Michel Gerard
Artworks


The black wheel of Sundial derives from the Indian calendar of pre-columbian civilization destroyed by different cultures. The shape of the wheel refers to the continuance of time. Traveling through time, the big wheel of Sundial brings us, in this particular piece, into the transition from the industrial to our post-industrial age.
The 90″ high and 8″ thick disk in Sundial is made from two materials: rubber and concrete cores. Synthetic rubber is a symbol of industrial age production — wheel, tire, car. The cores, drilled out from a New York pier, are made from stone, sand and metal rods. They are remnants of the geology and archeology of this place. They remind me of the more than four hundred million years old bedrock on which New York was built. The connection of these two materials, rubber and cores, suggests the subterranean presence of nature under urban life.