Stairs for Heaven and Earth
Stairs for Heaven and Earth is a body of work consisting of five sculptural staircases - one "wearing" clothes and the others roughly hewn, an installation with light box & voice/sound, and other free standing and wall assemblages.
The central staircase wears the clothes that I wore to a wedding where my mother had the stroke that killed her. As I went from the church-of-the-wedding to the church-of-the-funeral, a form that stuck with me was that of the church kneelers, often covered with nice fabric – or velvet, like my skirt. The kneeler became a staircase, and then several staircases.
The metaphor of the staircase moves on different levels. It represents generational support - the way we stand on each other’s shoulders: I could do none of the things that I do now if she hadn’t boosted me up, and I hope to do the same for others. But the stairs also recognize the simple ploddingness of life as it comes at us one step, one day, one year at a time. Departure? Arrival?
Here’s a memory: I am 19 years old and lost. I'm living in Kentucky in converted storage rooms over my Dad's drugstore. My head is full of ideas from college that seem to have no relevance now and I am stuck. My mother stands at the bottom of the beat up staircase looking up at me. My mother speaks gently, but with the certainty of someone who has had an apparition. My mother has known great Uncertainty in her life, but about this she is certain. “There’s a place for you,” she says. (Did she sing it?? She certainly loved her musicals, so that would’ve come naturally.) The notion is so far-fetched and ludicrous, that I actually listen. I feel oddly relaxed; her apparition is sneaking into my brain.
Years later, I’d wonder if the word “place” had become synonymous for “well-being.” I would carry the image of my mom and the staircase to Canada when I discover a magical school and friends from many countries & a lovely man who will become my partner. “There’s a place for you.”
Maybe moments of tenderness and compassion like this one are as close to heaven as any of us will get. Apart from these musings and metaphors, I hope the forms in these sculptures are interesting for their own sake.
Sharon Webster
MORE PHOTOS:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/74166552@N08/sets/72157629749464906/
