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

From Study to tand alone Sculpture

A funny thing happened on the way to designing the model.

I began a layout for the pedestal sized “Boomer’s Nike” and was preparing to model the piece when a friend came by with a sheepish request. It seemed he had this 57 Chevy that he was going to restore in the spring and needed a place to store it for the winter. Holy Schneiky! He had no problem with me pulling molds from it so it was agreed, the Chevy came to my studio. By the spring there was a set of plaster molds of all four corners of the car and details of chrome. These were carefully assembled and laid up in fiberglass to become a full sized sculpture. I got a nice wheel cover, (hub cap in 50’ speak) mold but I wanted a good amount of crush in the tire to indicate weight. This proved to be difficult. Even deflated it takes a lot of weight to squash down a tire. A vice and some pipes made it just right and I got molds of tread and sidewalls from a spare that had never been used , a good early 60s Firestone whitewall.

By summer I was casting a concrete base and the boomer stood seven feet tall. Another friend was getting out of the solid surface counter top business (think Corian) and I bought up his surplus powders and flakes for making castings. Now each piece could have it’s own formula.

There are hours and hours of work to develop a form like this. These times include lots of meditation on what this object is really about. My head spun for months on my teenage years and the meaning of getting my first car, on the adoration of the 57 that I saw in collectors and restorers. My generation has a level of obsession with these machines that is tantamount to worship! We poor resources and attention into this phenomena

Some design friends who saw the Boomer’s Nike made the comment “I could see a whole series of these….” So I began to plan and to consider which cars I should reduce and reconstruct to a goddesses torso, and started hunting for models and toys of classics to do maquette studies. I looked hard at cars and started to think about the their forms and more importantly what these particular designs said about us , and why they had gained their reputations. “Which ones were worthy of Goddess status?”

I so loved constructing something new from the existing classic elements that I had to try a few more. There were many cars from this era that spoke equally strongly.

The row of maquettes grew. http://www.sculpturebytj.com/nikepewterspage

Next time, each car dissected and explored
Thanks,
Tj