(C) U.S. State Dept This story was originally published by U.S. State Dept and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . John Grade for U.S. Embassy Guatemala – U.S. Department of State [1] [] Date: 2023-11 1 00:00:17.700 –> 00:00:20.100 my most vivid memory of Guatemala is the 2 00:00:20.100 –> 00:00:23.100 Sea of trees in the paton in the north 3 00:00:23.100 –> 00:00:24.500 of Guatemala this 4 00:00:25.100 –> 00:00:28.700 series of ridges going out onto the horizon line. So I 5 00:00:28.700 –> 00:00:31.800 knew when the art and embassies program contacted 6 00:00:31.800 –> 00:00:34.300 me that I would want to make a sculpture that related to those 7 00:00:34.300 –> 00:00:37.200 trees and I settled on an individual type of 8 00:00:37.200 –> 00:00:38.300 tree a ceiba. 9 00:00:39.300 –> 00:00:42.500 I was interested in the ceiba tree initially because it 10 00:00:42.500 –> 00:00:45.000 was the national tree of Guatemala, but it was 11 00:00:45.300 –> 00:00:48.500 also the tree that drew me in when I was in the jungle. It 12 00:00:48.500 –> 00:00:51.700 was either the tallest tree or the widest and 13 00:00:51.700 –> 00:00:54.500 largest tree but it was also formally really 14 00:00:54.500 –> 00:00:58.200 beautiful the way in which these lumbering 15 00:00:57.200 –> 00:01:00.900 limbs moved out into space and and 16 00:01:00.900 –> 00:01:03.200 then brought you into investigate its 17 00:01:03.200 –> 00:01:06.300 bark and the surface of the bark was very different 18 00:01:06.300 –> 00:01:09.200 if it was a juvenile where these spikes were 19 00:01:09.200 –> 00:01:12.800 very large relative to the volume of the trunk and then 20 00:01:12.800 –> 00:01:15.900 as the tree grew you just sort of see these little vestigial 21 00:01:15.900 –> 00:01:18.200 knobs on it surface and they 22 00:01:18.200 –> 00:01:20.400 would play with light in these beautiful shadows. 23 00:01:22.500 –> 00:01:26.000 Carolina Rosales de Zea is the director 24 00:01:25.100 –> 00:01:28.500 of the botanical gardens in Guatemala City and 25 00:01:28.500 –> 00:01:31.500 she is, beyond being a lovely person was an amazing 26 00:01:31.500 –> 00:01:34.600 resource in trying to find the right Ceiba tree 27 00:01:34.600 –> 00:01:37.900 to base the sculpture on Carolina helped 28 00:01:37.900 –> 00:01:40.800 connect me with a family just near Antigua 29 00:01:40.800 –> 00:01:43.800 In Guatemala and they had this spectacular 30 00:01:43.800 –> 00:01:46.200 save a tree which is the tree that I ultimately ended up 31 00:01:46.200 –> 00:01:48.200 using as the inspiration for the sculpture. 32 00:01:50.200 –> 00:01:53.200 Carolina along with a couple of associates helped me to scan the tree. 33 00:01:53.200 –> 00:01:56.400 It was a rather elaborate process and also through this 34 00:01:56.400 –> 00:01:59.200 process. I got to meet some of the family in particular 35 00:01:59.200 –> 00:02:02.200 a brother and sister that have been the most recent caretakers of 36 00:02:02.200 –> 00:02:05.400 the tree and learned a lot about the trees 37 00:02:05.400 –> 00:02:08.300 biology both from them and as well from Carolina. 38 00:02:10.200 –> 00:02:13.300 Juxtaposing, the Guatemalan experience which was so 39 00:02:13.300 –> 00:02:17.100 social and collaborative in terms of finding that tree. I set 40 00:02:16.100 –> 00:02:19.400 out in the Great Basin in Nevada in 41 00:02:19.400 –> 00:02:22.200 the United States to find a Bristlecone Pine. It was a very 42 00:02:22.200 –> 00:02:25.800 solitary endeavor and it was high 43 00:02:25.800 –> 00:02:28.200 altitude. I was at 11,000 feet 44 00:02:28.200 –> 00:02:31.100 when I found this tree and it took me a lot of time and I 45 00:02:31.100 –> 00:02:33.600 did it actually with plaster casts. 46 00:02:34.500 –> 00:02:38.300 While the Ceiba is a much larger tree three, maybe 47 00:02:37.300 –> 00:02:40.800 400 years old. The Bristlecone Pine 48 00:02:40.800 –> 00:02:43.200 is much smaller, but three or four thousand years old. 49 00:02:43.200 –> 00:02:47.100 So they’re very different types of trees, but formally 50 00:02:46.100 –> 00:02:49.300 when brought together and adjusted for scale, I 51 00:02:49.300 –> 00:02:52.600 think they’re very convincingly read as one specific tree. 52 00:02:55.800 –> 00:02:58.500 To fabricate the sculpture the larger 53 00:02:58.500 –> 00:03:01.500 planes of the sculpture where individual pieces 54 00:03:01.500 –> 00:03:05.100 fit together were very carefully calibrated. 