SWEATHOUSEandlittleprincipals
I began SWEATHOUSE and little principals in 1977 and exhibited it first at UCLA (Wight Art Gallery, 1979) in a 111-element version and again in 1982 in Santa Barbara with additional elements, which brought the total to 150. It looked back to my early drawings and notebooks and has figured into every major work since. It is very much like a writer's first novel in that it has the unruly and naive energy, as well as, the breadth and completeness of one's first grand effort.
The elevation and layering of the forms in space-- forms which often mirror parts and zones of my body-- led both to installations involving collections of objects in space (e.g., MAJORJOINTS hangers and squat) and my recent mixed media studio works, as well as, to works with the layers or zones expanded to an architectural scale (e.g., footspace, NECKWALL footscreen, sleeper). In the latter, one's physical presence is to the surrounding space as a little principal support pole is to the steel form that it pierces.
SWEATHOUSE and little principals is a veritable mine field for the mind and body. Every part of us is touched and referred to. We are taken apart and put back together. The little principals range from the graphic, e.g., a brain or a loaf of bread, to the abstract, e.g., a box on a pole at heart level, to just a simple vertical steel tube -drilled, punched and welded.