Bloom: The Elephant Bed
A site-specific art installation by John Grade
November 14, 2009 – April 10, 2010

One of my goals with the installation of Bloom is to employ scale so that we can tangibly encase ourselves within a form inspired by the shell of a coccolithiphore (by walking under and inside one of the sculptures). I am interested in impermanence, at directing our attention to what is compelling within a state of decay or disintegration. —John Grade

"Inspired by natural cycles of creation and destruction, John Grade’s abstract sculptures reference the formation and erosion of landscape. Bloom: The Elephant Bed reflects the artist’s fascination with microscopic organisms (called coccolithophores) whose limestone shells formed the chalky White Cliffs of Dover in the United Kingdom. Geologists call this exposed layer of calcium, laid down over 200,000 years ago, the "Elephant" bed.

For the Whatcom Museum, John Grade will suspend a forest of bell-shaped sculptures from the Lightcatcher’s new twenty-six-foot-high gallery. Visitors can walk through and explore these dynamic forms that will change over time. During the course of the exhibition, several sculptures will be lowered into a pool of inky-black water where they will slowly dissolve. Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 10, 2010. This is when the remaining pieces will be cast into the Bellingham Bay after a public procession."
— whatcommuseum.org/

This time lapse was taken over four days with my canon T1i and consists of 15,000 pictures. The music is Comrade Z by Devotchka.

For more information about John Grade please visit: JohnGrade.com