intentions

Originally this piece served as one of the 3D drawings. I first envisioned them in one tall stack like a pillar or a wayfinding marker; I may repurpose the pebbles in this format at some point. In that first idea I thought about having 540 pebbles - one for each leg of my journey, and I considered using color to express significant trips - attending college, that first trip back home, getting married, the first trip with our son, etc. Then I thought perhaps they could be an interactive piece - a way to track a visitors progress through the gallery. I envisioned sliding them from one side of the gallery to the other - like an abacus or a tally.

Then with the Migrant X play happening outside the studio I realized that these could be an interactive piece. A way of allowing the visitor to respond with a direct action - a stacking. I have reserved this idea of a Call and Response for yet another iteration. So in this installation Accumulation is hovering somewhere between these two ideas - a tally or abacus and allowing the visitor to take an action or respond to content in the show. They are free to choose any stone rather than just moving the next one in the line.

I am okay if stones migrate out of the gallery. I have received such a positive response to this piece that I plan to continue making this little pieces. They might serve as a tactile way of tracking clay bodies and glazes that I use in my career deepening the definition of ‘accumulation’. I have been asked multiple times to create individual stacks that people might purchase for their own homes or desks. I’m considering what those might look like.

changes

The concept for this work changed very little. The location of the piece within the gallery changed - it became obvious that this piece needed to serve as the ‘last piece’ in a visitors trip around the gallery. That necessitated changing the materials as the wormy pecan I had picked out before was not long enough for this configuration. I want to bookmark that original idea of not having anything centered on the gallery walls but rather have all of the works interact and wrap around the corners. I think it would be unexpected and interesting.

Because of the need to conserve space for traffic in such a narrow gallery I was very aware of the depth of this piece on the wall. It is just wide enough to serve it’s function - no wider. To create even less of a feeling of obstruction I came up with the idea of ‘easing’ the line by beveling the edge along a mitered cut. Not have a sharp or protruding corner creates more visual space around the piece and makes it feel less like you might bump into it. The cut offs from those miters were so interesting that I began to play around with them and quickly ‘designed’ the brackets for the shelf with them. I learned a lot with the construction of this simple piece and I hope that I have the opportunity to use these kind of angled cuts again.

There was a bit of a saga with this piece. The construction schedule was delayed because of changes in the studio attendants schedule. Under the pressure of time and perhaps being distracted during a conversation in the studio I glued my support and brackets on lining them up with the wrong mark. When I came in the next day to install the stakes I discovered that the piece was 3 1/2” off center! Thankfully, my woodworking husband, David, was able to saw the supports off with the bandsaw allowing me to re-sand and glue everything in the right location. I also appreciated Jonathan being generous enough with his time to re-install the keyholes on the back of the shelf so that I could hang it. The keyholes were cut freehand with a router - I participated in the process but did not have the strength/coordination /experience to pull that trick off. In the future with a bit better planning I could reorganize the project in such a way that I could complete all the steps myself. (Don’t talk while gluing).

deinstallation

I’m not sure if this piece will find a permanent home; maybe I’ll reuse it again. The pebbles themselves will of course be re-used and make their way into private connections but I may rethink the design and function of the existing shelf.