Tench Cholnoky
Large-scale worksExperiments
Tests and research//PIXELMOUTH
NYC-based collectiveAbout
Project Overview
it’s gone. is first and foremost an exploration of decay, the slow but inexorable march of time, and the acceptance that all things, no matter how sturdy, will eventually decay and fade into memory. The scale of a human spine is exaggerated into a gargantuan size, but the piece itself is exceedingly light and fragile. It is made of steel, a material that is impervious to change in our day-to-day lives, but ultimately fades away all the same. I want people to think about what was, what is, and what will inevitably be lost.
it’s gone. explores the relationship between something hollow and hallowed, the light-ness erupting from something whose original life has long gone, but which has enough emptiness to fill a space. The piece itself has been accentuated through a thorough rusting process, and the pitted surfaces speak to the inevitability of decay, while the upward arch of the spine feels like a hollow reminder of what has been lost.
it’s gone. has been exhibited at Grace Exhibition Space, La Mama Galleria, and D12. it’s gone. Shot and edited by Leah Loeser
it’s gone. explores the relationship between something hollow and hallowed, the light-ness erupting from something whose original life has long gone, but which has enough emptiness to fill a space. The piece itself has been accentuated through a thorough rusting process, and the pitted surfaces speak to the inevitability of decay, while the upward arch of the spine feels like a hollow reminder of what has been lost.
it’s gone. has been exhibited at Grace Exhibition Space, La Mama Galleria, and D12.
it’s gone is the first large scale steel installation I’ve ever created, and so it was a tremendous learning experience. it’s gone. was created from cold-pressed sheet steel, which was rolled, welded, plasma-cut, and patinaed to create the final piece.
Fabrication
The fabrication process for it’s gone. was done in five steps:
1.) mockups, 2.) rounds, 3.) wings, 4.) weathering, 5.) patina
1.) Mockups
Mockups in cardboard were a critical first step in the fabrication process. I still wasn’t incredibly experienced in steel when I took this project on, and so creating the shapes in cardboard helped me conceptualize how I would turn any individual aspect of the piece from sheet into the 3d shape I wanted. I also needed to calculate the scale of everything based around the dimensions of the final piece (11 ft).
2.) Rounds
The image on the right is the final result of the rounds process, and the images below are during the process.
3.) Wings
Wings were the term I used for the protruding part of human vertebrae. The part that locks together, which is more or less everything but the body of the vertebrae including the vertabral foramen, lamina, transverse process, and spinous process. I used 3D models of each of the types of vertebrae to better understand the shapes, and then cut mirror images for each vertebrae, welded those together, and then tacked those onto the rounds.
During the wing creation process, I discovered a plasma cutting method that left the slag on the spine. I loved the visible aging process I created, so I applied that method to the entire spine, which was the next step: weathering.
4.) Weathering
In weathering, I opened up the pores in the steel by going over each vertebrae with an oxyacetylene torch to speed up the rusting process. I then went over every square inch of the finished spine with a handheld plasma cutter at very low power and used a flicking technique with my wrist to create pockmarks over the entire spine.
5.) Patina
For the patina process I used two patinas: a non-chemical white patina and a chemical copper plating patina. I intentionally left both on for much longer than they typically stay on the metal, to dull them and corrode the steel.