Paul baker constructed sculptures san francisco
Title: Beauchamp A. Pettibone, Esq.
Year: 2020 and 2023
Dimensions: 52” wide x 44” high x 20” deep (includes both sides)
Built from scratch, a travel trunk for the fictional character of Beauchamp, embarking on the Grand Tour in 1893, from London to Constantinople. The piece is about exploration—of both foreign lands and oneself.
Beauchamp had two trunks custom-made in London—one (vertical) for clothing, one (horizontal) for camera gear. Unfortunately en route, the trunk with all his camera equipment was stolen. The entire premise of this sculpture is that he makes novel use of his remaining trunk—displayed here open and correctly vertical.
Beauchamp, an avid amateur photographer, builds himself five cameras from parts scrounged during visits to the Grand Bazaar. He has converted his travel trunk to a neatly fitted-out camera storage unit.
He explores local ruins, drinking tea and making measured drawings with surveying gear. An accomplished draftsman, his sketches capture mood and memory—one theme of this piece.
Ever resourceful, Beauchamp mixes chemicals and develops his film in a sterling silver cocktail shaker. The Gordon’s Gin bottle holds fixer.
The Duck Foot Camera. One of his most popular creations, it’s made from a nickel-plated music box found in the bazaar. The container flips open to hold sheet film for a single shot.
Watercolor and ink; a concept sketch for the piece made two years before construction started.
Title: Beauchamp 431 1/2
Year: 2020
Dimensions: 20” wide x 32” high x 20” deep
We already know Beauchamp invented the selfie in 1894 with his Copper Camera. Another of his prescient innovations is the ability to tag photos with a time and location stamp.
A surveyors transit, pendulum (pin-pointing a map), and geological samples establish place; dials and an hour glass set the time. The sturdy wood carry-case includes brass handles so you can lash it to your camel in the morning.
Beauchamp built this device to set up and break down quickly; here it’s ready for a day’s work photographing ruins.
His trunk is numbered 431 on top; since this is an accessory to accompany that, its name is 431 1/2, as the French use bis in an address.
Beauchamp employs three methods for each data stamp—allowing him to triangulate in place and time. Place: pendulum (as often used in dowsing), surveyor’s transit, geological sample. Time: hourglass, pocket watch, and precision dial.
Vintage drafting equipment and a pocket watch face let you dial in the time quite precisely; this information is then transferred to the photograph. We note Beauchamp anticipated today’s time and location photo stamping by 125 years.
A surveyors transit lets you define your location (and that of the photographs) very accurately; he painted it white to resist desert heat.
There’s nothing like a sample of the ground you’re standing on to help pinpoint where you are. 431 1/2 has a compartment where these can be stored if needed later.
As the rock’s information is transferred and stored, there are only two points of contact; this ensures optimum 3-D scanning with the rather crude equipment Beauchamp invented in 1893.
Title: Strata Thesis, Lab Unit
Year: 2000
Dimensions: 54” wide x 27” high x 34” deep
This curious device represents lab equipment built by two M.I.T. geology students for their joint MA thesis, submitted 1954. Lab Unit, the central piece shown here, has three parts—my first sculptural triptych. It deals with core samples from both geology and people. Displayed on a custom-made table recalling a slate-topped lab “bench”.
I used materials and colors period-correct to the 50s. No phone push-buttons back then, so a rotary dial to enter all data. The whole piece is built of inexpensive pressboard, not even plywood—the students would cut costs anywhere. Its golden finish is a few layers of amber shellac, straight from the can.
The entire Strata Thesis piece is itself a triptych. Flanking the Lab Unit (center) is the Field Unit (left, 2001) and the castle-like Archive Unit (right, 2002).
With its articulated arm, Field Unit (2001) recalls a Mars rover, gathering samples and memories to be sent back and analyzed by Lab Unit. Insights gained about life are then stored in Archive Unit.
Sketch exploring designs for the crucial X/Y axis; its floating magnets can be moved about like an old-fashioned telephone exchange, setting fresh parameters for each experiment.
Title: Chiffriermaschinen (Enigma Machine)
Year: 2004
Dimensions: 27” high
Borrowing the visual language of WW II Germany’s coding device—the famous “Enigma Machine”—the sculpture explores the different types of messages sent between man and women. Some are obvious, some are missed, many are misinterpreted.
Title: Landing Alignment Computer (Aztec Station)
Year: 2006
Dimensions: Length: 7 feet
Ostensibly about aliens building pyramids to help land their flying saucers, actually about communicating with whatever is alien—or foreign—to us in any sense of the word.
Title: Aroma Lab, Quad 1, Four Seasons
Year: 2008
Dimensions: 44” wide
With five quadrants total, Aroma Laboratory looks at the connection between smell and memory, in the context of a laboratory built by Japanese Zen monks in the early 1970’s.
It is also popularly called “Smell Lab” after the famous “Sky Lab” of the same era.
Title: Aroma Lab, Quad 2, Green Room
Year: 2010
Dimensions: 44” wide
Before any scent gets the spotlight in Quadrant 1, it is examined, prepped, and polished in the Green Room, appointed with slate, spalted maple, Lucite, and a walkie-talkie.
Title: Aroma Lab, Quad 3, Suspended Time
Year: 2013
Dimensions: 44” wide
Numbers, standing in for calendar dates, drift down in front of photographs recalling the four seasons (a favored Japanese theme), backdropped by heavily figured walnut veneer.
Title: Aroma Lab, Quad 4, Distillation Factory
Year: 2015
Dimensions: 44” wide
Distillation Factory—with its dual ceiling cranes and raked sand floor—helps you extract the essence of something, then remix it in the foreground. The 3-story high interior is shot on a warm, late Fall afternoon.
Title: Change Machine, Cyclical Model 25x
Year: 2002
Dimensions: 34” high
References events with wide-ranging ripple effects, as the invention of the steam engine set off England’s Industrial Revolution. Based on my year at an English boarding school in 1977; also the Queen’s Silver Jubilee (25th year of her reign). I built the piece in 2002, 25 years after that influential year.
