Flotant, 2008 Dimensions Variable Images courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center

 

Masses of rims—from approximately 50,000 Styrofoam cups—hovered over the walls and spilled onto the gallery floor, making the large open space feel intimate. Unified through repetition, grouping, proximity, and density, the rims worked to lose their association with the whole cup from which they were cut. I chose to work with the negative spaces formed by the rims to evoke an inviting island mass, at once visible and invisible.

By definition, “flotant” means to fly or stream in the air. It was this idea, tied to a reference from Yann Martel’s novel, Life of Pi, in which an Indian boy, Pi, finds himself on a floating island that is both temporary shelter and place of hope that this installation, created specifically for the Arts Center, was born.