coast_pole Eben Goff

'coast / pole' took place during two trips to the North Olympic Coast in Washington State; the first during winter of 2002 and the second in spring of 2003. Driftwood poles were collected locally and carried to specific stretches of coast where, after the day's first high tide began to recede, the poles were set vertically into sand or rocks along the tide line. The pole configurations took shape in response to their surrounding topography. The quantity of poles used in these arrangements ranged between 25 and 100. All constructions washed away with in 24hours. At the outset of this project, a self portrait photograph was taken wearing a hand-made mirror mask and a fishing net that had washed up on the beach.

Eben Goff

Alchemical Vessel

Point of Arches

caption text for coast / pole 4

coast / pole 4
xerox

caption text for coast/pole 1-4

coast / pole 1
xerox

coast / pole 1
xerox

coast / pole 3
xerox

coast / pole 2
xerox

coast / pole 2, washed out to sea
xerox


All material courtesy Eben Goff

I stumbled, happily, across this arresting art project by Eben Goff. I found it haunting, but at first I didn't delve into why, I just enjoyed it on it's surface, letting it tug at me but not wanting to analyze too much. I'd revisit it every few days. Recently I directed a friend who shares my interest in art to it. In trying to answer her questions I found I was looking more deeply into the work, and simultaneously into my response to it. It was a fruitful endeavor. I had originally contacted Eben to ask his permission to share this piece with my readers, but he was traveling over the summer and we had only a little dialogue. After digging into it with my friend, I had a set of responses to the work and sent them to Eben to see what he thought, and his reply surprised me, I don't usually get this stuff right but he confirmed my reading and elaborated on it. I'd like to share the 'conversation' with you, but not just yet. What I plan is to give anyone interested a chance to do what I did, to work with this piece and arrive at your own conclusions and discoveries. In short, right now I want to share it, but not spoil it for others by laying my interpretation and Eben's response all over it just yet. This will allow you to have an unmediated response of your own. In a week or two or so, I'll re-post this with a transcript of our exchange. Should be fun, stay tuned. And great thanks to Eben for being open to a dialogue, and to my friend Lisa Obrecht who got me really thinking about this piece and helped elucidate our responses. A portal to Eben's masterful work, and other pieces, can be found here.