2013
Garden of Industry Statement
The most recent installation by sculptors Cynthia Giachetti and Ben Diller explores the paradox between the ideals of nature and industry, concepts fundamental to the American dream. Giachetti’s organic, sinuous ceramic forms are in stark contrast to Diller’s super-sized emblems fabricated out of wood. Working together yet independently, their collaborative work draws upon the myriad associations suggested by the juxtapositions of their very different sculptural forms.
This installation alludes to moments in time, by using symbols and iconography from Americana. Early industrialization through gears and printmaking, to idealized figurative elements, farm and tool molds, emblems and landscapes are referenced.
Cynthia’s work explores landscapes, by using flowers and other elements to show the adaptive power of nature. This perseverance is also exemplified in the use of elements from the magnolia tree, one of the most ancient species. The arrangements suggest an encircled, wreathed or crowned emblem. These sculptural floral forms are metaphors for the constant flux of nature, life, death, fragility, strength and the collective.
Ben’s graphic, industrial work uses visual representations and actual tool elements and forms. These elements, from the near to distant past, are relics of progress through ingenuity and hard work. Ben’s pieces of gears and sprockets celebrate and critique progress, while the layered surfaces and processes of the handcrafted forms invoke these dualities.
Together, we are utilizing elements from extremes: organic and flowery to geometric and industrial, to show the conflict and the potential in the implied connections between the two. It is our hope, that by re-contextualizing these symbols and motifs from a contemporary standpoint, that progress is to seen through the combination of the natural and industrial environments.
