Christopher Badger
Drowned Wood Standing Coiled
Drowned Wood Standing Coiled by Christopher Badger consists of two sculptures, inextricably linked. In each, pieces of driftwood are bundled together vertically and entwined with rope, which cascades to the floor in a tightly wound coil. Placed side by side on the ground, these sculptures anthropomorphize into partners who are literally and figuratively bound. Gracefully composed and energetically poised in relation to one another, they become symbolic of human relationships and our desire for connection.
Christopher Badger begins with a root fascination—a shape, a landscape, or a sound—and then pursues it methodically to its logical, and usually open-ended, conclusion. Though his work touches on timeless questions and engages with “forms as forms,” his process allows for unusual transparency. When he revisits a modernist form, he denies its singularity, pointing to the multiple threads that make it up and the myriad directions in which it could potentially go. Obstinate problems are met with an abundance of hypotheses, each seemingly equally compelling.