BRYAN NORTHUP

reflectionson rubble

 

Concrete, steel and glass are the essences of urban construction and our everyday built environment, readily torn down, crushed and discarded in a never-ending cycle of growth and “improvement”. This sculpture installation is influenced by Phase of Nothingness - Cut Stone, works by Japanese sculptor Nobuo Sekine, who died earlier this year [www.nobuosekine.com]. 

This version of the work is made up of approximately twenty component pieces that both hang and sit on the ground. The concrete remnants are saved instead of thrown away, reconfigured and gilded with space-age dichroic coated glass that changes colors with the viewer’s position and angle of light.  When sunlight hits the dichroic glass, concentrated beams of saturated, colored light travel over walls, surrounding objects and viewers. The work responds by throwing back the viewer’s own reflection and the realization that they are scrutinizing garbage and themselves simultaneously.