Apologies for the lack of posting the last couple days. I’m trying to get on a daily blogging game up in here, but… sometimes I slip. Mea culpa. Onwards.

Via Laughing Squid, I present to you Sixty-foot Ghost, a site-specific art installation by Todd Freeman and Meg Perec. Installed at 47 Commerce SW in Grand Rapids, MI, it includes a drawing of a giant squid, allowing viewers to experience the creature at its proper scale, and a collection of related objects and books with information.

From the artists’ work statement:

Large animals captivate like few other beings can. They are deified, hunted, consumed and catalogued. While our culture has seemingly amassed a working knowledge of all living species on the planet, one of the world’s giants has successfully eluded the scientific community for centuries. Save for a few partially decomposed specimens virtually nothing is known of Architeuthis dux, the Giant Squid. Architeuthis is a 60 foot ghost, moving unnoticed through deep and dark.

Our representation of the giant squid was conceived out of a need to see the animal for ourselves, beyond pale museum subjects or small renderings in books. At life size, the true scale of Architeuthis becomes clear, a massive, unfamiliar animal deserving of the same fascination and wonder owed to any whale, elephant or dinosaur. Our intent is to bring the myth into a gratifying real space, and give the viewer a chance to be confronted with one of the largest and most secretive animals to ever live.

I love the way this installation uses the entire space, yet it’s not busy; it still focuses your attention where they want it. It has a calming, ghostly atmosphere to it. I also resonate with the notion of bringing “the myth into a gratifying real space”, creating a fictional representation that manages to ground the reality of the thing being depicted.

In a way, although I’m often using overtly sci-fi or cartoony elements in my work, that idea — of bringing a myth or an abstraction to life — is something I strive to incorporate. At some point I’ll probably post some college work in that space. Sixty Foot Ghost also reminds me that it’s been a while since I’ve done an installation. I’ve been working digitally so much, it’d be nice to deal with physical space.

Consider that foreshadowing.

Much more detail on Perec and Freeman’s installation can be found here.

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