Zen Parry - Project 'Engagement

Through time in our industrial history people have consistently described the phenomemon of a "near death" experience, with the undeniable attribute of a 'white light' being present. This is the 'white light' that I want to engage. It provokes many questions — why is the experience so consistent? Can it be invoked? Why does it take near death to experience it? What would happen if we changed the context and called it a 'near life' experience?

Does this white light mean we are passing through a force field of some type and might not be able to return once we are through this field? Why do some people spend all of their energy avoiding an engagement with life? Or appear to exemplify an attitude of "near death" by choice? Can we invoke this white light, associated with near death, at will? The metaphors surrounding white light abound, and at times the words 'light' and 'life' seem interchangeable.

Being in the USA for an extended period of time has afforded the opportunity to explore the cultural relationships to death, and the issues relating to this eventuality. Before I could understand death, I had to understand life. What shocks me is the consistency in which people build barriers around themselves because of their fear of death, as if these barriers will stop the inevitable.. There are other 'barriers' as well - the need to always look young (through having plastic injected into your forehead or your face being stretched). Their lives seemed to be shrink-wrapped, to avoid the reference to death, and by default, prevent them from living life to its fullest.

This installation is a dense layering and matrix of cultural and symbolic references to our beliefs about death in this moving framework called life. You will see works encased in plastic acting like a womb around something static or dead; objects wrapped to 'keep them clean' (which then makes me ask For What?); structures that reference other histories beyond our own; light, shadow and sound that invoke a feeling of time or timelessness.

It is up to you to draw your own observations and conclusions. Where do you go when you actively engage this 'white light?' Does this white light, from near death, create 'enlightenment?' Perhaps a better question to ask is 'why don't you engage the white light?"

"Future Life" was built during moon cycles from New Moon to Full Moon, only at night during the Spring of 2004 in the Czech Republic. The sculpture is more than 6 feet tall, and the materials used include pit fired ceramics, mixed media and human hair. The installation was open from 1 May – 30 October, 2004, and was featured on Australian National Television on Channel 9 on 19 May, 2005 on the program 'Getaways'. The installation space is in the cellars of the Latran Castle, and can be accessed through www.virtual-gallery.cz.

THIS PROJECT PROPOSES:

This Project Proposes to change the way you might view craft and it’s stereotypes. The audience is encouraged to remain in the environment for extended periods of time to experience their own reactions to the concept, content, materials and techniques used in the installation.

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree

Some fun statistics…
This project has taken more than 2 years to bring to completion. There are more than 4000 man-hours of work logged, and literally 20 miles of plastic used. (Thankfully, though, the plastic was liberated from a dumpster.) Other fun numbers include 14,000 glow-in-the-dark spider rings, 120,000 punch tags to connect components, at least 4 ‘quilts’ and lots and lots of crochet and shrink-wrapping of components. The sheep bones are from Australia; the hair is from Romania and Indonesia and most of the glass was made in the Czech Republic.



Image Credits: Dale Ogletree

People I would like to thank:

Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery (www.contemporarycrafts.org)
Regional Arts and Culture Council (www.racc.org)
Oregon Art Beat and Jessica Martin and her team
Cape Falcon Kayak and Brian Schulz (www.capefalconkayak.com)
Avery Dennison and Kelly Garabadian
Seal-a-Tron and Werner Duemmer
The Cohen Family – Ken, Connie, Anna, Miles and Skye
John and Patti Henry
Petra Benkova (Miroslav Paral and the Petran Family in the Czech Republic)
Allison McClean
Dale Ogletree
Ian Probasco
Jack Rust
Suzy Root
John Sutter
Dave Turkington
Ken Unkeles at Cathedral Park Place
Allison Wonder
And a large army of friends, colleagues and vendors who have helped make this happen

THE PROJECT CONFIGURATION FOR THE INSTALLATION:

The space — a metaphor for Life itself, filled with the audience and active, and dormant when the audience is not present. Or is it …? The space is defined internally at the Museum. A large floor length curtain will be hung to define the internal enclosed space. The audience will have to walk up a slight ramp then part a curtain to be able to enter the darkened internal space.

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree

This is a line drawing showing the perspective of the gallery space.
A television. — a metaphor for this culture, and the power it has over someone. When you sit and watch, your breathing goes shallow and you enter a quasi- embalmed state, transfixed by the white light of the t.v. You don’t even flinch when major issues blare out proclaiming death and doom with every story. You are put into a state of living death, bathed in white light and unable to engage in the information that is assaulting you. This element will provide a form of ambient white light in the predominantly darkened space. The light feeds the quilt made of ‘glow-in-the-dark’ elements.

