I have been working predominantly with ideas derived from scientific and mechanical models for almost forty years. Many of my previous works have employed combinations of chemical, mechanical, and electrical activity to address concepts derived from literature, history, and music.
My works, often installations but incorporating film, photography, drawings, and sculpture, are based on extensive research and detailed responses to specific historical circumstances, either an individual or an event. Extended periods of time are needed to conceptualize and meticulously construct these projects.
For example, In Tribute to Madame de Pompadour and the Court of Louis XV, begun in 1982, took nine years from initiation to completion. The works’ extended gestation provides me with the opportunity to consider at length, a process that contributes enormously to their complexity and richness.
New York–New York, 1986–present, a portrait of the technological history of New York City in the middle half of the twentieth century, manifested as a 30-part installation, is perhaps the most involved. This project, constructed over the past 35 years, is a complex system of mechanical elements, representing key industrial breakthroughs that have shaped the urban culture.
The books and films accompanying many of these projects serve not only as artworks in their own right, but as gateways to explain and further explore the projects.