‘What Comes Next’
Elora Sculpture Project - 2024
Average global temperatures for 2023 became the hottest on record, rising to 1.46 ° C above ‘pre-industrial’ average (1850). With warming will come sea level rise.
The form of this sculpture is suggested by deep undersea hydrothermal vents.
In keeping with the concept of ‘humans once lived here’, sometime in the distant future coloured limestone formations have combined with new coral growths to cover over the debris left behind when human industrial civilization was abandoned. Despite the worst of human degradation, the sea continues to harbour life, although much has been distorted to unfamiliar forms.
I beg the indulgence of the Jury on this submission, which is more conceptional than fully rendered. The individual elements can be illustrated by past works, provided as examples of at least intended types.
General Description
The core of the sculpture is a irregularly surfaced, roughly conical stack with a number of openings at the upper side, standing about four feet tall by two feet at the base. This structure is composed of randomly coloured concrete, laid around and including various cast off pieces from plastic appliance housings and shaped scrap metal like machine parts and shot sections of pipe. Some of these are surface textured and painted to suggest mould or algae.
At several spots, the structure includes groups of randomly shaped ‘bubbles’, which allow for viewing into the interior. These placed so that the motion of the sculpted ‘jelly fish’ in the interior can be glimpsed (part of the mechanism described below).
Over the surface of the stack a number of creatures crawl or are attached. These will include vaguely crab and shrimp like animals, variations on real (often bizarre) worms, coral and kelp forms - and some creatures the like of which has not been seen since ancient mass extinction events.
Above all this, from the main central opening, number of tall sinuous curved panels rise, suggestive of the ‘smoke’ visible at some ocean vents extend a further two - three feet. Each is pivoted and counterbalanced, allowing for some motion side to side in the wind. The counterbalance weights are formed from drastically shaped and patterned steel blocks, suggesting strange jelly fish like creatures.
Also standing above the main form are a number of thin rods which support individual, brightly painted fish profiles, which also swivel in moving winds.
As with past submissions, this will be a new work, created specifically for the Elora Sculpture Project.
Prototypes
The main point of inspiration remains images taken at deep sea hydrothermal vents:
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| Some of the ‘black smoker’ types show bright mottled colours over the deposited materials making up the stacks. |
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| Commonly found animals are crabs and shrimp. |
1) Structure
Some indication of how individual metal and plastic elements will be incorporated can be seen in my ‘Mecha’ series (2015) although this was considerably more limited in scale.
2) Crabs / Shrimp
These will be at least suggestive of earlier work like ‘Burgess Crab’ (2011) and the horseshoe crab element seen in ‘Last to Sea’ (ESP - 2020), although what will be made will be considerably smaller in size.
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| 'Burgess Crab' |
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| Horseshoe Crab element |
I will certainly use the stacked plastic disks with spacers method used for ‘Roller’ (2013), although with a rigid spine. Other worm like creatures will incorporate the waving form seen along the back of ‘Hallucigenia’ (2012)
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| 'Roller' |
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| 'Hallucigenia' |
4) ’Smoke’
The panels will be individually curved, as seen in ‘Celtic Winds’ (2005), although not as aggressively contoured, and starting with a narrow triangular shape before folding.
5) Kelp / Coral
Exact details will vary as individual elements are created. An earlier examples of potential forms can be suggested by ‘Kelp-on-Stone’ (2010)
Construction
The overall height will be 6 - 7 feet (installed)
The overall diameter will be and irregular roughly 3 feet, with individual elements attached.
Due to the expected weight of the total sculpture, the main structure will consist of a series of individual ‘donut’ sections about 12 inches tall. These formed of fine sand concrete mix, cast into loose wet sand forms to an estimated thickness of about two inches over wire reinforcing grid. The base concrete itself may be coloured / contain texture elements, and there will be coloured paint applied to the surface to best reflect the reference image mentioned above. The rings will have internal framing of steel and bolt through pipe fittings on the interior allowing each to be lifted in place then securely attached together. The bottom most ring will also contain a framework of 1 1/2 x 1/8 inch web angle allowing for bolting to the existing sculpture mount.
The concrete sections will include various found object pieces, exactly what, primarily at the whims of what can be found.
Individual creature forms will be primarily made of forged mild steel bar, structural and sheet. Some will have decorative paint applied, some left to naturally rust patina. Use of heavy wire rope, and re-bar may be used to create interesting textures on longer kelp like elements. The ‘Roller’ element will incorporated plastic (CD/DVD) disks, others may have framework glass included. All the individual elements (save those few that move) will be bolted into place.
A further commentary, written for this blog
And will you go to church to pray,
Leaving your children to atone.
This world you’ve left in disarray
Is not God’s work; it is your own.
“God and The Orange Clown”
Ian Robb (1)
Over the past years I have become more and more distressed with human impact on the Earth’s environment. Measurements for 2023 show that global warming actually rose 1.46 ° C. (2) This places any governmental attempts at limiting the impact of CO2 emissions as an means of keeping any rise in global average temperatures from increasing any more than 1.5 ° C as clearly impossible.
At point of writing (January 15, 2024) the actual atmospheric CO2 level was 422 parts per million. (3)
“The last time CO2 levels exceeded 400ppm was around four million years ago, during the Pliocene era, when global temperatures were 2-4C (3.6-7.2F) warmer and sea levels were 10-25m (33-82ft) higher than today.” (4)
Look at a sea level projection of what even 10 metres higher would mean, and you will see the majority of major cities along both the USA coasts may be simply be under water by the much repeated 2050 benchmark. (5)
'Oh - It will not be that bad, and that is still a lifetime away, I will never see this!'
Fine.
Look only as far out as 2030. About the time you will be buying your next new car (likely another F150 pickup).
https://www.timeout.com/things-to-do/cities-that-could-be-underwater-by-2030
Back in 1976 (five years after I was personally involved in the Enviromental movement, if only in a small way) Billy Joel wrote 'Miami 2017' (6). At that time this was a reflection on the New York City debt crisis, but...
Seen the lights go out on Broadway
I saw the Empire State laid low
And life went on beyond the Palisades
They all bought Cadillacs
And left there long ago
They held a concert out in Brooklyn
To watch the island bridges blow
They turned our power down
And drove us underground
But we went right on with the show
1) https://ianrobb1.bandcamp.com/track/god-and-the-orange-clown
2) https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2024/2023-the-warmest-year-on-record-globally
3) https://www.co2.earth/annual-co2
4) https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230317-the-state-of-the-climate-in-2023
5) The link allows you to plug in various water level increases against a zoom in world map https://coastal.climatecentral.org/map/10/-52.6278/47.426/?theme=water_level&map_type=water_level_above_mhhw&basemap=roadmap&contiguous=true&elevation_model=best_available&refresh=true&water_level=10.0&water_unit=m
6) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coYwBvysy3Q
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