Pumpkins & Gourds
The gourd has been an important staple and symbol through out the history ofmany cultures. Its full roundness, suggestive of a pregnant stomach, housing a great quantity of seeds for the next growing season, embodies fertility. As a food it will keep for long periods of time. When dried the shell of the gourd has a broad range of uses from storage and transport of food to cultivating the resonance of sound in musical instruments.
The "Pumpkin" has truly become an American phenomenon symbolizing the harvest and our agricultural industry. As a result fierce pumpkin growing competitions have evolved for the heaviest pumpkin.
The Gourds that I have been working with are products of hybridization and are carefully attended to during their growing period. They are over-sized, burdened by their own weight to the point of exploding. Their size animates them giving them an anthropomorphic presence and amplifying their fertile qualities.
The castings are from original natural gourds and pumpkins.
Project Description: This is a series of cast pumpkins taken from an original 700lb. pumpkin. The original was an agriculturally engineered hybrid or "freak of nature." The repetitive aspect of the casting process, stemming from one pattern, is a metaphor to the idea of hybridization or cloning.
The Edition: The "Pumpkin Series" is an open ended edition. My intention is to create as many pumpkins as possible, siting them in a variety of locations. Knowing that when one looks at one grouping of Pumpkins, that there is another grouping in another setting, expands their meaning; making them part of a greater collective.
Nigerian Moon Gourds
