The artists in the May exhibit at the Brand Library Gallery in Glendale got together yesterday to figure out who would put which works into the exhibit, the opening of which is moving inexorably closer (to my horror February has slipped into March, and we watch the year slipping away as quickly as melting butter.) We are a pleasant group – co-operative decisions about naming the show and the use of the space were reached with ease and kindness, and I was left feeling very content that this will be a good experience. I plan to exhibit the peach tree as an installation with the Cabinet sculptures and the paintings, calling the whole thing “Mr. Pearce’s Cabinet of Alchemical Wonders”. It’s a spacious gallery, with nice high ceilings and a generous skylight that I think will accommodate the tree nicely. I’d like to lay gravel about it in a circle that leads as a pathway to the grails piece, in a large scale version of the circular patterns found in Neolithic rock art.
Our curator at the gallery is going to look into whether or not I am able to set up a reflux still to extract the essence of Glendale while the exhibit is up. If they go with the idea, I think this will be an excellent addition to the installation.
The Brand Gallery was added to the Brand Library in 1969. The library itself was founded by a remarkable man, Leslie Brand, known as “the father of Glendale”, who donated his spectacular mansion and surrounding parkland to the city he helped to found. His unusual grave is marked by one of the pyramids that are sometimes found in Californian graveyards. I think I’ll take some of the earth and leaves from the parkland that lies around the gallery, paying a little tribute to this man by distilling the essence of his town from the natural environment in which he rests.
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