Reconfiguration No. 21 (Gold)

 

One balloon inflated per day, covering in gold leaf, and left to sit. Over time, the leaf cracks, expands, peels back and floats off the surface of the balloon as the latter shrinks inside. We see glimpses of the balloon through this brilliant golden husk: shriveled skin, a puckered nipple poking out one end. Sad? Maybe, but only inasmuch as the passage of time is sad. Inevitable, perhaps. These are unstable objects that are changing at this very moment: forming new mutations, inhabiting new ways of being in space. This shift is taking place so slowly, it’s almost imperceptible - but come back in a little while and you’re sure to see it.

“Balloons coated in gold leaf are allowed to deflate, leaving shells like the husks of golden insects. Balloons coated in something else, hang from a wire like shriveled fruit. There’s a sense of letting things happen - letting time happen, letting space happen. Letting these things make their mark. . . A sense of an unfolding process whose shape cannot be seen from our current location - an unscrolling that will be known only in retrospect.” - John Searcy, MFA Lecturer, Department of English, Cornell University

Free School
Gary Snyder Project Space
New York City
2013

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How I learned to stop verbing and blank the object

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Reconfiguration No. 28 (Blue)