The latest installation by Pittsburgh-based artist Atticus Adams is called “Castles in the Air,” 2009. Set in Pittsburgh’s Mattress Factory Museum this past May thru June, the installation – which for me simultaneously calls to mind elements as disparate as underwater plantlife, fashion and biology – is made of coated and uncoated aluminum mesh, monofilament, wire, grommets, and rubber. According to Adams, the project is based on a quote by Thoreau. And Adams – who was born in Oregon, raised in West Virginia, and, in his words, “cobbled together art and design classes from places like Tidewater Community College, Harvard University, The Rhode Island School of Design, and Yale School of Art for some creative experiences,” – cites Pittsburgh as his own Walden
“I learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put some things behind, will pass an invisible boundary; new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him; or the old laws be expanded, and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with a license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.â€
To learn more about Atticus Adams, visit www.atticusadams.com
All images courtesy of the artist.
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H/T Sprayblog.