Le Poeme de L'Extase: 2020
Poetry:Emily Dickinson, On my Volcano grows the grass/
Music: Alexander Scriabin, Le Poeme de L’extase +John Adams, Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes
24k Gold, with 133 bird feathers [including Lady Amherst Pheasant, Ring-Necked Pheasant, Silver Pheasant, Golden Pheasant, Grey Peacock Pheasant, Ocellated Turkey, Wild Turkey, Guinea Hen, Magellan Goose, Peacock, White Peacock, Princess of Wales Grass Parakeet, Conure, Budgerigar, Jungle Fowl, Tragopan, Flamingo, Cockatiel, Hamburg, Scarlet Macaw, Blue & Gold Macaw, and other birds], water-gilded cherry wood [wood, chalk, rabbit skin glue, bole, and water], poetry, and music.
33 ½ x 16 x 20 inches
process
Making of Le Poeme de L'Extase
Detail of working base, showing relationships of feathers to each other and the gold
Making of the Le Poeme de L'extase
Parchment: final tracing of the work before gilding and completion
Parchment Detail
Parchment, detail of one section, including Cardinal feathers 9, 10, 14 15, 19
writings on work
Le Poeme de L’Extase takes its title from the music that impelled its making: Alexander Scriabin’s, Le Poeme de L’Extase, and its almost unbearable musical might. Twinned with the John Adams, Must the Devil Have All The Good Tunes [Yuja Wang & the LA Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel conducting]—it took all of that first pandemic year of 2020 for the making of this work: a furious gathering of all my studio forces.