Is this what the trees see? is a tribute and critical essay in response to Richard Hunt’s Linear Peregrination, 1962.
View Richard Hunt's 1962 Linear Peregrination on Artsy→
Book I: Richard Hunt, sculptor
Book II: Threes and Metamorphoses
Book III: Transcendence
Images include essay excerpts and zine series displayed in copper wire.
Tall trees cast long shadows,” Richard Hunt tells us—alluding to the breadth and depth of a tree’s life. A life that witnesses “the arc of confrontations”, “the land of pain and suffering”, “chains that force [form]”, and “time that refuses to stand still.” “Earth, our garden”, Hunt depicts, “is full of beautiful movement… leaves, fruit, falling here and there… every work is a step toward an ever more perfect union of space, time, and motion.”
As part of Hunt’s “Metamorphoses” series, Linear Peregrination, created in 1962, embodies sentiments of forward motion, travel, steps, onwards, and creature. This sculpture appears alive. Perhaps with a head and a tail. A body and its legs. A mind and its will. The three spokes of chromed metal steelwork that touch the floor provide stability and stature. Thin, protruding, and intertwined juts of metal propagate from each of the three spokes, forming most of the material basis of the work and three distinct, conjoined segments.
I am reminded of the significance of threes. Wise men. Musketeers. Stooges. Little pigs. Graces. The Pyramids of Giza. Red, blue, and yellow. Rock, paper, scissors. Land, sea, and air. Solid, liquid, gas. Protons, neutrons, and electrons. Length, width, height. x, y, and z. Birth, life, and death. Beginnings, middles, and ends. Scale, speed, and scope. Past, present, and future. The good, the bad, the ugly. Heaven, hell, and earth. The holy trinity. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Poverty, chastity, and obedience. Creation, destruction. And void. *Gasps*. Is this what the trees see?
As part of Hunt’s “Metamorphoses” series, Linear Peregrination, created in 1962, embodies sentiments of forward motion, travel, steps, onwards, and creature. This sculpture appears alive. Perhaps with a head and a tail. A body and its legs. A mind and its will. The three spokes of chromed metal steelwork that touch the floor provide stability and stature. Thin, protruding, and intertwined juts of metal propagate from each of the three spokes, forming most of the material basis of the work and three distinct, conjoined segments.
I am reminded of the significance of threes. Wise men. Musketeers. Stooges. Little pigs. Graces. The Pyramids of Giza. Red, blue, and yellow. Rock, paper, scissors. Land, sea, and air. Solid, liquid, gas. Protons, neutrons, and electrons. Length, width, height. x, y, and z. Birth, life, and death. Beginnings, middles, and ends. Scale, speed, and scope. Past, present, and future. The good, the bad, the ugly. Heaven, hell, and earth. The holy trinity. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Poverty, chastity, and obedience. Creation, destruction. And void. *Gasps*. Is this what the trees see?
Linearity is a perspective term used to orient visual objects in our mental space—from this aerial view, looking at something from above, a bird’s eye view, we perceive their form, magnitude, and position. Linearity is commonly associated with straight lines, typically in varying degrees of up or down with a sequential or proportional range of movement. Linear Peregrination appears to exist in a linear form at all points but two. Its beginning and its end. With its end points reaching up and out, this work seems to extend itself. Yet the sequence from left to right depicts a downward trajectory, which is not as intuitive—as one might expect an upward arrangement, signaling a spiritual, otherworldly longing which directs itself at the sky. Still, the substantial body of the sculpture, the middle of the journey, is only part of the story. There is more to come and yet to be discovered at each end. Embodying the perspective of a something, rather than perceiving it from our own, allows us to paint, not linear, but non-linear, multi-dimensional, ephemeral visualizations in our mental space. This concept of multiplicity is the truth of the world.
If peregrination is the concept of a long journey, or course of travel, especially by foot, then Linear Peregrination is a snapshot in stride. It is unclear if the work is more representational of the journey itself or the one who takes it. Aside, Linear Peregrination presents creature-like, with curvatures that enact its organic form. Though not inconsequential in size, Linear Peregrination is delicate and minimal in composition, perhaps evoking the skeleton of an elongated insect or slender-bodied reptile. Alert as denoted by its erect “tail”, poised “head”, and frontal outward extension, this work intuitively marches on.