Doug Calisch
Portal Tiles
Art In The Classroom Installation 1999-2000
Chemical Engineering, Room 302
Description of Work:
As part of the application for the Art in the Classroom competition, I submitted an artist's statement that my work becomes an extension of a given culture, by composing and constructing with the discarded or left behind objects from that culture. This idea started several years ago as I traveled through Mexico and began photographing the offerings left at roadside shrines. Recently, I have created a series of wall pieces called "altars", that are based on my travels through the Appalachian mountain region. These works celebrate the resourcefulness and honesty that I discovered in the people and their customs. I have also collected a studio full of materials from rural Montgomery County and continue to construct works that capture a balance of reflection and participation in the culture where I live. This summer I will be traveling to Japan to do a public commission, and plan to approach the project in much the same way. This creative process starts with investigation, participation, and eventually assimilation of a given culture. If chosen to do one of the Art in the Classroom projects, I would approach the work similarly.Specifically, I would propose to create a portal constructed of large plaster tiles (see attached drawings and sample tile) around one of the main doors into a lecture hall classroom. Portals, historically emphasis passage into and out of a sacred space, and heighten one's awareness of making that transition. The portal may serve as a reminder that the classroom is such a space and that within these rooms there is a higher purpose. The portal, then, becomes a metaphor for the teaching and learning that goes on in that particular space. Visual references in my work have included shrines, altars, reliquaries, gateways, and portals. It is my intention that this imagery also guide the Art in the Classroom project. You may want to refer to the slides submitted with the original application. After touring the specific classrooms, I would suggest that room 302 in the Chemical Engineering Building works best for my proposal.
It is my intention to collect all the materials for this sculptural relief portal from the Purdue Campus. I would seek out campus personnel with access to storage area, maintenance shops, scrap piles, construction sites, and unused facilities to collect bits and pieces of the "University Culture" and cast these objects into plaster tiles. It is my experience that there lies great creative potential in the disregarded materials of any culture. This collection process would guide the particulars of design and construction, although I will remain mindful of the requirements and paramenters of the competition. Because this project is driven by the materials/objects discovered and collected, the specific design is difficult to detail, however, for the purpose of this proposal, let me be more exacting.......
I conceive of a work surrounding the entrance doorway, roughly 18"-24" in width from the door molding, made primarily of wood and steel set in low relief plaster tiles. As an example I have constructed a sample tile with objects found on campus during a brief afternoon visit. All materials would be permanently fixed and no temporary or flimsy materials would be used. The structure of the work would embrace an architectural language, though not be specifically architecture. Within that overall architectonic structure smaller areas defined by the pattern of the tiles and the objects "frozen" in the tiles would create interest by activating the surface and beckoning viewer exploration.
The last piece of this proposal has to do with the potential for collaboration. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Purdue tradespeople, and faculty/staff during the production of the piece. Purdue faculty and staff might be willing to donate objects to be included in the portal. The notion of actively involving members of the community builds in a kind of ownership that I believe is important for any culture accepting a public work of art. I see this project as an opportunity to make connections, and so I submit this proposal for a public work literally made up of the university culture, produced, in part, by the university culture, and ultimately engaging the ongoing university culture.