If I Knew Now, What I Knew Then,........

Plaster, Video, Audio

1999

I'm real excited about this work. The initial idea and title comes from a Big Sandy song. The song is about a lost love- the one that got away. As I listened to this song, I began to imagine that this lost love was our personal relationship to nature, "Mother Earth" if you prefer. And so I made this sculpture that features this song. It's the first time I have ever used audio as a Found Object.

What you see here is a plaster bust of an Indian that one of my students gave me. (thanks Ron!) I then embedded a small television in his abdomen, a gut feeling if you will. On that television plays black and white footage I recorded of a local factory with smoke billowing out of a smokestack. I then gouged out the Indians eyes and placed another mini television inside his head that plays footage (in color) of scenes from my reservation- nature as god intended.

The title of the work (and the song) speak to me of all the knowledge that's been lost over the centuries. Are we more advanced today??