Client: Grounds For Sculpture
Location: Hamilton, NJ, United States
Completion date: 2017
Artwork budget: $200,000
Project Team
Artist
Daniel Clayman
Montague Studios, Ltd.
Client
Tom Moran
Grounds For Sculpture
Industry Resource
Bullseye Glass
Bullseye Glass
Other
Robert Busch
Leonard Busch Engineers
Overview
Radiant Landscape was a temporary museum exhibition at Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ, May 2017 through Feb. 2018. The show consisted of four pieces, Radiant Landscape, Blue Horizon, The Landscape Project and Three Volumes. The largest assembly, Radiant Landscape was 44′ x36′ x 26′ tall. The large drapes are made of glass and steel cable. They both can be reassembled into endless configurations. I designed the assembly technique, which was vetted by a licensed engineer for permanent installation.
Goals
The curator was looking for something that would address Light, Space and Time as part of the 25th anniversary celebration for the sculpture park. Each of the four pieces addressed this theme. Radiant Landscape, in the north end of the building, was in effect a large, two-part lens that showed the time of day and more importantly the passage of the seasons as light filtered through the two curtains and back outside. In the south end of the building, Blue Horizon acted as horizontal lens projecting blue light onto the viewer. There was a feeling of being under water but more importantly, the image referred to Yves Klein color field paintings. The Landscape Project, still on view at GFS, is a comment on making the mundane object (the boulder) into something extraordinary. Patterned from a real boulder, each of the three objects are hollow, assembled from over 250 parts and each has a precious metal leaf applied to the inside. And finally, Three Volumes was shown as an example of the transition from large scale studio work to these larger installations.
Process
The curator presented the gallery space to me (approximately 5,000 sq. ft) and said: "Propose an idea that excites you!" I was pretty much left to my own desires as to the artwork. Most of the collaboration was coming up with a budget that the Board would approve and then engineering the project to work within that budget. I received amazing support from everyone.
Additional Information
We fabricated the project in my studio, packed it up and installed on site. The installation took 28 days. All of the 18-month planning worked seamlessly. The end result was better than I had hoped, bringing to life an exciting vision of light and structure. The easiest way to see the project video is via this vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/237480844