the monolith

The Monolith is a project I did earlier in the year for my Sculpture class. The project was for us to create a piece for an environment out side of the gallery setting and for that piece to bring something into focus. The city of Milwaukee and every other city or town out the lets waste flow into the rivers and waters around the world and that is what drove me to build the Monolith. Many drains empty out in Bradford Beach when ever there is a storm and the waters have no where else to go. This washes thousands of gallons of sewer water into the lake. I wanted to take this and make it my focus to bring attention to our pollution of the waters.

The design of the Monolith quickly became what it is today. I did not want to represent anything spacific, but I wanted to make it purely a beacon. A large white tower that would stand out in contrast to the gross state of Bradford Beach. It is built out of airplane cloth which was stretched over flat steel rods that made the frame all affixed to a cinder blox. It was created in this manner so that I could place a light inside of it, sort of making a tower of light.

When it was all done I went out at 5 in the morning and placed it on the edge of the water. It was fun going out there, to place my work out in the world and to know I wasn't going to come back for it. To leave it there to mostly be taken way from the city in who knew long. I checked up on it in the days to follow and on the 5th night I came to check up on it it was gone. It was there and people saw it.

The morning I "installed" the Monolith it changed for me. After seeing it on the beach and watching the day grow brighter and brighter and the light inside of it seem to dim it became more about that relationship. It looked beautiful to me, very peaceful and it made me want to create more and to try to find that relationship there and other places again.