ReVisited Frank Vasello Gate 2004 Gathered sticks and charred wood Photo: Meghan Kriegel Artist's Statement My work often explores aspects of mythology, ruminations on death, the cycle of rebirth and the energies of a place. A gate can be a barrier or a portal. This installation defines it as the latter: a doorway to another realm, a passage to the underworld, a place not of fear, but of tranquility and eternal rest. The motion created by the careful placement of sticks in a textured mandala visually pulls energy back into the earth. By using the detritus of nature, this installation give new life to dead cast-offs collected from trees at Forest Hills, creating a temporary rebirth from the gathered parts of hundreds of individuals. However, like all things, this artwork has a limited life; it will exist for a time, sheltered here in the entryway to a tomb, and then return back to the earth. Gate and my past project, Lethe, deal with similar themes. Both explore death, passage and the energy of earth and place. They are site specific, created in response to different locations and terrain. In Lethe, a man-made form is woven through a natural landscape; it is the more energetic of the two works, evoking the motion of a river cutting through rock before swirling back into the earth. Gate, located in the portico of the Receiving Tomb, brings organic materials to one of the cemetery’s most elegant architectural structures. It is a more static, circular piece, reacting to the strong geometric elements that surround it. Lethe 2003 Return to List of Particpating Artists

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