Ninh Vysocan
Artworks
Loosely structured around The Crater, a novel by classic american author James Fenimore Cooper, this project proposes a sculpture installation framed within the genre of utopian-island fiction. The book follows the literal rise and fall of a newly formed volcanic island, beginning with its colonization and concluding with the corruption of its founding principles and final sinking back into the ocean. Thus, this project holds as it’s conceit the question: what if all historical utopias have been the same island rising and falling into the sea in an endless cycle./ Located in the terra nullius between the park’s fence and the coast-guard patrolled water-line, the sculpture will make a land claim by the condition of occupancy. As The Crater’s colonists made the island their property, so this work will make a home for itself. The shore will be subdivided and, at-least for a short time, a small parcel will be the territory of a provisional structure. It is made almost entirely of steel rebar as used in modern building construction.