• Click here for
an enlarged view
and narrative

• Click here for
close-ups

• Click here to
return to the
main photo page

Ultra Sound Machine

24"L x 12"D x 18"H, 1998

The premise: making the invisible, visible. About photography and religion. Built with a scientific feel--white, silver, and black.

The microscope base projects sound waves (represented by the slender glass tubes) into the air. They are collected, as by a lightning rod, by the thermometer on top the tower, and channeled, by way of the prism, through a number of chambers.

Sheets of silver leaf, silver as a primary ingredient of photography, combine with elements of a dissembled Brownie camera. End result: a Daguerreotype, one of the earliest (and sharpest) forms of photography.

From above, the sculpture suggests an Aztec temple complex, with a major structure at the head, and a central boulevard formed by outlying buildings. No detail; all could be any scale, from 10 inches to 1000 feet. Any religion tries to make the invisible, visible.