Basalt, bronze. 1999. 38″ plus base. Public installation.
Girlchild was commissioned by a mother whose child died in an accident. As she drove us from Vancouver to Seattle to select the stone, I doodled in plasticine while listening to her speak. By the time we arrived at the stoneyard I had completed a 3D sketch, and we selected the basalt column with it in mind.
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Rather than carving a fully 3D figure, I incised it deeply into the stone in deep relief. A polished bronze insert reflects light up onto a polished basalt sphere, which in turn reflects it back out into the world. The hollowness of the relief helped evoke the sense of maternal protectiveness that we wanted, and provided stark contrast between different kinds of surfaces. Highly polished, jet black basalt surfaces. Sharply dimpled basalt surfaces. Honed basalt surfaces. Polished bronze surfaces. And the natural patina of the basalt column.
With the sculpture facing south in the northern hemisphere, the reflections change constantly and are unique to each hour of each day of the year. This one-ton monumental sculpture now stands under a ginkgo tree at the University of British Columbia, near the bookstore.
Photos by Lee Gass and Martin Dee