crushed hand pins out new dressing + wire 1 Dec 2009

Professionals in all walks of life anticipate problems, set protocol and adapt to change. The professionals at British Petroleum may have anticipated the recent oil leak in the Gulf.  They probably knew that things could go wrong in the world of oil and nature and machines.  In spite of their planning, it’s unlikely the scale of the disaster was predicted. In any event, no protocol was in place and their attitude toward the accident seemed casual.

1 Dec 2009

Several weeks before the procedure the consultant made a point of telling me removing the pins would be very unpleasant.  Something about seeing a pair of pliers pulling pins out of ones fingers. Anaesthetic might be desirable.  The casualness with which he delivered his professional opinion about my expected pain was matched by my response of heightened, nervous anticipation. On the day I could see a list of names of the medical professionals written on the white board in the plaster room. At the bottom beside one of the names was the word, ‘trainee’. That was the name of the person holding the pliers who was about to remove the pins from my damaged fingers. The pliers were the ordinary, large, snub-nosed type like the ones used in any workshop, like the ones I was using today to show the sculpture students how to twist wire into stronger forms, how to draw with line in space, the kind of pliers I could no longer grip or control properly as a result of the accident. After the consultant’s dire warning it did not seem good protocol to put a trainee in charge of the damaged fingers on my left hand.  But, the trainee managed. It turned out the dark warning and worry had shaken me up unnecessarily.  Unlike the suture removal about which I was not warned and which was painful, anticipation about the pin removal was worse than the actual event.

Soft dressing rigid fingers + wire cube 2 Dec 2009

We hadn’t expected the engine trouble.  And it turned out the sudden loss of radiator fluid was more sinister than first appeared. Apparently all three mechanics getting out of the car were needed to tackle the problem. They came from Honor to repair our van broken down on the way to the dunes and the big lake. Bud’s head mechanic introduced himself and his second. The third, a trainee remained anonymous. His job was to follow instructions until experienced enough to make any decisions or sounds or to earn recognition by name. The radiator problem was resolved with some pliers. But the dark looks concerning the reason the clamp came away and the radiator drained were a concern. Sabotage, they agreed, seemed the likely cause.  They had not seen anything like it in their professional experience. Who were we not to take their opinion seriously? The trainee said nothing.

2 Dec 2009

Artists anticipate change, welcome chance and expect the unexpected.  I knew the bitumen boat I made would creep to ground. I had tested the material many times and expected the temperature to cause a slow deformation of the work over time. I knew it would move from form to formlessness, but not that fast. The temperature in the room was warmer than anticipated and the speed of transformation was rapid.  The oily mass was quickly becoming a ruin of itself.

Nature had revealed its own design and challenged the human protocol again.

Coming up next in the blog: a hand revealed