The Sky Begins at Your Feet

As part of a public art project organized by the Power Inn Alliance and the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission the artist and Sacramento State Professor Robert Ortbal created The Sky Begins at Your Feet, a completely chromed industrial sized dumpster except for the bottom 2 to 3 feet where it meets the ground.

After the viewers more immediate, possibly self-reflexive and narcissist moments pass an exploration of the reflections both near and far go into and out of focus. This is achieved by deftly sanding smooth or texturing the dumpster before being chromed. This surface has a catalytic effect, transforming the dumpster and its associations with the waste, refuse and the discards of our culture into a container of endless possibilities.

Within the history of art there have been many masterpieces that have chosen to hold up a mirror to our world rather than make a painting of it. However, is a mirror enough, given their ubiquitous nature in our age? This is a question I have returned to repeatedly over the course of the last 25 years, creating public and private works that juxtapose the multi-faceted and nuanced effects a mirrored surface can evoke with a vast array of imagery and materials.

It is the potency of the exposed strip at the bottom of the dumpster that serves to anchor the work, reinforcing the corporal nature of the container, creating a liminal tension with the ethereal qualities of the mirrored surface above. Within the context of dirt, dumpster and chrome an awakened surface is created - present and waiting to engage with whoever crosses its path.