SOMEWHERE A TREE BRANCH IS MILLED AND REASSEMBLED USING THE SALVAGED JOISTS FROM A SUGAR HOUSE FOR SUPPORTS, THE MAN RESPONSIBLE THEN PLACES A BRASS LAMP AND THE MEMOIR “A VANISHED WORLD”, BOTH PURCHASED FROM A SETTLED ESTATE, INSIDE.
Everything that is not figure is ground
there is a figure
then there is the ground
this is the same ground I stand upon
looking up to the house
with the mountain behind not silhouetted
instead highlighted such that
the sky is the silhouette
I am that figure
in this advancing evening
it is not dark
I would also say that it is not light
OR
it is not light
nor would I say that it is dark
OR
I would shut up about it entirely
Ground is often understood as the background or negative space
it then becomes
something of definition
that which defines
to hold it up
this nothing
this absence
show it to everyone
the nothing
in-between
is like a home
to me
the rural countryside
plowed and planted with
patriotism and nostalgia
punctuated by
Grant Wood
all the sound
of limbs arriving
upon the loam
vacuous &
hollow
as I remember it
from my youth
it is the sound of
a baseball
delivered upon the
mid point between scapulas
Figure-ground refers to the relationship between any object and its surroundings. In some instances the relationship between them is stable, meaning that with relative ease one can identify the figure from the ground.
my misdirected anger
runneth over
it is not my will
if only I was at once
aware
as to
where
I should direct it
that is perhaps
the problem
as every answer
is
myself
that which is arrived at through boiling
has arrived within that which that boils
that place in which the boil takes place
placed within the place from which that which boils originates
In other instances the relationship between them is unstable, meaning that only with great difficulty can one discern the figure from the ground.
and the brass mountains of
this eventide deceive me
I will wait here
nothing close to
an eternity
until the limbs break
and smite me
or is it the space between the limbs
my limbs
for which this landscape
wants me maimed
that which upon such instance is left behind
the materials
one’s said estate
all the things left outside
everything I collect
everything I place around this body
the things for which no one cares will survive me
all the sound
of limbs arriving
upon the vale
vacuous &
hollow
as I remember it
from my early adulthood
it is the sound of
a well placed kick
delivered upon an ‘87 Chevy Cavalier
so as to turn on the headlights
In some rare instances, the relationship between the two is ambiguous, meaning that the figure could be the ground or also that the ground could be the figure.
until then
that then there is
an undefinable color
as all colors are
yellow it is now
tinge of orange
as I see it better
the visual black above
I know to actually be blue
I would explain it as
muddddy
but such
gorgeous mud
mine eyes have never seen
the color must be
all around me
but the air is so
thin tonight
all I can see
next to these arms
next to these legs
is the layer upon layer
of green
Camouflage is one instance wherein the relationship between figure and ground has been deliberately altered such that the figure blends into the ground.
I should be hidden away
here
for some period
with the rest of the wild
animals
and the savage instincts
they pursue
removing the core
and leaving only the last few years
[TREE BRANCH, BRASS LAMP, RECLAIMED WOOD & NAILS, BOOK - sculpture]
2012