A Fossilizing Towards, The Name Engorged by Capillarity

To make this sculpture, I used about 1500 plastic action figures, which I burned and painted black. The entire form is wrapped in a fire hose.

After my apartment and studio were lost to arson three years ago, I became obsessed with the arsonist, even tracking him down to ask for his participation in a project. I wanted to use fire to make art, and to participate in his mania.

The sculpture should resemble anything from a dinosaur, Leviathan, or varied cave formations.

My interest in caves arises from its possibility as the birthplace of human consciousness. Like the hunt over which the Shaman hopes to gain favor through representation, I wanted to represent a hunt of a certain kind.

The creatures, heroes, and villains which are mass produced to make toys are all inspired directly or indirectly by our long history of myth and religion. As a boy, I acted out all manner of hunt and combat with these toys, and this narrative of conflict has never left me.

I’m more interested now in a psychological conflict, which has probably been with us since we became aware of our own suffering and mortality.