Abulic Terrain: Affecting Currents (Salvage Series), 2000

Constructed wood box, old paint-chipped wood unearthed after second bucket-loader scoop at local dump in search of paint-chipped wood of exact color as used; anonymous painting c. 1900, found in Maine antique shop; cobalt glass eyewash cup (purchased on route to deliver the artist’s boxed constructions requested for inclusion in the exhibition “Memory Boxes,” Lebanon, PA), casein on wood form, root (harvested at a dried up reservoir near Stamford, CT, the day before the artist’s partner , Talin Megherian’s water broke and four days before she went into labor with their son Noah), mustard seeds, India ink on snake skin given to the artist by Olivia Tow (a 2nd grade student at the Mead School, of Stamford, CT, who serendipitously brought a snake skin to school on the day the artist had requested one from Olivia’s science teacher), Museum Glass

23 3/8” x 24 1/4” x 5 1/2”

[photo credit: Robert Puglisi]

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Albums: Selected Assemblages 1988 -
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Comment by Todd Bartel on January 8, 2012 at 10:28am: Thank you Diane,

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was at a professors house for a group crit once and his building was in the process of having all the windows replaced. One of the construction works, for some reason chose me, and handed me this live cicada which he had impaled with a nail. He held it out to me with its legs still moving. I didn't accept it, but my professor, who witnessed the whole thing, came back with a coffee can and put the poor thing into it and then sealed it up with the lid. About a month later at another visit, he gave me the coffee can. At first I felt really weird about it because it was such a vivid memory. But then I realized the strong connection to crucifixion and used it promptly. I ended up covering it completely with sand—somehow the reality of the thing was too much for me—and with the thing concealed in a kind of cocoon I was able to feel better about it, as it was in a way immortalized in the work. Abulic Terrain was made with so many things that had stories, I began to feel that the context of the stories had just as much to do with the work as anything else, so I included them.

Comment by Diane Dellicarpini on January 8, 2012 at 10:03am: Really like your description of this piece and really like the piece. I have a snakeskin but didn't know if it would get weird, moldy, if I used it. I also saved dragonflys who drowned in the pool but have no idea what they would do in a piece. I had wings from them but it kind of made me feel bad, weird how one reacts.