Sculptors explore new dimensions of ArtSpot
By Katy Niner, Jackson Hole, WyomingJune 20, 2011
By design, the ArtSpot, at 650 W. Broadway, serves as a signpost for public art by framing installations in torch-cut steel. Artists have stretched its strictures before — Suzanne Morlock sheathed it in three-dimensions with “Sweater” — but no one has pierced its picture plane.
Until now.
Sam Dowd and Clint Green have teamed up to explore a new dimension of ArtSpot by jutting a metal canoe helmed by two paddlers at bow and stern through a wooden world of waves and clouds.
“Rather than using the structure as a flat plane, we wanted to pierce it like a knife,” Dowd said.
Slated for installation today, their sculpture will clad ArtSpot all summer long.
Dowd came up with the concept and offered welding expertise, while Green brought his aesthetic-athletic sensibility as a kayaker and kite boarder.
For both, the ArtSpot challenged them to think big and to think sturdy, including engineering a 3-D support structure for the 16-foot-long canoe.
They mapped the sculpture on a massive piece of paper before diving into construction. Then they set out to salvage materials. They scoured the Yellowstone Welding LLC scrap pile in Idaho Falls for steel and scored an old kayak seat from Rendezvous River Sports. They welded the support structure — which will fasten to the ArtSpot frame and enable future 3-D installations — from an outdoor awning apparatus donated by Dean Stayner.
The ArtSpot exploration echoes the adventurous ethos of waterways. Many Teton tales are anchored in valley rivers, dating back historically through the present as the summer melt portends flooding.
“Waterways are very influential in the ways that people explore this land,” Green said, and they carry cross-cultural significance, too, as in death rituals.
Initially, Green and Dowd imagined a real kayak piercing the plane, but they desired a greater design impact. Their craft recalls the canoes used by American Indians and the angular design of driftboats. This fusion of historic and modern suited their desire to both reference and signify the enduring power of valley waterways.
As is true of all ArtSpot installations, the summer sculpture is for sale, with proceeds pumped back into the program to support future ArtSpots.
The Art Association is still seeking submissions for the Fall ArtSpot. Download the application at www.artassociation.org/exhibitions/ArtSpot.
