Eco Art at the Ritz Carlton Reserve, Puerto Rico

Arte_FITS. Foundation

Triennial Art in Golf, 2018

Dorado Beach, a Ritz Carlton reserve

 In late summer 2017, I was contacted by an agent representing the Marriott chain of hotels, specifically looking for large site-specific sculpture or an Eco-Art installation for a Ritz Carlton property in Puerto Rico.

I was over the moon and we began collaborating.  The client was developing a Land Art triennial and wanted artists to make ephemeral artworks for the event.  All artworks would be installed on site at specific locations on the Ritz Carlton property.   The property has history tracing back to the Rockefeller and the Kennedy families, so it promised to be quite an experience.  They asked me for a proposal and I sent them the following image.

At first we thought the expo would be that fall, but as is quite common with my Eco-Art practice Mother Nature had a different opinion.  Hurricane Maria struck and we immediately postponed the project until 2018.   The project was rebranded as the reopening of the property after rebuilding from hurricane damage.  Resilience, rebirth, and synchronization with natural cycles.  In short, the story of Puerto Rico.   

 

The geology and geography of Puerto Rico were the driving inspiration for my proposal.  The Puerto Rico Trench being just off the coast, the caverns, and the mountains of the island stand as witnesses to time passed on this planet.  

By USGS – Project PROBE Leg II

With these inspirations in mind, I constructed a monumental sculpture referencing that geology while also engaging public dialog on sustainable design in the built environment.

The form takes on the silhouette of a man trapped within a geode or mountainous form.  The natural interplay of light and shadow on the sculpture speaks to themes of absence and presence and other transformative concepts.  

We are here, but only for a fraction of a second on Earth’s timeline.  Thus, Man Mountain hopes to ask of the viewer their thoughts on what we leave behind, and how that decision speaks to who we are now, and who we are tomorrow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials & Methods: 

The materials are marine plywood (approx. 30 sheets) and as of 2021, the sculpture was alive and well and a favorite of the hotel reception staff.

The dimensions of the finished project are approximately 10’x10’ in footprint, and 12’ tall.  We outsourced the cutting to a local CNC facility that Arte FITS staff coordinated with in advance of my arrival as I had concurrent and overlapping projects.

 

 

Other than a few well-timed moments of help from Dorado staff, I assembled the sculpture solo, working early hours to avoid the Caribbean heat.  We had some supply chain issues in the beginning of the project, but all told from start to finish I was on site for about 6 weeks.  Below is a short time-lapse video montage I made of the project from start to finish.

 

All materials will be recycled or composted at the end of the project’s lifespan. We managed to get a bit of press at the hotel reopening that was a star studded affair, Uma Thurman, George Clooney and friends stopped by, and certainly a career milestone for myself, I’m truly thankful to everyone who worked on this project and of course the property was truly amazing.

We had some press, particularly thankful for the Surface Magazine article by Peter Frank, I’ll update this post with any news of the project, as it happens, and many thanks to all for the support.

Arte Fits Foundation, Modo de Vida, 02.19, p72-78

Frank, Peter. “At the Reopened Dorado Beach Resort in Puerto Rico, Themes of Ruination and Rebirth”, Surface Magazine, December 17, 2018, https://www.surfacemag.com/articles/dorado-beach-reopens-in-puerto-rico/