Steven Careau: Icons of Infinite Possibility
In Steven Careau's sculptural work over the past fifteen years, certain constants are evident. All the pieces are dark objects presented flat against a white wall, and closely related to the human body in their scale. Materials recur: wood; steel or copper tubing and rods; steel bars. The surfaces of both metal and wood are highly finished, creating a soft, durable sheen. Certain visual elements repeat themselves: linear arms extend upward and downward from eye level, slender bars slip along the wall and project from it toward the viewer at a 90-degree angle, geometric shapes attach to or hover slightly above the wall, circular tubes pierce the geometric shapes. The pieces seem both to float on the surface of the wall and to attach themselves to it, the points of attachment like tiny suction cups or listening devices that aurally activate the space behind the wall.
The aural references are not incidental: these pieces, in their scale and in their use of tone woods, bring to mind musical instruments. But the pieces can also suggest measuring devices of uncertain application or, moving into an entirely different realm, religious icons appealing to unnamed gods.
Indeed, removed from dirt, moisture, and strain both by their unchanging finish and by their effortless poise on the wall, these objects, with their clean lines and precise geometry, lead the viewer from the material to the immaterial, presenting at once a sense of definiteness and of indefiniteness: icons of infinite possibility.
Rachel Careau