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree
Knick Knacks and all things Kitsch — Life in America involves a lot of plastic — you cannot buy meat unless it is packaged in plastic; quick disposability without conscience determines many decisions; keeping your sofa wrapped in plastic so that it doesn’t get dirty only begs the question ‘why?’; frilly, tacky, cloyingly awful stuff that just builds and builds upon itself. At some point, the knicks and knacks become a metaphor for who you are as a person. It is your baggage, all shrink-wrapped and waiting at arms length. What are you waiting for?

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree

A sense of time — When death is denied or ignored, it warps the sense of time. Questions arise such as ‘what were we before’ and ‘where are we going?’ Boats have long been used as a metaphor for this symbolic travel. The frames in the installation carry a history and tradition with them as well, with the original forms having a skin stretched over them to make them waterproof. It is this connection – stretching skin to keep the elements at bay that created curious elements for this installation. We stretch our own skins in numerous ways, as we deal with our internal elements. Just think of pregnancy, or the things that are done for the sake of cosmetic beauty. Can you see the glass baby in the pelvis, waiting for birth, or not…Funeral Pyres represent the release of your soul as it begins this journey.

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree

The Story Behind the Boat Frames:

Arctic Kayak Replicas

Perhaps no other indigenous culture lived closer to death than Arctic peoples. For thousands of years survival depended on subsistence hunting from skin-on-frame kayaks. The kayaks themselves were composed of a light wooden skeleton over which thinly scraped sea mammal hide was sewn. In a frozen landscape wood might be scavenged for years to make a single kayak. Designs were diverse and reflected local needs and conditions. In these kayaks, in frozen weather and heavy seas, men in bearskin trousers and gut skin jackets pursued sea mammals, polar bears, and whales with deadly effectiveness. Meanwhile the women did as much, if not more, physical work rowing supplies, dressing animals, making clothing, and caring for the children. With virtually no plants to eat, the slaughter and use of animals was a central focus and daily life was literally drenched in blood. Reports of starving people eating the skins off of kayaks illustrate the extreme and tenuous nature of arctic survival. With such a visceral connection to their mortality, arctic people seemed to take great pleasure in daily life and the European explorers who encountered them would often remark at their joyous disposition.

The two kayaks here represent nearly the geographic extent of kayak use in the arctic. Both are copies of Eskimo hunting kayaks in museums. The Aleut Baidarka was collected on Atka Island (in the Aleutians) in 1934. It is on display in the Lowie Museum, University of California, Berkely. The West Greenland kayak was collected in 1935 in the town of Sisimuit. Both of these replicas had skins and have been paddled. They are quiet, swift, and noticeably superior to a modern plastic kayak.

Brian Schulz

www.capefalconkayak.com

Sound in life and death — the sound of light exploding with Kelvin force – like a strobe, to symbolize the flash on a camera as we try to capture a moment in time. The first sound of life might be the cry of a newborn baby. Or the roaring silence of contemplation, symbolized by that flash of light that acts as the field between ‘there’ and ‘now’. ‘Today’, the ‘here and now’ is symbolized by a ticking clock, wrapped in plastic of course.

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree
The audience — a counterpoint metaphor to the purpose of this installation. Your behavior is unpredictable. Some will stop and admire themselves in the context of the environment, whilst others will chose to not respond at all. Some will stand back from each object and contemplate its’ value, while others will leave quickly, choosing not to engage on any level. This is life. What are you waiting for?

Image Credits: Dale Ogletree

PROTYPES OF SOME OF THE OBJECTS IN THE INSTALLATION

A Jesus bird.
	Techniques used include spot welding for the wire frame, and crochet for the fabric covering.
The baby is flameworked for hard glass and will be sandblasted for opacity.

A small scale example of one of the Holy Trinity series As a work in progress. These images were taken in daylight. Techniques and materials used in the construction of the piece include crochet for the membrane, flameworked hard glass pods sandblasted for opacity then oiled for translucency before being attached to the membrane, and fringing that is heat treated.
		The fiber optic threads are inserted into the hollow glass pods, 2 or 3 at a time depending on the size of the pod and entry hole. The fiber optic threads are 'side emitting', with an open point of light at the end of each fiber. The Illuminator has a metal halogen lamp, that requires time to warm up and also to warm down.

Exhibition space

Contemporary Crafts Museum and Gallery (CCMG)
3934 SW Corbett Avenue
Portland OR 97239
Phone 503 223 2654
www.contemporarycrafts.org

Wendy Miller, Director of Marketing; Eric Franklin, Installation Guru

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PROJECT“ENGAGEMENT – WHITE LIGHT”

People I would like to thank:

PROJECT
“ENGAGEMENT – WHITE LIGHT”