The Brooklyn Rail

Somewhere a Place

Face space
With time
To leave
A mark
On time
In time

Simple surface
Cor-Ten strongest
Longest
Lastingest
Slowest rust
Dust

Tree rings unpeel
Rust streams
Weather’s record
Close-up of history
From the edge
Of the galaxy

A turtle’s carapace
A wobbling pivot
A snake’s tail

A route you will take
A solitary path
Step by step
Into time
Into art
Into the art of time

 

 

In the Middle of Nowhere

There is nothing
That is you
In the middle

The edges
Reach to the sun

Now you’ve begun
To see
What cannot
Be seen –

Nothing

And something

To hold
Nothing

 

 

Always

Go the other way
Stretching steel
Into steel
Breath sway

Extrude
Simplicity
Exactitude
Certitude

Hot lead
On a cold day
Splatters
The future

Tree bark
On the floor
Barks

Tar base covers
Tar flow covers
Tar

Which way
You say
Timeless time
Breath sway

Earth explodes
Time stops
Art     does     not

 

 

Follow the Circle

You follow the circle
To reach the center

The center unfurls
To reach the edge

The edge tilts
To offer shadows

Walking into the shadow
You cast no shadow

You disappear
Into the shadow

You can get lost
You can stay lost

There is a way out
Do not take it

 

It’s About Time,

While some people
are busy hanging
art on walls,
Richard says
walls are art,
not that his sculptures
are walls exactly,
know what I mean?

Richard is standing in front of Torqued Ellipse
In the middle of a grassy field as evening draws.
At this point Torqued Ellipse
Exists only in his mind
Plus a couple sketches.
“It’s about time,”
He thinks,

And we know he means that it’s about time this sketch muscles its way into physicality, as well as, for once, his giving words to “the meaning” of the sculpture, despite his core belief that art speaks directly to the observer without need of interpretation, yet the dual meaning must at least be mentioned, that is, besides being about time that this sculpture exist, acknowledging that the sculpture is inherently about Time.

Noticing the actual torque in the steel
The “stretch marks,” if you will
Of Torqued Ellipse
A steel wave ripple
Walk right inside
Richard’s Cor-Ten muscle
Inside sculpture
Inside time