Hello Dear Followers,
I know, 6 days have passed since last I posted anything! Travel can be that way sometimes. After siting Bill’s Lodestone and saying goodbye to Martina I returned to ZKM and took a few more photos. The next two days were basically the fog of travel. I stayed overnight in Karlesruhe, visited Bill’s stone once again and then took the train to Frankfurt where I stayed in a hotel near the center. Next day I visited the art museum, but the collection wasn’t very interesting so I just made my way to the airport and waited for my flight to Riga. Here are some images that Martina took as I unloaded Bill’s Lodestone and got it to a beautiful site on the “Human Rights Plaza” in front of the Museum.
Bill’s Lodestone unloaded from Martina’s van
How fortunate for us, there was an elevator from the parking garage to the plaza!
I left a message in the Lodestone .
Seems like a good place to rest for a while brother.
Bill’s Lodestone with ZKM in the background.
Bill’s site is on the Human Rights Plaza.
My flight was delayed so didn’t get to Riga until after 11:00 PM Ojars and Laura Miglone met me and we drove to Pedvale. After some talk and a beer we all got to bed about 2:00 AM. Up about 8:30 and spent the day discussing my plan for an earthwork at Pedvale, visiting the site, visiting Ojars’ new large-scale sculptures and finally after the construction crew left for the day we toured the rennovations of the Manor House. It is an enormous undertaking and because it is state sanctioned as an historic site all of the work has to meet strict standards for reconstruction.
Manor House Rennovation
From the top down.
Sometimes steel is the only answer!
Whenever possible original materials and methods are used.
I didn’t believe this wall when I saw it!
On Saturday we had excursions all day. First we went to Talsi where we saw Ojars bronze “Talsi Sun” and all of us touched the sun for good fortune, we also visited Ojars monumental “Path of the Sun” at Pedvale and spent half the day in Riga visitng the rennovated National Art Museum, etc.
Talsi Sun
Ojars touching the Sun
Laura touching the Sun
Ojars with “Path of the Sun”
Monday was devoted to planning for my earthwork “Stone Boat” which references the Viking burial sites that are found in this region of Latvia. Lacking a large body of water to do a burial by fire where the body was placed in a boat set adrift and set afire. They constructed ‘boats’ by placing stones in the shape of a viking longboat and placed the remains and gifts for the afterlife inside the ‘boat’. Placemaking and placeshaping are part of the history of mankind and I like to tie into that history with my work. “Stone Boat” will echo the longboat shape but one side of the ‘boat’ will be made of modern gabions ( steel mesh constructions that contain stones and are often used to reinforce earthworks such as bridges and to control erosion, etc.) and the other side will be deliniated with stones set fush with the surface. This will create a sort of stage -like space suitable for performances, events, rituals, etc. Ojars and I have been discussing this project for several years and this trip offered me the opportunity to actually begin the process of createing the work for the park!
Site for “Stone Boat”
I spent the better part of the day pulling this long blog post together as I. did the “hurry up and wait” segment of my trip home. I get up at 4 AM to get to the airport for the last leg of this journey and I must say I am ready to be back home again.
Cheers, Carl