Brent Bukowski's Flow: Sculpture on Ecology
Hydrologic Cycle and Water Rendered in Metal & Glass
Jun 25, 2009
Flow, the latest in Brent Bukowski's elaborative sculptures on ecology, tracks the progress of a water droplet caught in the spokes of a generator turbine. The sculpture—rendered entirely in metal, glass and found objects scavenged from landfills—delivers an iconic message about humankind's effects on the environment, and the environment's eventual reckoning with humanity.
Although Flow is a site-specific installation so that the layout of its constituent elements changes according to the gallery where it is hosted, it has distinct components:
- Primarily (as illustrated within the article's photo gallery below) these are flat planes of wire-brushed steel, inset with panes of wire-gridded safety glass, within which, in turn, are fashioned complex designs made from salvaged stove elements, angle brackets and broken shards.
- These are set at regular intervals like the wings of the turbine, connected by overstretched spring coils and wires to an elaborate central hub.
- Although stationary, the hub appears to spiral on a double helix above the floor, topped with a globe of metal bands like an armillary sphere or particles circulating around a nucleus.
- The panels with their glass insets emulate mountains, water bubbles, and environmental study flow-charts, and depict the hydrologic cycle of water from evaporation to its capillary action through earth after a rainfall.
- The sculpture fills the room and, yet, is dwarfed by the forms and forces which inspired it.
Massive Scale of Natural and Unnatural Forms and Forces
"This is a direct reference to those huge US military designed Caplan-generators which are used in massive hydroelectric dam projects, like the ones at Hoover Dam, or along the Columbia and Kootenay Rivers" Bukowski explains. "The scale of these objects almost beggars the imagination. It is easy to lose self-importance when — well, this is ironic, but I imagine, I haven't actually done this yet; if anyone can arrange this for me, it would be fantastic — you stand under or next to one of those monsters, and yet that is nothing compared to the forces of nature and their effects on us.
"We measure things according to this puny individual scale. Yet en masse, we have this destructive impact on the planet, and we can't sustain it. We see this time and time again in the ecological history of the planet. When one form of life grows out of control, it consumes everything it needs to sustain its life cycle. The planet continues, but the life-form goes extinct. It's the process of balance."
Environmental Surroundings and Intellectual Curiosity
Bukowski's first glimpse of the potential for art came about in "the most unlikely of places", the stark pancake-flat Cedoux Community cemetary in Southern Saskatchewan in its sea of wildgrasses. During his grandfather's funeral, he met up with a relative who had painted watercolours endangered wildflowers of South America. He had never drawn a connection between art and its influence as a means of raising awareness. Now he was charged with excitement, and inspired to not only educate himself on three-dimensional form, but to immerse himself in the studio with "full-on, factory level production."
"I really like to work without having to think a lot while I'm working. I approach everything with a manufacturer's efficiency, whether I'm reading up in scientific journals, culling the local landfills for parts which I can use in my sculptures, or putting my installations together. It can be a bit intense, like most artists and ... knitters."
Bukowski's work is so sophisticated and powerful, it belies the fact that he is almost entirely self-educated.
"I threw myself into learning about art with the same intensity," he explained at his artists talk at Touchstones Museum in June, 2009. "I had all these old Arts Canada magazines to draw on from the 1960s and 1970s. They had some pretty high standards. Now I can't imagine life without this relief."
In the 1990s, Bukowski moved to Kootenay Lake, and presently lives on a fairly isolated stretch of shoreline between the town of Kaslo and village of Woodbury with his partner, fellow artist, Arin Fay.
"Every morning, when I get up, I look out and see this vast body of clean, fresh water. The water in South Saskatchewan, where I grew up, tasted terrible. When I look out my window here, I see Mount Loki, and everything is green and lush. It makes me think of what would happen if we destroyed that, as the scientific journals detail. What would it be like to see nothing but a barren moonscape, with not a drop of water in sight? This is what I want people to think about when they look at my work."
Progression of Sculptural Work
Brent Bukowski's sculpture series on the environment commenced with "Invasive Species", a wall-mounted piece in which seeds of various noxious weeds and plants were encased in glass, and metal. The earliest work revealed the effects of monocultural planting and homogeniety on the genetic biomass.
His second work in the series were twenty pedestal-mounted sculptures called "A Piece of the Pie", renditions of pie charts and other graphs, based on the proliferation of scientific statistic about the environment. This piece was shown exclusively in Eastern Canada, and many of its constituent statues are now in private collections.
This third work, Flow, has been shown at the Touchstones Museum in Nelson BC, and will be displayed next at the Langham Gallery, 447 A Avenue in Kaslo, BC from July 17 - August 30, 2009.
