By Ellen Frankman
While driftwood has long been a part of East End beach culture, it gains new meaning in the form of art this month at The Robert Hooke Gallery. The works of English sculptor Peter Eugene Ball are on display in an exhibition titled “Literary Driftwood,” a selection of wood and metal sculptures that recreate iconic literary images from salvaged driftwood.
While each piece captures only a momentary glimpse of the thousands of memorable images that constitute a great literary work, Ball nevertheless manages to capture the intersection between written and visual art in a new tangible form.
“I think he’s tried to do his view of a visual representation of the emotion and drama of the incident,” remarked Robert Hooke, founder of the gallery and a sculptor himself.
In this way, Ball transforms driftwood into literary events rather than simply reimagining literary figures.
Hooke assumes that Ball begins the process with the wood, not only because of the difficulty of seeking out a piece of literature in a material object, but also because Hooke relates working with driftwood to working with any artistic medium.
From an artist’s perspective, it seems likely for Hooke that Ball looks for inspiration in the wood itself, gathered from no one particular place, but rather throughout the course of the sculptor’s travels.
“My guess is that he would say, ‘What will fit using as much of the wood as I can? How can the wood itself help me?’” said Hooke on Ball’s creative process.
Ball does not view a piece of driftwood as an item to be whittled away and reconstructed. Hooke notes that, generally, Ball chooses to maintain the natural shape of the wood, rather than alter it to suit his artistic vision.
In this way, parameters of driftwood and literature that may initially seem constricting for an artist instead prove to be quite inclusive The breadth of literary references serves as proof. Of Ball’s works selected by Hooke for the exhibit, literary works represented range from Dante’s Inferno to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes.
The collection is cohesive in that many of the sculptures tend toward the dramatic. The angle of a figure’s head or the hunch of its shoulders helps to convey a better sense of the literary emotion inherent in the experience of reading. Perhaps it is this narrative quality in the artwork that furthers the experiences of viewers.
“I have been surprised by the number of people that know the literary works,” said Hooke.
The gallery owner himself nevertheless admits that he chose the particular pieces to exhibit based on their visual appeal and their titles. While Hooke finds “The Aviator” the cleverest piece artistically, he admits that “Crossing the Styx,” referencing Dante’s Inferno is his personal favorite.
“I’m a boat person,” said Hooke with a smile.
“Literary Driftwood” by Peter Eugene Ball is currently at The Robert Hooke Gallery at 17 Washington Street, Sag Harbor. An opening reception will be held Saturday, June 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. 725-5171.
