Taconic Mouth
mixed media: aluminum, tinted polyester resin, concrete cores with inclusions of Manhattan bedrock, tempered glass, artificial moss
1993
94.5 x 24 x 24 inches / 240 x 61 x 61 cm
The name of this work, Taconic Mouth, makes reference to the geologic creation of New York bedrock and the current problem of ecology. The work includes upright cores taken from New York's Hudson River piers that emerge from a mouth-like aluminum vat filled with reflective clear resin and faux river weed. The mind shifts between natural and industrial scenarios, seeing the sculpture as a mouth or as a landscape filled with half-collapsed remnants of old piers.
Collection of the artist
Bibliography:
Michel Gerard by Ben Shahn Gallery, William Paterson College (1995): p. 18-19
Public Art: Realized and Unrealized, Models, Drawings, and Photographs, The Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sacred Heart University (2002)
Michel Gérard: Signature Transformations 2009–1972, Christian Pirot (2009): p. 35
Michel Gérard, The American Decade: 1989-1999, Neuberger Museum of Art (2002) with texts by Eleanor Heartney, Lucinda H. Gedeon, and Arthur Danto: p. 23
Michel Gérard and Marina Tëmkina: Ensemble, Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch (2023) with texts by Francois Michaud, Christopher Squier, Rachel Stella, and Marina Temkina
Exhibition history:
2023 Michel Gérard and Marina Tëmkina: Ensemble, curated by Patrice Moreau, Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France
2003 The American Decade, Musee Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, France
2002 The American Decade: 1989–1999, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY
1997 Natural Selection curated by Dominique Nahas, Z Gallery, New York
1995 Michel Gerard by Ben Shahn Gallery, William Paterson College