Tom Ridge

'Tom Ridge' 

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

This image depicts the exterior of an immersive installation entitled ‘Tom Ridge’. The viewer rides into the ‘Main Trunk’ upside down and upon a cart to glimpse a central scale model vignette of an old house foyer with a sinkhole at the base of the stair. The sinkhole plunges through the floor and into a flesh-like subterranean vortex. The viewer looks simultaneously both up and down at the same time. The exterior also contains several periscopic protuberances from the Main Trunk - which contain smaller associated vignettes. The piece is fully readable only from glimpsing both outside and inside together. The work is a fabricated psycho-cartography-which plays upon the notion (both historical and metaphorical) of Homeland Security. The form of the Main Trunk is suggestive of coffin, tunnel, or medical scan device-all tenuous homes for the security of the body.

 

'Tom Ridge'  Overall Installation Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014  

'Tom Ridge' Overall Installation Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

 

'Tom Ridge'  Viewer Orientation Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014  

'Tom Ridge' Viewer Orientation Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

 

'Tom Ridge'  Interior Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014 Detail image sh

'Tom Ridge' Interior Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

Detail image shows viewer 'installed' upon cart within tunnel. The tunnel walls are lined in moving blankets. The viewer propels him/herself via a ceiling mounted wood handrail. The ceiling vignette window can be seen in the distance.

 

'Tom Ridge'  Main Vignette-Sinkhole Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014  

'Tom Ridge' Main Vignette-Sinkhole Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

 

'Tom Ridge'  Illuminated Sinkhole Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014 This vie

'Tom Ridge' Illuminated Sinkhole Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

This view shows illuminated sinkhole (as viewer sees it within tunnel). The sinkhole plunges through the foyer and an interstitial basement space before descending into a shaft which rises up and out of eye-shot and is lined in a flesh-like substance (actually fiberglas insulation).

 

'Tom Ridge'  Stair Newel Post / Sinkhole Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 20

'Tom Ridge' Stair Newel Post / Sinkhole Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

 

'Tom Ridge'  Exterior Detail at Sinkhole Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014 This vie

'Tom Ridge' Exterior Detail at Sinkhole

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

This view shows the exterior body of the tunnel at the sinkhole vignette junction. 

'Tom Ridge'  Periscope #1 Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014 This image depic

'Tom Ridge' Periscope #1 Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

This image depicts a viewer glimpsing a mini-vignette contained within the exterior periscope. The viewer must manually pull down a lever set within a metal floor grate in order to view the vignette. The surface of the periscope is finished in t&g oak wood floor boards; both the floor boards and metal grate mimic the scale model vignette within.

'Tom Ridge'  Detail at Periscope #1 Vignette Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014 The

'Tom Ridge' Detail at Periscope #1 Vignette

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

The viewer glimpses this vignette when the metal grate louver is pulled down on Periscope #1. The scene depicts an alternate basement 'episode' possibly showing the origin of the flesh-like sinkhole substance. 

 

'Tom Ridge'  Periscope #2 Detail Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014  

'Tom Ridge' Periscope #2 Detail

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

 

'Tom Ridge'  Detail at Periscope #2 Vignette Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio  Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H 2014 This

'Tom Ridge' Detail at Periscope #2 Vignette

Wood framing, Metal mesh, Mahoghany Handrail, Moving Blankets, Cart, Fiberglas Insulation,  Metal Floor Grates, Cast Iron Window Weights, Audio 

Approx: 18’L x 3’W x 12’H

2014

This image shows the final? resting place of the base of the staircase within the fleshy sinkhole cavity. An official image of Tom Ridge Secretary of Homeland Security lies beneath the stair remnants.

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