55 00:03:04.100 –> 00:03:07.500 But what happened within each of those frames 56 00:03:07.500 –> 00:03:10.700 was much more left within the purview 57 00:03:10.700 –> 00:03:13.600 of the person creating that such that 58 00:03:13.600 –> 00:03:16.200 they could have aesthetic influence. So if they were on 59 00:03:16.200 –> 00:03:19.800 the seabus side, you would see some of the the spiky quality 60 00:03:19.800 –> 00:03:22.600 or for me almost like waves that 61 00:03:22.600 –> 00:03:25.500 you saw in that sea of trees. And if 62 00:03:25.500 –> 00:03:28.400 you’re on the bristlecones side, there were burles that sort 63 00:03:28.400 –> 00:03:31.100 of bulged out from the surface that were something that 64 00:03:31.100 –> 00:03:35.400 people could riff upon and so we also began with 65 00:03:34.400 –> 00:03:37.400 a hologram of the sculpture so 66 00:03:37.400 –> 00:03:40.700 that we could see it in scale move around it adjust its 67 00:03:40.700 –> 00:03:43.400 scale and then moved into a much 68 00:03:43.400 –> 00:03:46.400 more sort of old school armature of building the sculpture 69 00:03:46.400 –> 00:03:49.400 so that we could do it in a reductive way. 70 00:03:49.400 –> 00:03:52.600 So you would over build some of these pieces and then carve away 71 00:03:52.600 –> 00:03:54.200 that negative space to get what you 72 00:03:57.600 –> 00:04:00.400 To install the sculpture. We erected a scaffold 73 00:04:00.400 –> 00:04:03.100 so that we could actually be building the base of the 74 00:04:03.100 –> 00:04:06.600 sculpture which is also on the plane of 75 00:04:06.600 –> 00:04:09.600 the staircase. So when you approach the sculpture 76 00:04:09.600 –> 00:04:12.300 through the staircase and you’re standing at its Landing you’re standing 77 00:04:12.300 –> 00:04:15.200 at the imaginary ground plane of where this tree will 78 00:04:15.200 –> 00:04:18.200 be but you’re 20 feet off the ground. So when we finished 79 00:04:18.200 –> 00:04:21.100 installing the sculpture that scaffold disappears and it 80 00:04:21.100 –> 00:04:21.400 floats 81 00:04:21.900 –> 00:04:24.200 We also had 60 feet above the 82 00:04:24.200 –> 00:04:27.800 sculpture in which we had to tie cables into the ceiling to 83 00:04:27.800 –> 00:04:30.100 support it. And because this is such an 84 00:04:30.100 –> 00:04:33.400 active seismic zone we have horizontal cables, which brace 85 00:04:33.400 –> 00:04:34.500 the sculpture in the big size. 86 00:04:36.600 –> 00:04:39.700 It was really satisfying to work with Miller Hull because 87 00:04:39.700 –> 00:04:42.100 they were early enough in the design process with the 88 00:04:42.100 –> 00:04:45.600 architecture that they were able to respond to some 89 00:04:45.600 –> 00:04:48.800 of the decision-making in the sculpture. Primarily the 90 00:04:48.800 –> 00:04:51.900 fact that there’s a three foot Gap through the sculpture so 91 00:04:51.900 –> 00:04:54.400 that that three foot Gap actually continues in 92 00:04:54.400 –> 00:04:56.300 through the building in the architecture. 93 00:04:58.900 –> 00:04:59.700 prizes for me 94 00:05:00.700 –> 00:05:04.200 In seeing the sculpture actually installed in the embassy was getting 95 00:05:03.200 –> 00:05:06.900 this Vantage from above. I mean, we’re given 96 00:05:06.900 –> 00:05:09.800 so many different advantages through this beautiful architecture 97 00:05:09.800 –> 00:05:12.800 that feels so integrated. And another 98 00:05:12.800 –> 00:05:16.000 thing that I think really stands out for me is how 99 00:05:15.200 –> 00:05:18.400 activated that three foot Gap 100 00:05:18.400 –> 00:05:21.700 is between the two halves of the sculpture. It’s it’s a 101 00:05:21.700 –> 00:05:24.100 kind of a sense of a boundary but on the 102 00:05:24.100 –> 00:05:28.000 other hand because it isn’t actually anything existing 103 00:05:27.500 –> 00:05:30.900 in space. I think it nicely Echoes 104 00:05:30.900 –> 00:05:34.200 the fact that we create artificial constructs 105 00:05:33.200 –> 00:05:36.600 between people between countries 106 00:05:36.600 –> 00:05:39.500 and that when we look more closely. Yes, 107 00:05:39.500 –> 00:05:42.700 they’re all these little differences. But ultimately there’s this 108 00:05:42.700 –> 00:05:44.300 real sense of a kind of unified whole [END] --- [1] Url: https://art.state.gov/portfolio/john-grade-for-u-s-embassy-guatemala/ Published and (C) by U.S. State Dept Content appears here under this condition or license: Public Domain. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/usstate/