Willie Cole:
Transformation and Illumination
Exhibition Statement
Willie Cole: Transformations and Illuminations included the installation, From Water to Light which featured Willie Cole’s newest artistic obsession: water bottles. With this material he redefined recycling as reincarnation, re-purposing over 10,000 recycled water bottles to create chandeliers and rooms filled with a spiritual aura. According to Cole, “From Water to Light pays homage to the natural feminine forces of water, light, and air, and to the earth itself.” The installation consisted of 10,000 recycled P.E.T. water bottles configured into two chandeliers, each six feet in diameter and seven feet long, that hung in the main gallery.
Rather than ‘recycling’, Cole uses the term ‘upcycling’ to describe his transformation of ordinary domestic and used objects such as irons, ironing boards, high-heeled shoes, hair dryers, bicycle parts, wooden matches, lawn jockeys, and other discarded appliances and hardware, into imaginative and powerful works of art and installations. Through the repetitive use of single objects in multiples, Cole’s assembled sculptures acquire a renewed metaphorical meaning, or become a critique of our consumer culture. Cole’s ‘upcycled’ assemblages challenge viewers to see beyond an object’s function.
Artist
Willie Cole
