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TANGLE 2023
University of Southern Maine Portland Campus

Tangle is a percent for art commission for USM
Sculpture is made from salvaged ropes and nets

TANGLE is a commission for the University of Southern Maine.
A collaborative adventure with Roy Fox

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Built from rope and net salvaged from the Gulf of Maine— ghost gear in industry lingo—these abandoned materials haunt our oceans, entangle marine life, and are close to impossible to recycle. TANGLE, derived from the ancient Norse word for Seaweed, will present a human scale, hands-on, immersive environment. This mysterious, exploratory fantasy is informed by the interconnected realities of the networking plant kingdom. Stainless steel armatures sheathed in a lattice of nets and knots provides meditative spaces to be entered and experienced.Seaweed, fungi and algae also serve as inspiration, unifying organic pathways. Regenerators, recyclers and networkers, these plant forms help bridge our world together. TANGLE acts as a nexus space for public gatherings, offering visitors a conversation with the ghosts that have led us here. Built from knotted ropes and nets, this sculpture will inform creative events, reinforce social ties and promote the health and of our civic ecosystem. TANGLE’s canopy constructed of interlacing ropes and net echoes mycelium and roots. Light passes through these openings casting lyrically shaped shadows on the ground beneath the structure.The sculpture’s root-like network will result in an extremely dense assemblage, weighing close to a ton, anchored in the earth. Materials will be salvaged with assistance from the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation and the Center for Coastal Studies in Cape Cod. We are collaborating with the CCS - Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown on their project “Formalizing a New England Regional Fishing Gear Removal Response Coalition”.

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