ron miriello: 100 worlds project

ron miriello: 100 worlds project jett gallery, san diego, USA on now through march 26th, 2011

world 44 shoe soles, leather, plastic metal, rubber, poplar wood photograph © carl vanderschuit

US and italy -based designer ron miriello‘s ‘100 worlds project‘ began with a simple idea: ‘to create for the sake of creating.’ a series of sculptures, rendered into photographic interpretations and now on exhibition at california’s jett gallery, the work became ‘a unifying ‘story’ that invites others [to] contribute and shape a larger vision.’

for the multimodal project, miriello created fifty interpreted globes, using materials that vary from antique pipewrenches and boat propellers to corrugated cardboard and bowling balls. he then gave the pieces to over forty san diego-based photographers, each of whom spent at least a week with the world and returned with their personal photographic documentation of the sculpture. fifty photographic prints thus accompany the fifty handmade ‘worlds’ in the gallery exhibition, and the entire project process is documented in the ‘100 worlds project’ exhibition book.

the sculptures themselves explore the possibility of the handmade, and the ways in which assemblages of material create their own conversations. to realize the project, miriello worked with a number of collaborators, among them artists, friends, salvage yards, and craftsmen, to produce the ‘worlds’; and thus the final works reflect the energy and vision of the entire community. the photographic prints represent another level of human connection and creative interpretation, while the gallery exhibition allows the number of ‘worlds’ on display to multiply ad infinitum as each viewer engages in his own relationship with each piece.

world 25 stainless steel, repurposed truck innertube, lasercut masonite, laminated paper poster, hexalite packaging, metal hardware photograph © chris wimpey

in description of ‘world 25’, miriello explains:

the sherwin williams paint ‘cover the earth’ logo became a reality in 2010 when the gulf of mexico was coated and suffocated in oil. the base of this piece is laser cut and engraved. black rubber stretches taut across the horizon and anchors itself to levels below the surface.’

for ‘world 44’, the first image of the article, shoes were disassembled and their soles reattached to a wooden sphere. now, ‘tap dancers, businessmen, preachers and streetwalkers share their new life together‘ in the globe.

world 23 cardboard globes, steel rod, wood photograph © john trice

in his photograph, john trice multiplied the image of the shattered ‘world 23’, providing an example of the ways in which the interpretation of miriello’s collaborators creates another level of viewer interaction and response.

world 24 sculpted plywood, die cut laminated paperboard, 5-pin bowling ball, stainless steel gear chase, brass plumbob photograph © paul body

world 2 cardboard globes, paint, corrugated cardboard photograph © cameron okamoto

world 11 maple veneer, die cut paper, aluminum, urethane foam, moss photograph © mike smith

detail on world 11 photograph © mike smith

world 39 repurposed game boards and game pieces, welded metal, wood photograph © gary allard

‘world 39’ began at a californian café when miriello observed a wall of old board games, visually paralleling his childlike, exploratory impression of the project process.

world 19 wood block type, cigar boxes, repurposed antique pipewrench photograph © tracy meiners

world 1 measuring caliper, hardbound book, pistonhead base photograph © ken west

in ‘world 1’, the sculpture that began what would become miriello’s fifty-piece project, a modified 1950’s aerospace caliper is juxtaposed with cut pages from a book on american black history.

world 9 copper and steel wire cable, mahogany photograph © david harrison

world 46 cardboard globe, manzanita branch, wood photograph © aaron serafino

world 37 1930’s steel globe, lasercut masonite, cable photograph © john trice

the rings of ‘world 17’ are inscribed with stream-of-consciousness thoughts that reference particular but non-specific places on the earth, for example, ‘i might meet a life-changing person here‘, ‘this place is too small for both of us‘, and ‘the waiter / the bus driver / the new baby‘.

‘almost like a secret code,’ miriello writes, the writings ‘create new meaning when aligned to a specific place on the globe. the alignment with a thought, a place and point in time equals change.‘