The Lessons

2001

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The Lessons began by discovering some completely blank children's blocks in a workshop. The workshop had been abandoned before the project had been completed and no message had been applied to the precisely cut cubes. I thought it was so intriguing to have educational blocks with no message! I just sanded them down... “went through the grits...” so that the grain of the wood is really apparent. Wood has such possibilities for beauty in such a refined state... The grain and luster, shadows and shapes, becomes the lesson. Normal expectations of meaning are missing... It is now an adult puzzle.

It has a “School of Hard Knocks” feel to it: the bent crowbars, broken glass, and barbed wire... But in the end it is transcendentally beautiful and the iridescent light shines!! There is a great burst of light-rays emanating from the schoolbox.

Found objects, wood, steel, glass

© Alison Ulman 2001