amarie bergman

intervention statement: laredo 006

AMARIE BERGMAN

“a curve is a set of points which, near each of its points, looks like a line”[1]

 

“It’s the space between the lines that counts.”[2]

“Under the warm rays of grace,
The atom sparkles.
When the light breeze passes by,
It gently sways...
Oh! what ineffable delight!
What favors has it not received?”[3]

 

 

Soon after the summer solstice, on a clear day, laredo 006 honoured the occasion with a serpentine curve and white ribbons.

The site, as usual with the laredo interventions, inspired, generated, and informed the project. A handrail of a rustic staircase, made from straight logs, configured a curve that appeared to be quite angular close-up yet looked relatively smooth from a distance. The asymmetrically-placed ribbons - recycled cotton rag-strips - were tied onto the logs. Streaming in the bright sunshine, their lengths changed in appearance, often looking much shorter from being almost-weightless in the breeze. As pliable lines, constantly in motion, they rippled from a fixed curve, simultaneously arcing in dimensional space. For every second of the 1-hour intervention, this specific space became especially momentous.

 

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curve

[2] Agnes Martin, Interviewed by Leon d’Avigdor at her studio in Taos, New Mexico https://www.guggenheim.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/guggenheim-agne-martin-speaks-about-emotion-and-art-audio-transcript.pdf

[3] St. Therese of Lisieux, translated by Donald Kinney
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/T/ThereseofLis/AtomofJesus/index.html

Comments:

Located next to the Upper Esplanade in Bunbury WA, the staircase is mainly used by senior high school students as a shortcut to their sports classes held at the basketball / tennis courts and also, across Ocean Drive, at Back Beach.

 

A precedent which explored the double curve was Bergman’s 2018 phenomenological intervention, Perlustrata no.1. This work redefined one of the architectural spaces in Blindside Gallery, Melbourne.

https://www.amariebergman.com/pages/exhibition-statement-perlustrata-no-1

https://www.amariebergman.com/gallery/perlustrata-no-1

 

 

Appreciation, as always, to Paul MacGillivary for his patience in doing preliminary tests - not only with varied materials - but co-assessing the site in various weather conditions and times of day.

 

laredo 006
staircase, Upper Esplanade / Bunbury, Western Australia

13 January 2023
images: https://www.amariebergman.com/gallery/images-laredo-006

  

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