What physical forces determine how a thing transitions to something else? For example, how does land turn to sky at the horizon line? I’m interested in these transitional states and how they work at the atomic level as well as their metaphorical potential.
Something close to home presented itself recently that energized my interest in the concept: the late summer turning of Sumac leaves from green to brown. This process lasted a moment really, about a week. But how dramatic! The oddest coincidence is that weeks before this natural process started happening in Payne Gap, I had been working on a small steel and wood sculpture that features sprayed color graduations in almost the same palette!
The concept of turning also prompted a memory of the performance film by Charles Atlas and Antony (and the Johnsons). I also recalled a similar theme that Matthew Barney explores in his Cremaster films where the artist looks at the moment in human development when male or female sex is determined. Please correct me if I’m wrong in the comment section below.
