the presence of absence

I'm obsessed with fragmentation. The splitting apart of something whole, the dissemination of its pieces, the pieces becoming small wholes themselves, the contemplation of their unseen origins growing them into something new, and always carrying with them a sense of an absence of something bigger.

The 21 Stones project bothered some blog-readers because I never let the stone-finders in on what the sum was of all the parts, but the stones were about that absence. Because I'm pretty sure we ourselves are all separated pieces of a whole we can't fathom, but always sensing it and always longing to know it. We are dissatisfied creatures because of it. It's why we make art, and fall in love, and fly trapeze, and think of god, and all the other things that surpass our biological shells. All of us know, if we let ourselves, that there is more to this world, and more to ourselves than we can see with our eyes. We are disconnected, but always connected. Absence is the ever present body that stretches us to be able to do impossible things.  

I'm really into the olympics right now. Since the mono has forced me to stop my own fitness program for months now, I'm living vicariously through athletes on tv. I've never noticed how incredible bobsled and ski jumping were before. The olympic medals this year are all different from each other, no two are the same, and all were cut from a larger whole, a "master" art work of a whale. I think that is pretty awesome, even if they lack the mystery of the stones:  

The Vancouver 2010 medals are based on two large master artworks of an orca whale (Olympic) and raven (Paralympic) by Corrine Hunt, a Canadian designer/artist of Komoyue and Tlingit heritage based in Vancouver, BC. Canadian industrial designer and architect Omer Arbel, also of Vancouver, used his extensive knowledge of materials and fabrication processes to create the innovative undulating design of the medals, which are struck nine times each to achieve the distinctive look as part of the 30-step medal fabrication process. Each medal has a unique, hand-cropped section of the art, making it a one-of-a-kind treasure. A silk scarf printed with the master artwork will be presented to each medallist along with their medal, enabling them to see how their medal connects with those awarded to other athletes at the Games to make the whole design.