Catapillar
Steel 5' x 15' x 4'Brian Glaze, Hendersonville, NC
Location: Bristol Public Library (upper entrance on King Street).
Growing up in northeastern Ohio, I have been surrounded by the steel industry all my life. With my family ties dating back five generations, I feel a strong connection to these materials. My work covers not only traditional steel sculpture, but includes mixed medium, video, and collaborative multimedia performance. I am continually tracing my family's history back to England. Creating work from this process has been translated into forms of welded and cast metals, to video representations of my past family members and their lives.
With my surroundings (The Rust Belt), scrap steel and bygone manufactured objects have always been in abundance. Catapillar deals with found materials, industrial overtones, and human interaction. The work also pokes fun at itself by trying to emulate the title's subject matter and by using the official color of Caterpillar forklifts. The title is intentionally misspelled, commenting on childhood memories and tendencies towards phonetic spelling. The work invites interaction of all ages, especially for children to climb on.