Back to The Mission – 57 Descending a switchback after Duchamp

After all the Nike studies and creating 5 new pieces I came back to the original objective “The 57 descending”, a work based on the Painting “Nude Descending a Staircase” I had a mold for the bronze pedestal sized “Boomer’s Nike” so I cast a bunch of these and constructed the model. All through an exercise like this I am thinking about the full sized version and what it will take to make one of these that is 12 feet high and could weigh several tons. I assembled the components and modeled the transitions into the finished the model. Next came a rubber mold to cast it in, the most complicated mold I have ever designed, with fins projecting in all directions. But I was determined to cast it all in one piece. Quick calculations told me this could weigh 2 to 300lbs and would need two people and a chain fall to manage the casting process. And this was just the pedestal size! The mold was designed for that purpose.

. A nice yellow beige color was created for the base mix to imitate the Duchamp painting The piece was cast in Concrete. An assistant and I managed to do the casting in about an 8 hour session and it worked out pretty well. My new area for wet grinding cement was tried out during this project and of course I had to re-design the set up for improvements. I have some ancient iron wheeled carts for factory transport that turned out to be great turn tables for this heavy, wet finishing work. The piece was ready for the Velocity show in Minneapolis. It weighs about 230lbs. and I do have to bring my engine hoist when I install this baby.

Every 15 degrees or so is a brand new composition, and when you experience descending a mountain road the energy is a lot like this. I hope I paid sufficient homage to Duchamp in this composition. And to the Harley Earl team that created those beloved Chevy fins. I look forward to the day I can build the big one.

My last few thoughts and spin outs on the Nike series were about the dreams of car collectors. Like dear in the headlights, all they can see is their favorite. The rest are of no importance, hence the headlight pieces as wall reliefs for My 57 Chevy fans,. Oh and one last note; under construction is the “Rites of Passage” installation with a 57, but this will wait for my next series of postings on the big installations in the Art park.

Next time: the Overheads-my forayer into Modern American Tribal Art using car parts

Thanks

Tj