Artist’s Statement

In the last couple of years I’ve been making small, plane-like structures that ended up in groups I called “Sorties” and “A History of Flight.”  I was intrigued by the sleek formal structure of planes and, in these uneasy political times, I was drawn to planes because they carry payloads of political metaphor. But with this exhibition I’m back on terra firma, creating walls and structures that relate to the land.        

I grew up in a small community in the southwest corner of Washington State. The town is bordered by rivers and lakes to the north and the south, and the Pacific Ocean is 50 miles to the west. On the banks of the Columbia River and along the shoreline of the Pacific there were often large wooden signs posted here and there warning ship and barge captains of such dangers as irregular tides, jutting rocks and shallow waters. The warnings were inscribed with jumbles of numbers and naval hieroglyphics, all indecipherable to me. But I was fascinated by their obscurity, scale and the coded message of those curious postings. The spirit of those signs bears a small yet significant influence on the shape of these current pieces.       

I was also interested in creating a series of proposed monuments to ideas and events that have no three-dimensional shape, such as the small dramas of everyday victories and losses. I guess I share with many artists the quixotic desire to make the heroic gesture. To give weight to something that otherwise might be too chimerical to take visible form. Since my construction abilities are limited, it seemed like the best approach was to start with the drawings.

Fred Birchman
May 2007