Patrick
Miceli ~ Statement on the "Core Sample Project"
This project began when I saw a core sample. It had been pulled from the ground
like a plug. I was not impressed by the information it might hold. I was struck
by its charm, its beauty, and its pure significance as an aesthetic object.
It was later that I came to appreciate it for its environmental importance.
Once having seen the form, I wanted to mimic it to explore related ideas.
After some initial experimentation, I decided on the use of a clay extruder for compacting material, and on fast food packaging for the core material. The use of the extruder came out of my familiarity with clay technology. It was simple and yielded quick results. My choice of fast food packaging was a result of my use of it in past work. I thought of it as significant as evidence of our culture and because it was plentiful.
Each core sample measures 4" in diameter and vary in height from 1" to 13" and contains several found objects. The disposition of several hundred pieces will be in the form of a site specific installation. The varying heights of the pieces will be arranged so as one looks across the tops of the pieces, they will form an undulating surface. This wavy surface references a topographical model or map. The layering of paper within each core sample emulates the stratifications of materials found in actual core samples. The found objects in each piece is the hidden treasure, a talisman, the prize in a box of cracker jacks, the toy in a child's happy meal or an archeological relic that holds the clue of what we are and what influences and shapes our lives.
I was watching the news one evening when the newscaster began to tell the story of the plight of villagers in southern Mexico. They had been caught in mud slides as a result of heavier than normal summer rains. The telling of the story was accompanied by images of the villagers digging their houses and possessions out of the mud, clay and debris that had engulfed them. As I watched the surreal image of a man uncover a door, with its protruding door knob, out of the carpet of earth, I was not only filled with empathy for the people whose life's possessions had been taken from them by this force of nature, I was struck by the confluence of ideas, images and questions.The mud and clay became a new backdrop against which the possessions of the villagers could be seen. I imagined new narrative and abstract relationships being created by the random displacement and subsequent arrangement of the objects in the force of the flow. What form did these new arrangements take? Could they be investigated like archaeological relics or was a new paradigm needed to form a comprehensive understanding of the event and its aftermath? Was this just another example of the chaos of the universe encroaching upon the order of man or was it the reassertion of a more compelling order?Out of the impressions made upon me by the news story, together with my natural inclination to collect, I am making unfired clay tablets, each with a variety of objects embedded in their surface. My intention is to explore the narrative and abstract relationships among man made objects and between the objects and clay, a material with direct connection to that which engulfed the possessions of the villagers. My source for the materials is objects that had come into my possession because they have been lost, discarded or given away, and the discarded clay from several ceramic studios.Each tablet measures approximately twelve inches square and two inches thick. Their colors range from a light burnt umber to an even lighter gray. Each tablet contains several objects or more and can function alone or in conjunction with others.