Images courtesy of Bill Singer &
Robert Atkins
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When my lover, Art Bauman died on January 27, 1993, he wanted no funeral, no
grave and no memorial service. By that year we had seen too many of such
things.
Art's instructions left the living with a void to fill in other ways, which
led to the creation of this memorial at our home in Hillsborough, New
Jersey. Art loved to contemplate a favorite spot in the backyard from the
nearby deck and hot tub. Coincidentally, our friend Phyllis Castells had
just graduated from School of Visual Arts in New York with a Masters degree
in sculpture. Her work typically combines animate and inanimate elements and
her brother had also recently died of AIDS. Her talents seemed appropriate
and compelling to me. She completed the work in the fall of 1993.
Inspired by the place and by the man, Phyllis created a memorial of
distressed stainless steel, snake-plants fronds next to which she planted
yellow Siberian irises. They would grow and blossom in the spring, their
green leaves swaying in the wind in unison with the stainless steel fronds
throughout the summer.
The movement of the piece reflects Art's career as dancer, choreographer and
co-founder of Dance Theatre Workshop in New York. One can catch a glimmer
of his life in the shine of the steel and the exuberance of the yellow
flowers.
-Bill Singer
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