Permanent Temporary

This sculpture is like a child’s building toy made giant. The interlocking pieces are made of high-density polyethylene and fit together like a puzzle. The sculpture is meant to be changed, with pieces rearranged at each exhibition. The sculpture was designed to be assembled and disassembled, so it can be stored and shipped easily. The sculpture is designed so that it can be placed on a wall, or on the floor, or even be suspended from a ceiling. It is made of hundreds of pieces that can be rearranged to create different three-dimensional shapes. The idea behind these pieces is that the forms could be put together to create endless combinations that were of equal value. In other words, no matter how the pieces were put together, the sculpture would be successful. The title of the work Permanent Temporary is derived from a remark by the artist’s father, who, after observing the sculpture, said, “Well, it’s permanent in the sense that it won’t blow away, but it’s temporary because you can put it together and take it apart.” Smithton comments, “My sculpture is a whole-program piece, a complex of relationships, and there is no single descriptive phrase that can capture its totality. The object is not important to me as a singular thing but rather as a system. It’s the job of the viewer to make it work. It’s his sculpture and it’s his problem. I just make it available. The work is about the interaction of parts not the form of the whole. The parts are in a dynamic relationship, in an ecological structure. The parts exist only in relation to one another. They are not autonomous forms but related entities. They are interdependent.”