Thunder Bay, 2019
Fabricated steel, cast concrete, and light.
10’ x 3’ x 3’.
Thunder Bay was exhibited at the 2019 Faculty Biennial at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC.
‘Thunder Bay’ explores architectural forms in context with personal narrative. A light post suggests both safety and warning at once - it can represent a safe place or beacon, yet can also warn of danger. Early lighthouses and buoys were meant both to draw to shore, as well as alarm of unsafe waters. A red light triggers a warning response, a yellow light is calming…etc. The form also suggests a human gesture or something biomorphic through its contrapposto. At it’s simplest, the work speaks to a contrast something natural and human made. In a less direct proposition, the works title speaks to the personal narrative. Thunder Bay is a city in Ontario, Canada where my grandparents remains were found along with their small private plane in 1981, six years after they had disappeared. Through this complex generational mystery the form speaks to the puzzling notions around a beacon. The light emitting from the column is meant to be inviting from a distance, yet too bright to look at upon closer inspection. I imagine this form as perhaps a beacon for my grandparents piloting the plane, an object marking the crash site for the search party, or a memorial in their tribute.