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Dedication of ‘O de l’Eau, A Story of Water’ by Susan Pascal Beran ‘O de L’Eau, A Story of Water’ was created especially for this site, neighborhood, community, and time. It has been an honor and a blessing to be able to make this piece and to share it with you, and I hope it will be a gift for those who receive it. In particular, it is a gift to the people of this area-the wonderfully alive, intelligent, infinitely diverse and insightful people of Berkeley and the Bay area. I am proud to call this area home, and you people the family of my heart. Mostly, it is intended as a gift for those who will delight in and learn from it with the immediacy and direct experience of a child. So I am especially happy that Habitot is here and will have access to it. The inspiration for ‘O de L’Eau’ came from many directions. The first inspiration was when, after being selected to compete with other great sculptors for the honor of this project, I came to view the site, and I had a vision. The site was raw and not yet built on, but the beauty of the art deco library adjacent, the exuberance of the young children of Habitot as well as the excitement of the High School Students and the thronging intelligence and spirit of this area inspired a vision of a water wall as alive, filled with color, movement, and history. It connected with the earth and reached towards the sky. It was as strong as an ocean, yet as delicate as a butterfly wing. It radiated like a jewel and provided an oasis from the road. I drew this vision, and won. For the next four years I worked on refining the concept, and bringing the vision into reality. As with many projects, I was looking for a muse when I turned on KPFA and heard Craig Childs reading from his book, The Secret Knowledge of Water*. From this book and others, I meditated on how water transmutates and informs and is informed by the design of virtually everything on this Planet. Simultaneously a most powerful and passive force for change and changeability, water’s mysteries are deep and full of intelligence. Of a desert landscape, Craig Childs writes (p. 107) ”This is the finest of geomorphology, like wing prints against snow. The stray, momentary strands of moving water leave no impression in the rock. They are too transient. But the fundamental and insistent currents leave signs, so that the bare feathers of moving water are recorded here.” He goes on to describe how all the landscape he is exploring is shaped in response to water by water for water. Other writers and researchers, such as Masaru Emoto, are now talking of the intrinsic intelligence of water, and documenting its molecular responsivity**. How wonderful that we are mostly water, how fascinating that we have so much to learn from it, how natural that our children should find joy and fascination in water play, how important that we continue to learn from it, about it, and that learning take place at all sensory levels and interplay. We are, after all, not a part, But infinitely connected in every way. And so the story is not just the story of water, but in true reflection, the story of ourselves, both past, present, and future. We have a responsibility to treasure and care for it. I believe that this will be our healing and our saving. This is where my further inspiration, motivation, and dedication to see this through to completion have come from. 2 In choosing the shapes, forms, and overall colors and compositions, I have drawn on what I learned in linguistics of Conceptual Metaphors as developed by Berkeley’s own George Lakoff***. Conceptual Metaphors are often visual templates that serve as structures for conceptual understanding and strategies. So, for example, one can use the conceptual metaphor of a body to describe a state or country in order to describe and understand its functioning. Here, with the drama of size and presence, is a body of water. It is not meant to be any one body of water, but to have within it many metaphors for the states and actions of water in its many forms. At the bottom are denser layers, embedded with fossils in some the way the weight of water shapes earth into stone. In between, are fluid and strong archetypal water shapes and colors, one window looking like the submarine volcanos or ethereal deep sea lights. And as we go upward, like water, becoming lighter in color, shapes, and materials, more rainbow like, more gaseous, till interspersed with sky colors and sky light openings. And the upper tube, like an over arching clouds, will pour rain back down. Interspersed with these water forms and shapes, are elemental pieces of fire, wind, earth and life, shaped and shaping the surrounding flow. The piece is intended to be like a single movement from the unending orchestra of our water planet. This sculpture cannot tell all that there is to know of water, it is born of limited understanding and perception. But if it has done its job as Art, it will hint at, sing at the beauty and the marvel, the mystery that is water, and inspire a deeper curiosity. So that is this story of water, really only the first few lines of a much larger ode to be completed by those partake. As much as a gift, it is an invitation to celebrate and explore the radiant mystery of water, and to look again, deeper, between, without, and within. I could not have brought this sculpture into fruition without the amazing assistance of so many gifted and generous individuals. These are: Christian Heath, for his gentle spirit and intuition. Craig Slater, for his uncommon wit, skill, and constant presence, Ezra Squire for his dexterous strength and keen mind, Oona Squire, for her deep strength and amazing talent, Goepp and Associates, for their constant assistance, and great sense of humour, Jayme Patterson, for his rock solid support, intelligence, and skillfulness, Lower Brookside Room 3 class 2006 children for giving me their magic hands as a blessing for the back, Michael Bailey for his passion and skill, North Bay Welding for their wealth of experience, assistance and patience, Roy Andrewson, for being a constant and consistent source of advice and enthusiasm, Stain Glass of Marin, for their uncommon vision in helping me create the most difficult of designs, Triton Waterjet for their skill, Turner and Taylor, the T&T boys for their energy, enthusiasm, professionalism, and acts of faith, The many suppliers who have given me the best materials with the shortest of notices and still keep smiling, Clients, Friends, and Family, and supporters of the dream (special thank you to daughter and husband!) Jeff Reed and Jennifer Madden for ther encouragement, advice, and love, John Northmore Roberts and Associates for going beyond what was required in the way of assistance, mentoring, and encouraging! John DeClerq, for his undying support and enthusiasm and wonderful energy, Bismo, Segue, Obi, Abacus, Thomas P Cox, Architects, and many many others, and mostly thank you to the children and in particular to my Daughter to whom I personally dedicate this sculpture- Emily Murotake- for teaching me to play with water. |
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