THE SPIRIT’S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING is a sculptural installation at the Josephine Sculpture Park (Frankfort, KY) through the International Sculpture Center Residency program, made of hand-cut and engraved Indiana limestone sourced locally and repurposed pallet wood, rope, and steel found on-site. The work responds to local community dialogue addressing white supremacist nationalism in the central Southeastern region of the United States.
THE SPIRIT’S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING positions the Filipinx bayanihan— a walking home-relocation method that involves group-carrying a house-structure across many shoulders— as an aspirational metaphor for the continual counter-narrative work being done in Frankfort and its surrounding areas. In this sculptural reimagined bayanihan, which can translate to a unified spirit of community work and cooperation, shared effort has seemingly lifted and carried— or will lift and carry— a bare, unmounted limestone base for an unseen commemorative statue/monument. As limestone is historically one of the foundational mineral resources that helped build industrial Frankfort and the surrounding Upland South, the empty monument base beckons viewers to themselves visualize a hopeful future built atop it.
THE SPIRIT’S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING asks viewers to imagine a more inclusive, dignified, and reciprocative future achieved through the acknowledgement of and respect for immigrants, refugees, Indigenous, and people of color in a dominantly white historical narrative. It is through the constant work of self-implication and shared lifting and uplifting that we can move forward.
Placed atop supply pallets and sawhorses in the new-growth meadow, a place of transition, the sculpture is always seemingly ready to be moved. Additionally, the work is intended to beckon the physical and cognitive effort of its viewers from a distance to draw close.
This work was made only by the help of many. Partially inspired by JSP’s successful fundraising “barn-raising” event to restore its tobacco barn, the work is about community effort, just as in the act of barn-raising. Thank you to those who welcomed me into some understanding of Frankfort past and present, to those who helped mortar-and-pestle ideas, and to those who helped build the work with me including: Josh Trombley, Jackie Ta, Riley Fichter, Taylor Wright, Alex Gelderman, Lucy Azubuike, Russ Hatter at the Capital City Museum, Becky Shipp at the Frankfort Immigration Assistance Network, Rebekah Berry at Focus on Race Relations, Frankfort City Commissioner Katrisha Waldridge, Justin Belichis, and Lindsay Howland. Thank you to JSP Staff Mel Van Houten, Jeri Howell, and BJ Duvall. Lastly, thank you to the International Sculpture Center for hosting this Residency.
THE SPIRIT’S WORK IS SHARED LIFTING, 2019, hand-split and engraved Indiana limestone, fabricated steel, metal wheelbarrow handles, found pallet wood, rope, and cement. Approximately 12 x 12 x 6 ft. Located at Josephine Sculpture Park in Frankfort, KY. Photographed by the artist.