Hose Rendering Project/Installation

Below you will find some images of this series I'm working on. Ultimately there will be more to the project including paintings, silk scrolls, an installation floor with inset concrete castings and running water making a muddy mess, and a soundtrack, which will all contribute to my evolving narrative. As I can afford to make these pieces I will continue to post.

In previous posts I talk about why I'm doing this to some degree, but basically I'm exploring the possibility of taking mundane subjects/objects and elevating them to a new perception. By exploring various media, and with various ways of manipulating the hose, I'm hoping to elevate it from a lowly status of utility, even annoyance because you have to find some place to put it after you are done watering...to a form of visual 'beatification' (yes even godlike). If I can make it beautiful enough, interesting enough, sensuous enough, maybe it's adoration we will feel rather than disdain. 

But then, there is the realization that this is in the end just a darn hose.

(Click 2x to enlarge)

Pedestals (Front View) Hose Impressions                 Photo Credits: Terry Bostwick
Plaster Impressions
Painted MDF, Laser Cut Patinaed Steel, LED Lighting

"Hose Impression #1" 2011
15"x15"x36"T

"Hose Impression #2" 2011
15"x15"x36"T

"Hose Impression #3" 2011
15"x15"x36"T

"Hose Impression #4" 2011
15"x15"x36"T

"Hose Impression #5" 2011
15"x15"x36"T

"Hose Impression #6" 2011
15"x15"x36"T

"Hose # 2", 2111

26"T x 40" W

Graphite on Paper

"Hose #1", 2111
26"T x 40"W
Graphite On Paper

"Hose, Impression #1", Concrete, 12"x36"

"Hose, Impression #2", Concrete, 12"x12"

"Hose, Impression #3", 12"x12"

"Hose, Imbedded #1", Hose in Concrete, 12"x28"

"Hose, Imbedded #2", Hose in Concrete", 12"x12"

"Hose, Imbedded #3", Hose in Concrete, 12"x12"

As For Garden Hoses

photo credit: stephen W Oachs

(Click on any image 2x to enlarge)

Beautiful photo, huh? Almost as good as the real thing, maybe? Leave well enough alone, I say, no need for me to paint such a pretty picture.

A Simple Hose. Taken for granted? Disregarded, maybe? Neglected and underappreciated, likely until needed to water the roses, certainly utilitarian. Humor me and reconsider our uncomely hose for a moment. What if I take this humble misbegotten instrument and give it a little different attention? Stretch your notion of beauty a little, let me play with this a bit.

Let the hose stretch a little. Tentative at first, give it a chance, give it a little confidence.

A little abstraction, with a little closer look consider the skin.

......sensuous even?

Just a simple hose, but in the right hands? My challenge is find a different kind of beauty, sunsets, roses, little house in the forest...they are just fine like they are, but I get off digging a little deeper.