Spanning 7’-0”, with a total weight of 1,860 lbs, the sculpture consists of six intertwined 36 x 36-inch stainless steel rings rising out of a solid granite base, each representing a firefighter who died in Worcester on December 3, 1999. They are freestanding but intricately linked, supporting each other, forming a unit, and working as a team to form a whole. The swirling fluidity of the form, like smoke rings wafting into thin air, has a lightness
for all its mass and seems to be launched into weightlessness. As one moves around the form, the play of sunlight refracts and radiates off the dazzling surface; abstractions of grass, branches, and sun rays fill in the constantly changing geometric shapes in the negative spaces; the piece seems alive and alight like fire.
for all its mass and seems to be launched into weightlessness. As one moves around the form, the play of sunlight refracts and radiates off the dazzling surface; abstractions of grass, branches, and sun rays fill in the constantly changing geometric shapes in the negative spaces; the piece seems alive and alight like fire.
In the sculpture, I proposed a visual question to the concept of ultimate sacrifice. The ring form is a Jungian symbol of total human completeness. “Jung understood the symbol of the ring to represent the goal of the individuation process, which, in his terminology, culminated in the totality of the self.” Each ring is complete, and each relies on the support of another for their particular angle and position in the group. The group forms the gestalt whole, bound uniquely together.
Featured in The Boston Globe, The Standard Times, and Big Red & Shiny.
