Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 3-4

May 12, 2010

Spent all day hanging glass vessels. Jesse on the condor while I on the floor directing where they go. He ties monofilaments one by one onto hardware cloth. No time for pictures today.

May 13, 2010

Stomach protests this morning from too much outside food and tosses out all last night's dinner. I'm weak in the morning, plan on fasting all day. By 2pm, I'm already feeling better. A few pieces left to hang. Glad Jesse is here to help. I must have done lots of good deeds to deserve such a husband!

Twinkle twinkle glass vessels! Rush out of home and forgot to grab the camera battery charger... duh.

My stretchy rubber octopus resting in the globe, telling a poem I wrote if you approaches it.

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 2

May 11, 2010
Put on my ski suits, headed out to work. It might pour rain today.

Joe is measuring the space for a wood bar to go up on the wall. With 2 eye hook crews in it, we can stretch the steel cables tight and straight enough to hold the hanging sculptures. I'm still feeling fortunate that he has a good brain so I can remain cloudy.

This condor scissor lift became our best (machinery) friends and irreplaceable tool in the next 3 days. Meanwhile, I and Jesse cut up the hardware cloth squares to accommodate the hanging clusters of glass vessels. 

Joe knows of a way to split airplane cables and reweave them in so we can avoid using the costly ferrules to make a loop. Here Jesse is learning the eye splice and having fun. I lay on the chair and watch them making "Molly Hogan" come true. Conserve energy so I can perform when my time comes!

Curator Sarah and technical director Brian working on Cara Lee Wade's show next door. I took some spying pictures of them working together. Before I know it, all the photographs were hung. Brian is a speedy installer with 23 years of experience. I later learned that he has a military museum of his own. Cool~

Labels for the drawings came in. Ignorant me have never seen professional labels like these before, not paper nor mounted on foam core, they are hefty solid card stock themselves. I'm fascinated by the way museums make labels and how much emphasis they put on the artist. I guess when the price tag is let go, true value shows through. The question of who makes art is interesting. Some consider artists make the art, some consider the market price makes the art.

Historical moment came, Joe and Jesse each hold one steel cable, straightening the pre-woven-in hardware cloth. They pull the cables as tight as they can so the eye splits can go on to the eye hook screws (which was open at this point). Final steps is to close and twist the eye hook screws in order to tighten the cables even more. At least this is how I remembered it. Of course there are lots of details in between that my leaky brain forgoes... I had to focus on where which sculpture goes, so no distraction to what guys are doing up there:)

   

Solo Show install at Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Day 1

May 9, 2010

Arrived at Fort Wayne, Indiana at 9:30pm, from Los Angeles.

May 10, 2010

10:30am: Short walk to Fort Wayne Museum of Art, weather is cool and breezy. We were greeted by the registrar Leah Reeder at the museum.

Met curatorial assistant, Joe Rohrer, who had finished painting the walls in space I'll be in. Mr. Joe will be helping us get things done in the following week. He is a brilliant artist and thinker himself. If I were a wealthy artist, he will be instantly hired with good pay to be my studio director, not studio assistant, "Studio Director" :-)
I love the color curator Sarah Aubrey chose for me. Originally I had wanted it all black, but this dark charcoal works out better. Glad I did not end up with black:)

In the mean time, I realized that the space is taller than I imagined. It is huge and my brain went blank.

 Leah took us to bring the works out from vault. Drawings arrived 10 days ago, sculptures arrived last Wednesday. It is unrealistic to see them here, 2,160 miles away. Two weeks ago, some of them were still laying around in the studio like daily objects, now they are all wrapped up nicely in cozy boxes guarded by security alarms.

My curator Sarah came in, we talked about the logistics of hanging glass sculptures. Joe came up with the idea of using airplane cables instead of I and Jesse's old "hardware cloth stretched over wood frames." It will look so much more professional. "We are in a Museum," I have to constantly remind myself. What's better is that Joe will make the structure and all we need to do is to hang the pieces. Oh, I am so lucky! 

While Joe went to get the materials needed, I continue unpacking the works and start sorting the clusters. Jesse went on to tour the permanent collection exhibitions in the museum.

Long time no see busy me

have not stopped since coming back from my Chinese New Year vacation. so busy preparing for this show that there was no time nor space for jet lag.

Framed drawings and three large flat pieces went out today via U.S. Art. I said Goodbye to my first batch of children. "Will see you guys in 3 weeks. Be nice to each other on the road!"

at the last home stretch finishing up glass sculptures and installation components. Booked the flight and hotel tonight. Tickets are in outrageous prices. I'd really bawl in front of the screen if not for the aid of Durfee grant. Thank you, Durfee Foundation!
Feel more grounded now. Another 12-hour working day awaits...

characters from Twisted Romance

friend RoO wrote and illustrated this little book titled "Twisted Romance."
I pulled some characters out and made sculptures of them. These babies have takend on a life and personality of their own, even detached from the original stories.
I find much fun turning 2D into 3D, since I can not draw well, but, man, I can see space with my fingers:)

Roots (male)

Chimney Elf

Anti-Fur Cats

These sculptures and other paintings are currently on display at Indie Collective Gallery in Culver City, CA until Feb. 26, 2010.