Spar
Douglas fir, steel
12.5' x 19.5' x 7.5'
1980
Spar is a schematic work recalling the rigging of a typical west coast salmon troller. It is made from reclaimed Douglas fir timber from an old Victoria chandlery, and spar poles recovered from a working fishboat. The galvanized hardware and wire splices are of types used on the coast for generations.
The structure is stabilized with four sandbags at its corners, giving it the character of a positional instrument; from the tips of the outboard spars hang plumb-bobs on thin wires nearly to the floor. The slight movement of these weights give the work an unstable aspect, contrasting with the fixity of its overall form.
On La Pérouse Bank off the west coast of Vancouver Island, the slow rocking of a fishboat on the still ocean appears as an internally-ordered, rational and purposeful device against the grey plane of the ocean and the white wall of the sky. This recapitulation of modernism’s exhibition paradigm afforded an impulse for this work.