at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady Street, in the downtown arts district of Columbia, South Carolina for the annual "Artista Vista" weekend. From the beginning, I intended this two part unit to be the focal point of a larger, solo exhibition called "PERSONAL GROUNDS".


My brief statement is: "Personal Grounds is a location in life. It is the place in which one exists as a result of doors opened, keys turned, and options exercised."

I used four, old solid wooden doors with peeling paint and lots of aging. To them, I attached hundreds of keys. Some were framed; some were not framed; some were labeled; some were not labeled.







I also wrapped thousands of old, rusty nails. Nails are like decisions....often bittersweet. Nails are symbols for Christ's crucifixion...sacrifice. They represent precision...."Hit the nail on the head". They represent unity...absolutely fundamental in construction; but, if one is "NAILED", it is often a "negative" implication. Nails are among my favorite symbols. Wrapping them took weeks but was a labor of love...another "bittersweet" expression.

Above, a Key to Promise on one of the doors. Below, some of the hundreds of tagged, old keys waiting to go on the installation.



Above and below are two of the framed but unlabeled keys. Often there are decision to make, options to excerise, and doors to open that have unknown consequences. We don't always know what will happen when we make a decision or walk down one of life's paths.












8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice! I love them. Simply artistic! Perhaps I can recommend them to my solid wooden doors manufacturers for them to decorate it in their show rooms. Looks good on show houses too! Good complementary items for developers!

AbbeyTek Media said...

I have some keys in my ebay site and just bought out a really nice collection of over 1000 very fancy keys from germany . will be a while till i get them up online .
you can get to my site here
www.abbeytek-online.com

Wanda said...

Did you sneek these pictures of the exhibit onto the blog or did I just not see them before? Really beautiful. And I AM going to see this in real life....stay tuned!

charlie said...

i love the work. I was searching for rebecca cibic and found you. cibic taught me at usc. again, i am a fan.

Cheri Alexander said...

I am a nudist and would be happy to help where I can. Articles about my club, Travelites as well as me have been published world-wide. I can be reached through the club at travelites@prodigy.net or the club's website at http://www.travelites.info

Gisela Towner said...

Amazing work! I got the chills just looking at some of these.

SREBECCALEIGH said...

Hi Charlie - Not sure who you are but I am Rebecca Cibic (now Leigh) at leigh23@oakland.edu

Susan, your work is exquisite. Truly.

iltana said...

Beautiful and artistic work!!!