peterelsworth
Unfinished Business (proposal)
Maquette;
Unfinished Business: It takes breaking break together to just get along. 2022, Acrylic on balsa wood, 8 inches deep x 12 inches wide x 8 inches deep. Scale: One inch to one foot.
The proposed sculpture is an unfinished log cabin with painted doors, stylized windows and flowers. The roof consists of just two roof joists, one at each end, and is otherwise unfinished.
The theme of the piece, which was inspired by the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement, addresses the nation’s unfinished passage toward racial integration.
The title refers to the need for social integration – breaking bread together - to go along with political and economic integration.
‘Just get along’ echoes African American Rodney King’s famous plea in a 1992 interview in connection to a video taping of his being beaten by Los Angeles police officers in March 1991.
Structure
The design is based on a pre-existing project adapted to a sculptural context. The base measures eight feet wide by 12 feet long by and eight feet high.
The roof joists add an additional 4-1/2 feet to the height and three feet to the width where the frames overlap the walls. Including the joists results in the overall sculpture measuring 11 feet wide by 12-1/2 feet high.
The design incorporates large rectangular beams instead of round logs, a design that allows for angled notched corners with particular aesthetic appeal in addition to being practical.
Rather than a series of simple concave notches – as in Lincoln Logs, for example – the complex design of flat angles forces the weight of each log to exert pressure not only down but toward the center of the structure, thus creating strong structural integrity.
In addition, the angles of the notches serve to spill rain water away from the structure to avoid leaks and potential rot.
Decoration
The structure does not have a front and back. Instead, the front and back have doors painted in a checkered black and white pattern symbolizing black and white relations. The pattern is reversed on each side.
Beside the doors are painted stylized blue windows and yellow and orange flowers, symbolizing domesticity. The ends of the cabin repeat the blue windows and yellow and orange flowers.
Materials
The structure is comprised of rectangular beams of white pine each measuring 6 inches wide by 8 inches high. The beams are not attached to the structure, but are locked in place by virtue of the angled notches with a gap between each beam ensuring their weight bears down and toward the center. providing strong structural integrity.
The roof joists measure 6-1/2 feet high and 11 feet wide and are attached by bolts.
In keeping with traditional log cabins, the white pine has not been treated, instead being allowed to weather to a grey finish.
Existing prototype
Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial in Vienna.
