‘the surface of the moon’ was inspired by a list of “craters, mountains, and other objects” from a turn of the century map of the moon in an astronomy book called “celestial objects for common telescopes”.
the number of objects that make up the entire work is 490 – the same number of land formations on the list. each object’s height and materials was determined by the vowels in a name. the number of vowels determined the height of an object, while each different vowel in a name determined the materials that were added to the wooden object (wood acting as the consonant).
the system i set up was:
a= wax
e= wire
i = tin foil
o= gesso
u= pencil.
thus, land formation #33 – “berzelius” – told me to make a sculpture that was four inches tall and, along with wood, would include wire, tin, and pencil.
once these parameters were determined, the sculpture/object was made intuitively, drawing on a number of different sources of inspiration, and carving the form with a chop saw and a belt sander. the final work was nearly 100 feet long (when shown in a straight line).
i initially showed half of the sculpture in a straight line at the hammer museum and miami moca for the exhibition “snapshot”. a year later, after letting go of a ridiculously stubborn attitude about the piece needing to be in a straight line, i showed the work at suyama space in seattle as more of an installation – with bisecting lengths of 3, 6, and 9 feet in length, and it was the first time i was able to show the entire sculpture – and it worked in a much more satisfying way as an installation.
the surface of the moon was one of the first pieces i made that was determined by a set of predetermined formal variables. it was also one of the first works to allow text to determine much of the work’s physical presence, without that text being recognizable in the results – for the text truly became a score, rather than a visual element. needless to say, this led to several large breakthroughs in my practice.