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"I celebrate
myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume, for every
atom belonging to me as good belongs to you"
~Walt Whitman, "Song
of Myself"
A dear friend Matthew
Sperry was killed June 6th, 2003, hit by a truck while bicycling his way
to work in Emeryville CA from his home in Oakland. Just before his death
I had brought home some chunks of English ivy stems that we had stripped
from red alder trees during an invasive plant removal work party for the
Nature Consortium in the West Duwamish greenbelt. I thought they were
too fascinating to be hauled off for compost and had intended on making
a sculpture with them to be brought back to the site.
In the shadow of
Matthew's death and the distractions of a warm, dry pacific northwest
summer much got put aside and so it goes the planks of ivy sat in our
backyard for a month or two. The longest most flexible plank seemed to
suggest that it be contorted into a spiral. I listened and began the process
of wetting it with a hose to make it flexible enough to bend. During the
bending process I realized that the ivy had peculiar properties all it's
own and was not as mutable as I imagined it would be. I began to understand
what artists, especially indigenous artists, mean when they say the material
tells them what it wants to be. This collaboration between the material
and the artist evoked memories of Matthew, an inspired, intuitive musician
deeply rooted in improvisation.
The installation
consists of four pieces: a center piece of a tall pointed column of ivy
stems around which a spiral of ivy stems has been wound, and three consecutively
taller ivy stem planks placed upright in a semi-circle around the center
piece. The shortest piece was evenly cut on both ends. The two taller
pieces are pointed and rough edged at top. They are held together by wire
and secured to the ground with metal posts and rebar.
To me this piece
is a meditation on regeneration and how the individual and the collective
resolve themselves in the cycle and rhythm of infinite variations of being,
reflected in the spirit of Whitman's "Song of Myself" and improvisitory
music.
The title came
from a profound observation a friend's neice made when she was five years
old. Upon hearing crickets and tree frogs singing in a humid Florida night
she exclaimed in wonderment "Oh! that's the sound that stars make!".
Indeed it is.
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Matthew Sperry
was a devoted man, devoted to his music, his wife Stacia, their two year
old daughter Lila, his family, and his friends. His was a joyful, engaged
devotion free from the numbing weight of duty, inspired by a reflexive
love of just being. Passionate about food, music, justice, and people
he lived to share his discoveries with anyone who showed an interest.
Matthew had a sense of humor that embraced you and lifted you up. Hell,
everything about Matthew did that, especially his hugs.
Please visit his
memorial website maintained by
his close friend and fellow musician Scot Hacker to learn more about Matthew,
his art, his life and his loves.
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the sound that
stars make is located southwest of downtown Seattle in the West Duwamish
greenbelt, the largest contiguous section of urban forest in Seattle.
It is located along a major trail running more or less west-east through
the greenbelt downhill from 14th Ave SW and SW Holly St. in the west to
West Marginal Way at the bottom of the hill in the east.
To get to 14th
Ave SW and SW Holly St. take HWY 99 or I-5 to the West Seattle bridge
exit. Procede over the bridge and take the Delridge Way exit. Follow Delridge
Way to the lighted intersection with SW Oregon St. just past a pedestrian
overpass. Turn left on SW Oregon and stay on the main arterial through
some windy turns uphill following the signs for South Seattle Community
College. The windy road eventually levels out and straightens to become
16th Ave SW. After passing SSCC on your left go about three blocks to
the intersection with SW Myrtle St. and take a left. Procede uphill to
14th Ave SW and take a left and go to where 14th ends at the intersection
with SW Holly St. Park here and follow the trail into the greenbelt making
sure to continue going downhill and to the right along the well used but
unmarked main path. After about a half mile or so from the entrance you'll
see the installation off to your left.
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