Big Ideas at the Grounds for Sculpture

There was a time when phones didn’t fit in a purse or pocket and weren’t tossed away as soon as a newer, cooler model hit the market. Our parents and grandparents had large, heavy phones mounted to a kitchen wall or placed on a table and there they stayed for 10 years or more.

Daniel Henderson’s huge replicas of old telephones, a television, a radio and other everyday items of the past are on view in the exhibit “The Art of Invention” at the Domestic Arts Building at Grounds For Sculpture in Hamilton through Sept. 18. They elicit joyous responses from middle-aged and older people who remember them and bemused ones from younger visitors who can’t imagine a world without cell phones, high-definition televisions and digital cameras.

Henderson’s piece titled “Black 500” is a larger-than-life (31 by 89 by 69 inches) phone made of black marble, limestone, steel and other materials. It has a base, a cord (which is actually made of steel and doesn’t bend or twist) and a handset that is not resting in its cradle. (This phone is off the hook.) In the middle of the dial is a phone number — EDison6-4608.

That’s not the only phone on view. “Princess Phone” is pink marble, resembling something that would fit in the Brady sisters’ bedroom. It's sleeker than the black phone but it still has a dial — no phone number, though, just the old Bell Systems logo.

In wall text accompanying “Princess Phone,” Henderson writes that the material inspired the work. He was in Italy, searching for a brown stone for a different piece. “I spied a ray of luminous pink emanating from a huge, dusty rock,” he writes. “I knew immediately that I had to uncover the Princess Phone in the pink Iranian onyx. There was no other choice.”

Whimsical as these pieces may be, they also say some important things about the world we’re living in. Henderson is actually a technologist and inventor who made key contributions to the technological revolution. He worked for IBM and assisted scientists such as Jack Kilby, who invented the computer chip. According to his biography, Henderson is “best known for pioneering the system for receiving wireless and video pictures” through cell phones.

Open communications have come with a price. According to Virginia Oberlin Steel, curator of exhibitions at Grounds For Sculpture, Henderson was partly influenced to become an artist after images of Saddam Hussein’s hanging spread around the Internet through technology Henderson helped develop.

The artist also explores the environmental issues that come with ever-changing technology. “Brick” is a reproduction of an early cell phone. Like the other pieces, it’s a reminder of a time that’s past, one more recent than the Ma Bell-era phones, but it also makes you wonder about the landfill space all those old gadgets are taking up.

“We should consider the ethics of products manufactured with disposable materials,” Henderson writes. “In a world of virtual reality with e-mail, text messaging and Internet shopping, we are confronted with the decline in face-to-face communication, the erosion of community and the expectation of instant gratification.”

Environmental concerns are also at the core of “Fossil Fuel,” a marble sculpture of a ’50s-era gas pump. It features original parts and a Sinclair Dino circular emblem on the front. It is made of black Moroccan fossil marble. Connecting the Dino logo with “fossil marble” in a piece titled “Fossil Fuel” was too irresistible for the artist.

In addition to the oversized phones, the exhibit includes "Premo,"a huge camera — a folding cartridge Premo from Eastman Kodak — a radio, a television and a View-Master, a toy that you look into to see 3-D images. The View-Master is titled “Yellowstone” and if you look
inside, you’ll see an image of the national park.

There is a lot of details in these pieces, especially that camera. The largeness of the works underscores how these works were part of people’s homes and lives. “They were designed for years of use,” Steel says. “Their purpose was to support people and be part of their lives. They had to last.”

Another technology-themed exhibit is on the upper level of the Domestic Arts Building. “Plugged In” features interactive, electronic media created by various artists. While Henderson’s pieces make us think about technology in terms of the past, “Plugged In” is about today and possibly the future. The themes of being watched or having our words and actions interpreted (or misinterpreted) through technology are prevalent in the pieces.

Philip Sanders piece “HT/TB(ATCWED)” includes a computer monitor and a mouse. Click and drag the mouse and the image on the monitor shifts. The images are also projected onto the walls of the installation and on a spiral-shaped screen in the middle.

“Paint Press” also includes a monitor. If it hasn’t been used in a while, the monitor invites the visitor to swipe the fabric in front of the monitor. Doing so changes the galaxy-like scene on the screen, move your hand around the fabric and you’ll see streeks of green, yellow and red as new age tones play. Take your hand off the fabric and the colors slowly fade away.

Daniel Shiffman’s “Voronoi” is a television monitor with custom software that displays a changing Voronoi pattern. Stand about three feet away and your image will start to make its way onto the screen amid the geometric pattern. The longer you stand there, the clearer your image becomes. After a few minutes, details like the color of a shirt or the white page of a notebook begin to appear.

Another piece is titled “The Dawn Chorus,” created by Ted Hayes. It’s a series of four sheet-covered pieces that light up and make beeping sounds when they sense a human voice or movement. As one walks away, it makes a sound and you can't help but think it was talking about you.

Towards the lower level of the Domestic Arts Building, a woman is using her cell phone to take a picture of Henderson’s huge recreation of an antiquated camera. Yet another link between the technologies of the past and present.

“Daniel Henderson: The Art of Invention” and “Plugged In” are on view at Grounds For Sculpture, 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, through Sept. 18. The park is open year-round, Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Admission costs $12, $10 seniors, $8, free children 5 and under. For information, go to www.groundsforsculpture.org or call 609-586-0616 for more information.