Arts/Industry resident Marne Lucas working in the Foundry at the Kohler Co. factory. Photo courtesy JMKAC.
FOUNDRY-
I made the first ‘Bardo ∞ Project’ sculptures at a 2016 Arts/Industry residency at the Kohler Co. Factory, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The work I made was based on time I spent with my first collaborator, Brooklyn photographer Chris Brunkhart. I was at the Cast Iron and Brass foundry and the porcelain Pottery factory for four winter months. My residency began just four days after my first collaborator Chris Brunkhart’s memorial in Portland, Oregon. Within that narrow window of time I flew back to New York, packed, and took a bus to Boston to visit collaborator artist Joe Heaps Nelson. I arrived at Kohler with staggering grief and a few ideas sketched into a notebook and spent four winter months in the Cast Iron and Brass foundry and the porcelain Pottery factory, making the first Bardo ∞ Project works.
Detail: 'Infinity Snake', cast iron, wax, gun blueing, 26 x 11 x 4”, edition of 3, 2016.
‘Chris’ Gloved Hand Holding Camera’, cast brass, PVD electroplated coating, found plastic camera, 8 x 7 x 6”, 2016.
‘Ouroboros', Cast brass, PVD electroplated coating, 16 x 16 x 4”, edition of 2, 2016.
‘Ouroboros', Cast brass, PVD electroplated coating, 16 x 16 x 4”, edition of 2, 2016.
'Birdbath for Candace', cast iron, enamel, brass, PVD coating, hardware, 2016.
'Tree Conch' cast brass, wax, 10 x 13 x 3", ed. 1/1, 2016.
'Memorial Birdbath 2' cast iron, enamel, brass, PVD coating, hardware, 2016.
Detail: back 'Tree Conch' cast brass, wax, 10 x 13 x 3", 2016. Photo: Arts/Industry, JMKAC.
'Chris' Hand with Camera 2', cast brass, found camera, 2016. Photo: Arts/Industry, JMKAC.
'Chris with Hospital Dishes', Porcelain, glaze, photo decal, found dishes, 2016. Photo: Arts/Industry, JMKAC.
'Departed Grandmothers: Aprons and Skulls', vitreous porcelain, glaze, 7 x 6 x 2”, 2016.
'Departed Grandmothers: Aprons and Skulls', vitreous porcelain, glaze, 7 x 6 x 2”, 2016.
‘Transfleurs, Accumulation’, vitreous porcelain, glaze, 2016.
TRANSFLEURS
The “flowers” grew from my ideas on gender, sensuality, and the reproductive nature of plants. They are also inspired by senior transgender artist and inventor Misc. Pippa Garner. She was instantly inspiring to me upon meeting her at an art fair in NYC. I went to Long Beach, California to photograph her for my artist portrait series. We became fast friends and share a similar sense of humor and appreciation of the female body. Pippa coined the expression Trans Alchemy, which rivets me to a philosophy of trans ideals.
Previously (nèe Philip Garner) they worked in an automobile factory in Detroit and thus could relate to what I was experiencing at the Kohler Co. factory. Our elliptical conversations keep our sense of humor intact in spite of life’s recent challenges: her chemotherapy battle with lymphoma and the death of my photographer friend Chris Brunkhart. Garner is a force of nature, creativity, science and beauty.