A few years back, friend of friends Steve W. and I went to the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park to see an exhibit of an artist whose work I was excited to see and which turned out to be one of the very best and most memorable art exhibits I've ever seen...and I've seen a LOT of exhibits. Pat Keck carves beautiful and intricate figures out of wood that she saws and sculpts herself in her own sawmill. They are painted in a highly glossed paint with beautiful decorative patterns and many are interactive or automatons of different types.
She has a full size figure of the alternative singer Klaus Nomi reclining on a crypt. When you stand at the foot of the crypt and step on a lever... the figure rises up.
Then, there are 4 small figures sitting at a table under a sign that says "Messages". You put a coin in a slot and one or another of the figures taps out a message which then drops out a slot. Brilliant!!!
Another reason I feel so connected to Ms. Keck's work are some of her influences, one of which is actor Conrad Veidt who played an eerie yet captivating somnambulist in the early German expressionist silent film "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".
I am a huge fan of German expressionist films many of which I saw as a teen in NY, including "Dr. Caligari" and Fritz Lang's "Dr. Mabuse" films.
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| (me painting Caligari's landscape in a High School art class) |
I wish there were a permanent collection of her work established somewhere where I could take occasional pilgrimages to see it... because it haunts you, even years later and I would love to see it in person again.
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