Shift

2008
Hand carved Vermont Mountain White marble
52 inches high by 136 feet long by 18 inches deep

Shift consists of 20 individually carved marble sections of drapery with a total length of 136 feet, and a height of 52 inches. Balancing classical imagery with contemporary pictorial experience, this hand carved marble wall delineates the property line of One St. Thomas Street. Rather than rendering one long image of draped cloth in stone along this border, the cloth imagery is fragmented, moving it away from a literal reading to a sequenced sampling of cloth images, producing a cinematic effect. Drapery imagery was chosen to complement the classical features referenced in the adjacent condominium architecture. The surfacing of the wall was carved in a crosshatch manner to suggest the warp and weft in the weave of cloth. The carved face of the wall is angled so as to be visible not only from the ground but also from the above viewpoints of the surrounding town house and condominium buildings.