Interventions/Todd Erickson
TODD ERICKSON, born 1959
Motor City Portage, 1995
cast bronze, iron, steel
Erickson has placed his sculpture here to connect it with Richard Long's floor installation in the center of the gallery. Both works refer to movement and nature and invite reflection on the past.
Erickson interprets Long's "pathway" metaphorically-as the artist's recollection of times spent walking in nature. Erickson's own sculpture suggests movement through the world by juxtaposing a wheel with a flowing waterlike form.
While Long has used similarly shaped pieces of rock, Erickson has united two different man-made forms. The wheel is from a cart from the early 1900s-a pre-automotive means of transportation. Erickson cast the other form from a piece of birch bark-a material that was used by indigenous peoples to navigate rivers such as the Detroit River.
The elements of Erickson's sculpture are like icons. Together they suggest a passage in time through the history of transportation and of Detroit, the "Motor City" indicated in the work's title.
"Motor City Portage"
