BFF: Black Forrest Fire commission

Fire Chief

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A request was presented to me through a friend at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. The collector requested a sculpture be made from Aluminium remnants at their home site affected by the Black Forest fire during the summer of 2013.
With a great variety of shapes and sizes of cast aluminium to draw from, the client wanted a piece that had a reference to the fire that consumed their home. This image of their driveway, and truck with the path the aluminium traveled escaping from the heat.

The client requested to have the piece be in line with the southwestern setting of their home, preliminary arrangement of the shapes of fire cast Aluminium

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On concrete floor, the arrangement on the floor with the long runs of Aluminium for the Fire chief. Concerns of the client as to the scale of the work. Rough dimensions of W 43" H 94".  The weight of selected aluminum 24 lbs.  

 I chose a 4' x 8' panel of Celotex underlayment black panel to add contrast in the background. 
The print : 
"caution may smolder or burn if ignited" accidental, but fitting.

The Celotex panel led to the idea of incorporating charred wood Shou Sugi Ban 焼杉板 as the background panel, below are some samples of the charred wood with metal characters, which led me to use copper paste prior to charring. Other samples with Aluminum samples from the clients selection. 

Gallery: select images below

building the panel

Douglas Fir ply was selected to continue with the three panel layout from earlier samples. before and after images of the 48" x 96" panel.

Gallery: select images below

Gallery of close up images of the charred panel, the copper reminds me of Raku, the delicate nature of the surface reminds me of paint work on copper brass and bronze. Care must be taken to coat the surface to bond the charred surface to the remaining wood surface. 

Gallery: select images below

Attching the Aluminium elements to the charred wood panel. The thickness of the pieces range from 1/16" to 3/4".  Sections with thicknesses of 3/8" and more can be drilled and taped, otherwise threaded aluminium rods must be TIG  welded to the back surface. 

Gallery: select image below

Epilogue:  After attaching all threaded studs to the fire cast aluminium pieces the mounting process of arranging the elements on the completed panel. Mounting points are then transferred and drilled, for each piece, some are layered others are on their own. A nice analogy from the pattern of the completed piece is a representation of the Black Forrest Fire how the fire spread out in different directions, leaving places untouched by its destruction. Completed piece dimensions: W 48" H 96" D 6.5" Sept 2014