As April draws to a close, here's where things stand:
Arrow Frames:
I just completed a 10 day trip/mini-residency at Sculpture Space in Utica to fabricate the 16 arrow frames that will hold the birdseed letters of All Consuming. In those long uninterrupted days I built, primed and drilled 16 steel tubing frames. I also built and painted 32 cedar frames with 1" steel mesh insets. I also fabbed a jig for the drilling of holes in the two wood poles (keeping the spacing consistent and the holes parallel is critical)
I loaded about half of these frames in my pick-up for the return trip and go back up to Utica this weekend for the rest.
Birdseed Letters:
The larger seed letters (the ones spelling the city names) have all been cast. This involved cutting wood forms of the letters and building a simple vacuum form box to make plastic molds from the wood forms. Once these molds were ready, I spent a week mixing seed with gelatin and corn syrup and filling the molds over and over unit I had everything needed.
I'll be cutting the smaller letters this weekend, making plastic molds and mixing seed again for the rest.
Rob Swainston and I are working together to coordinate our install in an effort to save costs on things like shipping, concrete delivery and equipment rental. We each needed large wood poles and combining our orders saved us several hundred dollars on shipping. The poles are scheduled to arrive on the 11th of May and I'm working with Deb to get the holes dug and the poles erected and braced in anticipation of pouring their concrete bases.
I've been consulting with an architect named Michael Cetera on the plans for my project. Cetera's non-profit group, Pro Bono Design, worked with Kant's Ghost House project last year. We completed the drawings this week and submitted them to the Park Department for review.
I'll start assembling the finished frames with the seed letters next week.
Changes:
The size of the smaller letters was increased from 4" to 6". The height of the frame was increased an inch to accommodate this change.
The placement of the letters in each frame will be shifted from a left justification (which pushes them closer to pole) to a right justification. This will allow the letters clearer visibility when 2 or more frames are in close proximity.
Instead of each pole having 8 signs on 4 levels (meaning each level has two signs), each pole will have 8 signs on staggered levels. This offset is needed to allow the holes for the frames to not overlap
