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Leonardo Gallery 255 Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, detail from The In Finite Earth (Fire, Water, Air, Earth), video projection, unfired clay, heating element, electrical box, fountain pump, wire mesh, plastic tubing, metal water container, motion detector, water, atomizer, dimmer switch and wood, dimensions variable, 1999. (© Valerie Sullivan Fuchs. Photo: Tom Van Endye.) The In Finite Earth symbolizes earth, air, fire and water using four hollow ceramic spheres whose surfaces are encrusted with suggestions of ruins; inside, they contain objects specific to the elements they symbolize (e.g. a heating element in the fire sphere). Different video projections beam down upon each sphere. Elizabeth Fisher, in Women’s Creation (1975), speculates that the “first cultural device was probably a recipient. . . .” Many theorists feel that the earliest cultural inventions must have been a container to hold gathered products and some kind of sling or net carrier, and here ancient clay and carrier bag technology meet hi-tech in an ecological comment on how we are misusing our natural resources. (Valerie Sullivan Fuchs. E-mail: .) VALERIE SULLIVAN FUCHS: THE IN FINITE EARTH ...

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