Portfolio > Bridged, LaChaise Gallery, Allentown, PA, 2011

%Bridged% is a site - specific installation influenced by the book, %Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown: The Transformation of the Rust Belt% by Sean Safford.
Bridged
ceramic, wood, wire rope, vinyl
16 x 12 x 11'
2011

Bridged is a site - specific installation influenced by the book, Why the Garden Club Couldn’t Save Youngstown: The Transformation of the Rust Belt by Sean Safford. This book compares the industrial histories of Allentown, PA and Youngstown, OH. The author concludes that Allentown’s successful transition into a post industrial city can be attributed to company founders reinvesting in Allentown by building bridges into the community. This installation uses the symbol of the bridge, metaphors of transition and references the history of ceramics as a building block of cities to visually continue this evolution.

When the viewer enters the gallery they see a staircase and a white cube. On the surface of the cube is an appropriated image of the 17th century engraving, Le Due Regole della Prospettiva Pratica by G.B. da Vignola. This image challenges the viewer to experience the work from an aerial viewpoint equated with the intellect and to enter the cube to experience the work physically. Inside the cube are ceramic modulars suspended with wire rope creating a bridge between viewers at the top of the staircase and the doorway.