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This sculptural environment was a response to an invitation to participate in a public works project at Lake View Cemetery and Arboretum. The curator for the exhibition (Celebration of the Spirit) was interested in projects that were commemorative and affirming - projects that were sensitive to both the physical surroundings and to the emotional/psychological implications there within. Several artworks were placed and installed in numerous locations on the expansive and beautiful grounds of the arboretum.
The objective of fluid was to consider the context of the environment and to make an experiential installation that was quiet and unassuming, yet engaging and participatory. With an ongoing interest in language and semantics, the concept was developed to create a work that would involve the automatic construction of freeform poetry. The space for this piece was situated on the periphery of a one-acre pond. The pond is particularly tranquil and serene. Borrowing from the existing landscape, 16 small concrete forms (each with one word in reverse relief) were placed at equal intervals around the pond. The forms were direct references to the ground-level grave markers that dot the landscape, and were situated to suggest the same.
Although the markers were solid and static, it was the viewer/participant that gave the piece its kinetic quality. As a gesture of contemplation and meditation, the walk around the pond became activated with the subtle movement of words and language developing a composition of abstract prose. The 16 words were chosen to be contextual and pertinent evocations of the overall theme of the exhibition. Assembled in a circle around an organic form, it was never intended to be a linear read - in fact, the viewers' point of entry and extent of involvement gave shape to the encounter. Also, in the tradition of monument graphite rubbings, people were encouraged and given materials to walk around, select words, and make graphic impressions of their own experience.
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