THE SHELL THAT REMAINS, 1996The Shell that Remains was a temporary structure built on site at the Anderson Gallery at the Virginia Commonwealth University in RIchmond, Virginia, with the construction process open to public view. A steel frame roughly resembling two spheres made primarily with a lashing and tying process was first erected in the gallery. Over the course of several days multiple layers of thin wire were then woven into the frame. When the wire weave was dense enough to create a kind of mesh, 500 pounds of softened bee’s wax were troweled onto the frame. The hardened wax was then scraped and buffed on the exterior while in the interior was left rough. The resulting shell formed an interior chamber that was accessible through an opening in the form and this chamber was illuminated by yellow light that penetrated the wax skin. This sculpture resembled an abandoned shell.
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