Nazi Crate: replica prop with white fedora (from Raiders of the Lost Ark)

wood, paint, steel, machined Teflon plastic
36 in x 144 in x 36 in
2003

The work in this exhibition is inspired by the film, Raiders of the Lost Ark , which has had a significant and lasting influence on me since my childhood. Raiders is an action film that presents complex relationships between its characters, and has unique symbol systems. I am most interested in the character and costume of the films primary villain, Rene Belloq, and the pine crate that he steals from the film's hero.

I began this project by focusing on one scene in the film as a starting point. The Ark sealed in its wooden crate, sits in the cargo hold of a ship bound for the United States. The hero and heroine are onboard, and think they have evaded the Nazis and Belloq, the French archaeologist who peruses them. As the camera zooms slowly toward the crate, which has been painted with an eagle and swastika accompanied by the text that can be translated as property of the German armed forces , a mysterious sound can be heard. The rats in the space begin to wince and writhe in pain as an unseen energy source burns the stencil from the crate until only a black scar is left behind. The hand of God has nullified the Nazis' claim of ownership, and foreshadows the demise of the villains at the climax of the film.

My crate differs in one respect, however. Instead of containing a prop of the Ark of the Covenant, my crate contains an original sculpture, with a form typical of many of the objects I have made. Typically in my sculptural work, upon completion of a sculpture, it is then modified in some way by an ironic installation situation, performance, or simply a secondary sculptural element that changes its meaning. The crate and the sculpture inside it have this relationship.

The Teflon fedora enclosed in the crate is a sculpture in its own right, but it participates in the staging of a potential miracle in the gallery space. If the sculpture is good in the greater sense, that is to say, good as opposed to evil, then there is the possibility that the evil stencil will burn. Therefore, if I could be casually described as a good artist then this might also lead to the same result. If I am a bad or untalented artist who has made a bad sculpture, then the stencil will remain intact. This contrast between the metaphorical purity of a white material in a corrupted role can be found in Belloq's white suit and in the white object housed in the replica crate. Is the white dog the villain, or a misguided hero? Is the sculptural object truthful or a ruse?