steve
roden
the
surface of the moon, 2001
exhibition: snapshot, ucla hammer museum, los angeles, ca
and moca - museum of contemporary art, miami, fl
'the
surface of the moon' was inspired by a list of "craters, mountains, and
other objects" from a turn of the century map of the moon in an astronomy
book called "celestial objects for common telescopes".
the number of objects
(sculptures) that make up the work is 490 - the same number of land formations
on the list - basically every known land formation circa 1910. each
object's height is determined by the number of vowels in its name; and these vowels also determined the materials that were added to the
wooden structure (the wood is the consonant). the system i set up was that a= wax, e= wire, i = tin
foil, o= gesso, and u= pencil. thus land formation #33 "berzelius" is
four inches tall and uses wire, tin, and pencil along with
the wood.
once
these parameters were determined, the sculpture/object was made intuitively,
drawing on a number of different sources of inspiration. the
total work is approximately 70 feet long. i initially showed close to half of the sculpture at the hammer and miami moca for the snapshot show in a straight line. a year later, after letting go of a ridiculously stubborn attitude about the piece needing to be in a straight line, i showed the work at suyama space in seattle as more of an installation - with bisecting lengths of 3, 6, and 9 feet in length, it was the first time i was able to show the entire sculpture.
the surface of the moon was one of the first pieces i did that used a set of predetermined formal variables that allowed text to so much of the works presence, without actual text being visible in the results. this led to several large breakthroughs with the paintings and my practice in general.
you can click on the first three images to see larger ones.
installation at the hammer museum.
the photos below are from the installation at suyama space
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