Zodiac

The Zodiac project has been ongoing for years now. The original idea was to build a 3 dimensional working zodiac complete with constellations and houses. Peter Acheson and Mary Flinn were kind enough to let me use their field in the town of Ghent in upstate New York. As you can see from the photograph above, the form has changed over time and, for now, operates primarily to reflect the setting sun on circular compact discs.

The elements have taken their toll on the materials: wood, masonite, paint and fasteners.

It sometimes seem Christmas-y.

And conversant with the trees and with the cabins and sculpture that Peter has built.

It was begun in June of ‘21. We transported the materials from NY City to Chatham and carried them the last few hundred yards up a hill to the site in the field. I started by building the base platform.

It had a nice symmetry when completed.

Then I added the constellation sculptures meant to stand for the signs of the Zodiac. I had pre fabricated them in Brooklyn in my backyard.

So it was just a matter of placing them on the finished platform.

As with almost all my sculptural work, salvage and leftover comprised the bulk of the material for the build.

The finished sculpture had a carnivalesque feel…

… on which the elements took their toll.

This process of dilapidation and decay is a part of why I love working outside. Watching the natural, elemental decay of materials and the attendant alteration of initial vision feel close to nature and the reason I am so attracted to trees, the plant world’s greatest sculptures.