Chorale

Apotheosis of the Corn Goddess Burning Sheaves

Cornfield - Chorale floorplan 76' diameter

Chorale: Seven paintings in oil - 50' diameter, w/ polychrome wooden sculpture Boat

Chorale is a seven panel mural spanning a 50 foot semi-circle, occupying half of the Cornfield ground. The ground itself is a 76 foot diameter circular design made of painted and incised hardened earth, created in the spirit of the Native American Corn Goddess. Seven paintings sit atop a wooden architecture of bases and video displays, all meant to sing as one while corralling the viewer's attention in the center of the exhibit.

Thematically, Chorale expresses the phases of nature and cultivation, be it growing and harvesting food, or the creation of art and ideas. Moving outward in opposite directions from the center painting, Apotheosis of the Corn Goddess, there are three paired paintings, beginning with the theme of creative potential (Tractor / Wheelbarrow ), transforming into the theme of sustenance (Nitya / Garden Electric ), and finally onto dissolution (White Cloud / Yellow Cloud ). Another way to look at Chorale is in terms of self-effort and grace, the essential elements of the spiritual journey. To the right of the centerpiece are images of manual labor and self effort, symbolized by the wheelbarrow and it's tools. To the left are images of automation and grace, symbolized by a tractor and the rider thereof. At the outer ends are images of chaos and harmony, complimentary opposites. Apotheosis is both the source and culmination of these two directions.

In the center of Chorale floats the Boat.

Chorale

The wooden sculpture Boat was created as a polychrome free-floating ship anchored inside the Chorale space. With ‘grain silos’ as masts, which are also suggestive of linghams and dock moorings, the deck has been painted with the image of a cornfield. Boat functions as a multi-dimensional symbol, a layer cake of both masculine and feminine energies - a repository, a silo, a womb, an ark - a ship with it's dock planted firmly within, resting between symbols of expansion and contraction. The destiny of Boat is to ‘float’ next to the Dais in the middle of Cornfield. Just as its anchor also floats, to view the sculpture by walking around it is to 'walk on water,' and dance on the sea of Maize.