Images from Big Bambú party, May 17, 2009

Here are some images from the scene of Sunday's Big Bambú party hosted by Mike and Doug Starn.

When I first saw the work in early December, I was most struck by the contrast of the giant dirty box of the building harboring this living form rising to challenge the cold harshness of the space. But seeing Big Bambú again on Sunday, I was struck by the qualities of the bamboo as it's dried during these months. Like some agent of alchemy, the process of dehydration has transformed that irrepressible living form into an inert building material complying to the nature of its industrial environment.
It's funny that I hadn't thought to consider the process that organic matter would be subjected to in its role as an artwork. As a static work, the difference is startling. But as a work that is intended to move - or be moved, I expect there might be added significance to the work in the transference of that life force from the bamboo itself to the climbers who will affect its progress through the nave of the foundry building as they move over and within the tangled scaffolding like the colonies of organisms that life in and off of the husks of expired trees.