Ship/Dock/Three Houses and the Night Sky was a gallery-filling installation at Public Private Gallery in 2023. The latest iteration of my Ship and Dock series, the work is an immersive environment. A dark structure—a ship dock with columns, beams, ramps, stairways, and ladders—supports two small houses. One is lit from within, facing the viewer. The other faces away, toward the horizon. The new third house stands apart, completely dark. Through this silhouetted structure, videos derived from gouache paintings cycle from night to day and back to night again, suggesting the passage of time. My hope is that the gallery viewer will feel that they stand alone on the edge of a great body of water at night. Distant stars pulse and dim, flicker. One hears the wind, the lapping of waves, and the gentle clanking of a halyard against a metal pole. Like all of my work, this piece, inspired by Lake Superior, is about our collective journey into the unknown. I imagine that, for me at 80, it’s also about my own final journey.
Photo Credit: Chris Kendall