Where is the Snow of Yesterwinters?

Whenever possible, I try to add an interactive element allowing the viewer to be engaged and become a part of the art object. Where is the Snow of Yesterwinters? is inspired by the interrogative refrain in Francois Villon’s Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past; the laminated wood reminiscent of old snow sleds’ skids was used to build a 10-foot wheel, whose spokes are real tree branches implanted in weathered plaster cubes and converging in a laminated wood hub spinning on a metallic stand. The softest touch will make the wheel rotate. Found objects are often part of my work; they have their independent history, they bear the burden of the past, they know time, they are not made but rather the result of a genesis process. The same energy charge is intrinsic to both the aforementioned found materials, and wood; the latter used to be a tree, to feel, hear, live; and it eventually died.

The Horse
The central theme of the piece Horse revolves around the idea of movement and change versus he collapsed reality of the moment. An antique wooden horse is mounted on a half-circle rocker built of laminated wood, while the other half is inverted; the childhood reality of the rocking horse, once possible through children’s perception, becomes immutably paralyzed due to adult observation. Awakening. Reality sets in – different rules apply. The viewer is still granted the freedom of setting things right in their mind and rock away.

The Gates
The six gates are mounted on a central iron axis; they can be placed in different order as height goes. The piece talks about the crossroads/gates one passes through life.

Come Back to Me
Group of 29 tree branches fixed in weathered plaster cubes, arranged in a cluster; the yellow felt band is placed at the same height and sewn on each branch individually. Hence, when seen from a distance, these yellow independent bands will form a continuous yellow line. The main idea is that in waiting for the love one to come back, although the details of our feelings are different, in essence, from a distance we suffer more or less the same.

The Creature
Human teeth, horse hair, small old trinkets embedded in a heavy, rusty iron blade represent the body of a fantastic creature whose long metallic legs spread over 12 sq. ft. This Creature symbolizes the Time which digests all memories with its sharp teeth. The Creature's grotesque existence is further enhanced by human touch: the long, flexible legs allow the heavy iron body to have a jumpy up and down movement at the lightest touch. This is an interactive piece.