All Aboard

All Aboard twelve years of sculpture in wood and found objects Exhibited at Flynndog Gallery in a 2-Person exhibit with Emiko Sawaragi Gilbert called Afterward Burlington, Vermont October, 2010

Exhibit Statement
What happens when a tree is killed, when a piece of metal falls off the bottom of your car, or when you throw out your grandma’s photos and a bunch of broken glass? Sometimes those random bits of matter (from what I call the planetary dumpster) are scooped up by artists and given an afterlife in art. All the materials in Afterward were acquired in this way.
In my installation, All Aboard , there’s also another kind of rescue and re-purposing going on: for this project I have used my own work from the last twelve years as raw materials -- combining them, adding new elements, and making narrative groupings. A very happy outcome of this process is that my studio now has much more room.
I think of this installation as a march, a procession, a circus parade. In the sweep of time, human history has been changed as people moved across the face of the planet in migrations and expulsions, the triumphal processions of conquerors, the yearly trek over the Tokaido Road, and political demonstrations. And along the route, the advancing (or receding) multitudes cast off their broken, spent, or useless stuff – even, sometimes, their wounded – like a grim or comical trail of breadcrumbs back to nowhere.
That’s the big picture. The small picture is that each one of us is marching in the parade of life: we stroll, run and roll through our lives until we get where we are going – which is death. And here is the “art” we leave by the wayside.
The titles I’ve affixed to the “cars” suggest different human states and experiences on this road of life. I have found that many people are grateful to be offered ideas about how to think about this work and find it helps slow them down and enriches their exploration of each piece. If that works for you, great. If not, then just move on down the line.

Visitors entered by the door at the street-side of the long gallery. On the left we see the exhibit in its complete form, including sculptures on the right wall by Emiko Sawaragi Gilbert. Other photos were taken at the end of the exhibit, when her work had been removed.

We’ll walk through the exhibit and see the pieces as they parade toward the front of the gallery. The first piece is called Coupling. This piece was purchased by a collector following the exhibit.

The Wall

The Wall (detail) People are going about their daily activities on both sides of the wall…

Oceans

War and Reincarnation War was acquired by a collector following the exhibit Reincarnation features a poem by Sandy McKinney, Van Fleet’s mother

Puppet and Sticks and Stones

Babies

Prophecy These two photographs were taken by Rob Hitzig The standing pieces at right are from the artist’s Oracles series

Insects Many of the insects were sold following the exhibit

Looking back from the Front

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All Aboard

by Janet Van Fleet on Jan 14, 2012

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All Aboard — Presentation Transcript