Eureka

UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Berkeley, CA

June 11th to August 14th, 2005

The 2002-2004 Eureka Fellowship Awards from the Fleishhacker Foundation that included an unrestricted $25,000.00 grant.

February’s Song continues my investigations into the theme of regeneration. The title refers to a hidden growth, present even in the dead of winter or dark of night. Within this chandelier like form I have substituted song for light, paying homage to what must have been the first symphony. To help choreograph these tiny motorized wind instruments, I overlaid a spiral form on a grid to determine the individual time sequencing of each of the 12 bird’s performances that builds together naturally to the crescendo, thereby echoing the sudden, abrupt and unexplained silencing that often occurs when birds gather and sing in a tree.

A true hybrid, February’s Song crosses selected forms of the natural world in its three broadest divisions (plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms) with certain sensibilities of the applied arts and crafts of three distinct time periods (Moorish Medieval, Rococo and Art Nouveau). This diverse matrix not only provided the visual references and influences for the work but also generated questions about the circular nature of influence between the sciences and the arts and crafts movements of each respective time period. In turn, this casts a strange new light on my perceptions of life, its origins and its destinations.

Robert Ortbal
Oakland, California
April, 2002