Site for Monad

Jan. 25

Stephen Cruise*
May 22 – September 30, 1985

Stephen Cruise, Site for Monad, 1985; wood, steel, paint. BULL - 5.5'H x 9.5' L x .5' W BRIDGE - 5 sections each 1' H x 10' L x 2' W. BONFIRE - 12' H x 12' L x 12" W

Artist Statement

This site-specific installation for summer has as its elements a life-sized BULL with silver-leafed BLADE cradled in its back, linked by a narrow wooden BRIDGE to a 12' BONFIRE of painted logs. The physical properties of the Garden site determine the work. Its two levels, dissected by 2 concrete radiating steps, stand as reality (at grade) and dream state (below grade). Objects from my dream diary completed the statement - selected sights provided a natural 'match' between the physical space and the meaning of the work.

Site for Monad is an interpretation of the moment of self-realization when the object, through placement and figurative association, links the dream state with reality.

The BRIDGE and BLADE (with Chinese characters) serve to make the work 'foreign' - separate from the interpretations of our immediate culture and displaced from ordinary experience. The carved full-size wooden BULL stands at grade, a silver-leafed BLADE cutting its back - the process of halving/reaching the core of one's being. The BONFIRE, a teepee of cedar, painted the brilliant red reds/yellows of continuous burning (standing as dream), signifies a gathering, a collecting object to be stood around - ever light/ever consuming as signal and beacon. The BONFIRE has been placed by the waterfall where it may potentially be extinguished.

Spanning some 50 feet in five sections, the camouflage-painted BRIDGE connects the two levels of the Garden and the two states of consciousness within the work. One tip of the BRIDGE has been touched by painted fire. The burning BRIDGE provides a momentary link - that heightened reality, which occurs rarely, when the full experience of dream/conscious states superimpose…a blanket for each other.