Michael Pearce

 

The show is mostly in place, gravel laid down, everything hung, good to go. I’m really enjoying the change from dark to light gravel in a circle about the “Grails” cairn.

I’ve been enjoying the crunchiness of this installation. I hope that having the gravel won’t discourage people from entering the room altogether, but I’m probably worrying unnecessarily. There’s plenty to look at in there.  

I painted some motifs from British rock art onto the walls around  a new circular piece that is the most symbolic of the show, a simple solar circle hung in the west.

I began installing the show today, getting a lot done, and getting the motor in the air and working, although not yet properly wired. In the test run it all worked very nicely, with a slow movement of the pendulum describing a perfect circle. Most satisfactory. The photo shows the Grails piece as it stood at the end of the day, almost properly lit, with the rotating pendulum circumscribing the edge of where the cairn will be. (No, that’s not photoshop, it’s really what the lighting looks like!)

I’m pretty happy with the progress so far. I’ll load more of the show in tomorrow when I have a truck.

Photo by Ethan Pearce 

I feel like Homer Simpson cursing at whatever his latest disaster may be. Apart from a lengthy trip to the doctor with the kids for a checkup, I have spent most of the day trying to drill a hole through the shaft, which appears to have been made of tempered wizard steel in the pits of Mordor. I’ve broken three bits so far, and have made little progress. I’ve been to the hardware store twice to find stronger bits. So far I’m about 1/8th of an inch into the steel. This is not fun at all, in the horrid heat of my little shop.

I’m going to plan B, which is to find some sort of sleeve that can be screwed onto the shaft with no possibility of slipping, probably what I should have done in the first place. Plan C is to take the blasted thing to a machine shop and have them do it for me. What a pain. I did manage to get the ladder, dolly and screw-gun that I’ll need for installing the show tomorrow, so the day isn’t a total loss, but this is hella frustrating. 

I got up pretty early today and straight into my garage workshop to get the motor spindle drilled and avoid the heat, but my drill bits are at the university and I wore out the one I had here, so I guess I’m off to the store and returning to sweat it out later. I’m pretty confident that this motor will do exactly what I need it to do, and I should be able to control the speed of rotation at least somewhat by shortening or lengthening the placement of the line when it’s tied to the arm that I’ll attach to the spindle. The plumb will be very light, made of string and some foam, but even so, I’m slightly worried about the weight of the motor, but I think I can get a good expanding plug anchor and an eye hook coach bolt from the hardware store to sink into the concrete ceiling and take the weight. (Concrete ceiling!)

More later. 

I visited the gallery today in order to nail down exactly where everything was going to go and organize the show in my mind. On the way I stopped at an electric motor workshop to find a motor with a nice slow rpm speed so that I can finally have my rotating pendulum working.

 

 

I didn’t realize how many different kinds of motor there are. The one I chose will give me a nice gentle speed for the pendulum. At the gallery I found a power outlet in the middle of the ceiling that will drive the motor whenever the lights are turned on, a perfect way to get people involved in the work right away.

 

I’ll have to modify the motor a little to make it possible to suspend the pendulum so that it will rotate, a simple matter of drilling a hole through the spindle so I can attach a slender rod to tie the line to. 

I’ll use the grails in their familiar mound beneath the pendulum, and gravel to describe a circle. The room is so acoustically live that I think it echoes if you blink. I’m going to make use of that by putting gravel on the ground for people to walk on, producing nice crunchy noises.