Balance and Unbalanced <back>

My initial reaction to Patricia Izzo's photograph of Alice is to note how she chooses to deal with the idea of balance. My work is about point and counterpoint and being equal while Patricia writes about being out of balance and the resulting motion and emotion caused by being so. <read statement> My response takes the form of a more dynamic stance in the two horse figures that represent Yin and Yang. The postures are in opposition, one looming aggressively forward, the other turning and leaning away. The gestures of the two horses when seen together also capture a sense of the swirling vertigo that Patricia addresses in her statement and portrays in the symbols laying below the primary subject of Alice that she depicts in the photograph. <view photo>

I also responded to the black and white photographic medium by glazing one horse black and the other white. This choice ties the two figures not only to Patricia's black and white photograph, but also to the Yin/Yang symbol for which the work it titled.

The engineering of these works also deals with balance and one force that affects balance, gravity. In order to achieve the angle of the horses' stance, I built ramps on which to construct the pieces so that the legs bore the weight of the body of the horse in a more or less vertical position. When the ramps are removed the angle of the legs is more acute and emphasizes the gesture of the stance.

Jeri Hollister