this sculpture will change

2017

acrylic tank, copper pipe, water, copper sulfate, steel, pine, Vermont Verde marble, stainless steel, solar panel, wire

This Sculpture Will Change uses a 1.5 volt solar panel to generate an electrical current that transfers copper ions from the suspended copper pipe to the tip of a loose wire at the bottom of the tank. The tank is filled with a mix of copper sulfate and water, an aqua blue solution commonly used in industrial copper plating. The electric current flows in the same fractal pattern biological life employs to evenly distribute energy and mass through space. Thus, as time passes, the copper ions being carried by this current pile up in a trace of this invisible flow and form a coral like growth at the tip of the wire. Over the course of many years, the pipe will decay, the coral will grow, the Pine bench surface/tank cap will silver and crack, the steel structure will rust, and the Vermont Verde marble will polish under the shoes of resting observers. A carved channel within the marble levels and keeps the bench in place. The work is permanently installed along the creek at Salem Art Works in upstate New York