For the past two days Boris and I have working away on my installation at the Gladstone Hotel for the exhibition, If Walls Could Talk. We had three days for install but we managed to get it done in two. It was a tonne of work, and at the beginning I truly had my doubts this piece would come together, but the completed installation looks even better than I’d hoped.

I made sure to document the process from the beginning, starting with Boris up a ladder weaving metal cable back and forth through the existing hooks in the twelve foot ceiling. The cable is the basic infrastructure from which all the wing clusters hang.

The clusters are made up of eight wings cut from card stock in various sizes and shapes. I was using the bottom of the ladder as a staging an assembling area to string the wire, and then cut and fit the wings together one cluster at a time.

Boris did all of the ladder work on my behalf, which I am extremely grateful for because I am afraid of heights and this was a twelve foot ceiling.

Once we get a rhythm going, I was assembling six to eight wing clusters at a time so we could hang a bunch in one go. It was a good way to work because it filled the space faster, and helped me figure out how much more we needed to complete the work.

I cut just over six hundred individual wings to use in the installation, and did not end up needing to include them all. I think the final tally of wings included in the piece is somewhere between four and five hundred. I wanted to make sure I had more than enough to work with because I wouldn’t be able to cut more once I arrived in Toronto. The wings were created using a Silhouette Cameo digital cutter, rather than done by hand. I am not that crazy.

Once the installation was completed we tweaked the lighting. The shadows projected on the wall behind it are pretty dramatic and incredible. It adds a beautiful sense of movement to the piece.

Here is a short video of Flight Path / Taking Flight. I think this may win as the largest piece of artwork I have made to date.

You can see Flight Path / Taking Flight as part of If Walls Could Talk at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. The show opens Thursday March 6th 2014, and my work will be up until March 16th.