WEBVTT

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I think art is wonderful because it's 
everything you've ever known,

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and everything you've ever done somehow
percolating up,

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working with ideas that you might want to 
explore.

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And then you can just wake up one morning 
and know what you want to do.

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This is a very unusual art project.

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I got a phone call out of the blue.

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It was from an art consultant in the city,
wonderful woman.

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And she said, "Congratulations, you've 
been selected to make an art work for the

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Frey Foundation of the city of Grand 
Rapids." and I said, "Well, what's the

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site?" And it was one little corner.

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It was called the "Percent for Art Corner"
of sort of a very tough park, or what

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was left of a park. There was a skating 
rink that was in bad need of repair.

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And I said, "I don't believe an art work,
one singular object is going to help

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resolve sort of the urban situation of
what this park is and is not doing, but if

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the Frey Foundation is at all interested 
in having me come in, having the art act

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as a catalyst to completely rework this 
park, I would be extremely interested."

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I think the idea of a skating rink

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is something that just sort of piqued my 
fancy.

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What I actually wanted to do was take an

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idea of sculpture and grow it into a 
park.

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I didn't realize I was going to have to 
work as an architect as well,

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because the city then required two or

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three buildings to be part of the site.

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A bandstand, a restroom facility,

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I'll have put in all the lighting.

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Yeah, it's not...

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I wonder if you're gonna notice that,

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That might be a good North Star.

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<v Assistant>okay.</v>

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<v ->Right?</v>

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And so then we either go deep, deep blue.

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Yeah, that works fine for the North Star,

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because it's off-blue.

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<v ->Okay.</v>

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<v ->I'm really curious what this 
looks like with ice on it.

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We're soon gonna find out,

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with ice.

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I sort of called this one the three stages

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of water: solid, liquid, and gas.

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So the liquid is a water fountain

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that's three feet about you.

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A circle covered with water in it flows

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off the front edge.

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The mist or the gas fountain

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is a ring of mist that'll come up,

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and you could almost walk into the mist,

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And of course, the ice is the ice skating
rink.

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The genesis started with water.

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Grand Rapids actually took the rapids out 
the river there

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for flooding reasons.

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And I started to play with the idea

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of bringing it back a little bit.

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The starting of the rings, the terraced 
rings,

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started as, if you took a drop of water

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in the center of the pool, and let them 
come out,

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and then it spun into an idea of as much

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about astronomy and about the stars,

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so it's almost like pulling the stars 
into a pool of water.

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It's sort of a reflection of the night sky
in the pool.

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(group laughing and chattering)

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<v ->All right, this is it. 
Now close your eyes.

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<v ->Wow. This is not bad.</v>

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(chattering)
Just be careful, Sarah.

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Wow.
(gentle music)

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It's a piece that marks a very set point

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in time and connects it back to a set

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occurence in nature.

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(ice skater yells)

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It's up and running. The skating rink's 
actually up first,

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and I'll go back in to fine-tune the 
landscaping, the trees.

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My sculptures deal with naturally

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occurring phenomena,

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and they are embedded and very closely 
alined with geology

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and landscape and natural earth 
formations.

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It's all about a play back and forth

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between inside works and outside works,

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all trying to capture the landscape.

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This is a group of atlases.

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I bought about ten old atlases.

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And I started making these landscapes,

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crates, in them.

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So this one sort of has a double crater.

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So you go past through the first crater,

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and there's a little island and you open 
it to the island,

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and I'll make it more complex island 
geography here,

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which is what's going on.

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So much of my artwork is very large-scale 
outdoor works that I like to retreat

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into the studio and make a lot of the 
work myself.

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And the trouble is the outdoor works and

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the architecture tends to take up all my 
time,

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so I find it very hard, as a struggle,

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to be able to come back here and do this.

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This is like the first work I've done in 
a little while.

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It's terrible.

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(cat meows)

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We have gone through a period in art and 
architecture,

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I think, modernity, industrialization,

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which allowed for specialization.

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There are very few architects who are 
also solidly, have a gallery.

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Part of me is an artist.

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The other part of me builds architecture.

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I'm not at all wanting to have

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a large practice.

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I don't want to practice architecture.

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I love building a few buildings.

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So I have to be very careful what I

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take on.

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I've done some works that are extremely 
public and extremely well-known,

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and I think had I not done the Vietnam 
Memorial and come out with the body of

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work that since has come out, I would have
been able to be called an artist

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about five yers sooner.

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But because I had done the Vietnam 
Memorial,

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it was like, "Oh, you make monuments,"

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whatever that means.

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I mean, look at that one, the biggest one.

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Dee-dee-dee-dee.

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Dee-dee-dee.

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I don't think I woke up one day and said,

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"Oh, I'm going to be an artist on some 
days and an arch..."

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It was more I couldn't choose between the 
two, nor did I

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choose to blend them.

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You might be able to do this better than 
me.

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It's taken me a body of work to see how I 
am developing.

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<v Acquaintance>I don't think so.</v>

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<v ->No, it's solid, it's totally 
solid.

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It's been on for an hour now.

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It's kind of surreal.

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I really want to make this piece.

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I'm actually playing with

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the idea of taking this idea and creating 
a work out of recycled rubber,

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calling it "Playground."

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It will be twice as big

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as the untitled topographic landscape,

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and kids can play on it.