Infinite Disc leads chain reaction
By Abby Chatfield
Sun contributor
Leland hosted its first art walk for the Consenses Walks project earlier this month, a challenge for artists of varying mediums living in the same community to work together in an artistic game of “Telephone.” Leland was chosen for the experimental project’s second location by founder Sally Taylor, who led a group of approximately 125 people on a stroll around town to decode the chain of seven artists’ work and find out what common threads wove their way through the links.
The adventure began with Leland summer resident and sculptor Charlie Hall’s Infinite Disc, located on the front lawn of the Old Art Building. Hall was there to speak about his sculpture and to complete the long-anticipated walk that took participants to several locations to hear each artist’s interpretation and see their creations. He said he enjoyed the walk and found it very interesting. He believes Taylor’s project has the potential to affect how people view art. “Sally’s invention is a piece of art in itself, and it’s monumental.”
Ask any of the artists who participated in Consenses Walks whether or not the project was an impactful experience for them, and you will receive a resounding yes. Hall was not surprised there were ideas that showed up as a pattern throughout the process. When asked how close the final interpretation in the chain was to what he had attempted to portray through his sculpture, he replied, “In certain limited areas, I found it to be really close,” and referred to the phenomenon as an example of “Cosmic Language.”
What Hall is referring to is a concept called the “Knowisphere,” and it sums up what Taylor is attempting to share through the Consenses projects. American Psychotherapist Ira Progoff coined the term, and as Hall puts it, “The Knowisphere is made of common knowledge we carry, but we don’t know that we have. It ends up feeling like a mystery.” Joe Welsh, who created an ice cream flavor to end the telephone chain, said the project helped him to process subconscious thoughts as well.
Through participating in Consenses Walks, Hall witnessed the existence of the Knowisphere as the artists uncovered several common themes in their interpretations of each other’s artwork. The similarities were glaring in some instances, from two pieces sharing the same title to collective underlying themes such as infinity and finding beauty in brokenness.
However, Hall also found some differences in the way the other artists viewed his work relative to his own interpretation. He thought of his piece as a prism to refract light, not as broken. Listening to others’ interpretations helped him see his piece in a new way. “What Consenses did for me is allow me to see how much meaning this piece had for others.”
Hall refers to Leland as his emotional home and Indiana as his business home. In his Fort Wayne art studio, he works in photography, wood, and glass, but doesn’t consider himself to have any particular style when it comes to sculpture. He usually just shares his work with personal acquaintances, but felt compelled to place the Infinite Disc where more people could experience it. The Old Art Building revealed itself as the right location to plant it. To Hall, it was not just a place where the sculpture would be safe and cared for, but it is just a block away from his summer home for easy enjoyment.
Digging through boneyards is a hobby that keeps him busy in Indiana. Although he cannot recall why, he visited a boneyard owned by Shop Optical, a company that makes glass for eyeglasses, optical equipment, and telescopes. He laid his eyes on a billet of glass and found it was once meant to be turned into rose-colored lenses. The purple prism was cracked in pieces but still intact in a mould. The glass had failed inspection and was discarded. Hall purchased it for 35 cents per pound and hauled it by trailer to his studio. He contacted General Electric, who gave him a mastik that was close to optically pure so he could seal the glass back together. He used a sailboat swivel from Marine World to hang the billet, as it allowed a 360-degree rotation meant to refract light differently depending on the season, day and time.
Hall’s idea of what the piece communicated evolved throughout the assembly process. His conclusion was that refracted light represents his misunderstanding of the universe, space, light, and time. The hole in the middle of the disc is all space within space that he did not understand at that moment. The disc itself is a representation of the Universe. The hole in the “Universe” is a reference to the infinite void. The cracks in the rose-colored glass disc represent all the mysteries of the Universe. He said, “This piece was halfway between preconceived and mysterious. It presented questions, and I went into it looking for answers.”
He met a woman on the Consenses group walk who told him that she considers his disc a place for her to focus and expand her thoughts about her religious beliefs. She plans to sit with the disc, just like singer-songwriter Joshua Davis did when he wrote a song about it for the Consenses Walks project. “When people are attempting in good faith to communicate with each other about abstract ideas and unknowns, we can recognize the whole. Alone, we all just have pieces,” Hall said.
Tours will continue on Thursdays throughout the summer, starting at 4 pm at the Old Art Building.
For more info on the walks, contact: info@oldartbuilding.com
For more info on the Consenses Walks collection, visit: consensus.org/walks
