PIPE DREAMS
Note: None of the works shown on this page currently exist
In 1972, after completing my M.F.A. program, I returned to New York City. I found work as the "SOHO Plumber," helping a generation of young artists turn ancient, vacant factory spaces into live/work lofts in the rapidly changing manufacturing neighborhoods of Lower Manhattan.
I developed skills for using plastic and metal pipe to quickly and cheaply convert industrial toilet stalls into kitchens and bathrooms for domestic use. I now began using my plumbing skills to turn hardware store materials into a series of sculptures that used electric motors to spin large open linear structures.
X
X Standing
1973
9 ft. x 12 ft. x 8 ft.
The frame for standing X was made of black steel plumbing pipe (1 ¼ in.) and the moving element was made of grey PVC pipe. It was powered by a Bodine Gearmotor that was found in one of the many surplus stores that then dominated Canal St. between Broadway and Mercer Streets in Manhattan.
X Hanging
shown in the artist's studio - 1973
10 ft. x 12 ft. x 8 ft.
X I X
X I X
as shown at Technorama in1993
X I X
1973
7 ft. x 15 ft. x 12 ft.
Sky Reaper (click here) and XIX, for example, are variations of the same basic idea, each with three large electrically driven paddle-wheel-like structures rotating perpetually so that their frameworks repeatedly intermesh without ever touching. The larger of these, Sky Reaper, is suspended from the ceiling and is made primarily of wood and metal. XIX, a free-standing work, has wheels made of green plastic PVC pipe. - Tom Patterson, Winston-Salem Journal, Sunday, January 19, 1992, Page C3.
Works Derived from X and X I X
X and X I X served as experimental prototypes for many later works. For example:
Double Dutch 1974
click for more info.
Sky Reaper 1973
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Note: Currently in the collection of the Artist