Charles Arnoldi

Inspired by the Mount St. Helens volcano explosion, Arnoldi began his Sticks II series in the early 1980s. The series developed as Arnoldi observed media footage of logjams created by fallen trees. In part interpretation, and in part appropriation, Arnoldi adapted the logjams to his work.

He transformed the massive fallen trees into his version of logjams using wood sticks. Arnoldi allowed these sticks to fall according to the confines of a fixed shape, similar to the freefalling nature of the Mount St. Helen trees, Arnoldi allowed his sticks to fall where they may. As Arnoldi comments, “the edges of the table determined the edges of the piece, much the way the riverbanks were controlling the flow of the logjams.”

Throughout the process, Arnoldi’s Sticks II series maintains a sense of curiosity in physics, nature, catastrophe and control. Wood, man, fire, explosion – the materials and the dialogue which is created between them become a study. Arnoldi analyzes the wood as an object, working from its own properties, allowing the material itself to determine the work.