Log Cabin

Log Cabin
Originally uploaded by musterofficer.

I presented this sculpture at the recent Log Cabin exhibition curated by Jeffrey Uslip at Artists Space. Called "Flagging Stack-Arms," it incorporates a flag made using the traditional Log Cabin quilt pattern. The flag is furled, suspended between two sets of stacked wooden rifles. The purpose of stacking arms is to ground weapons in a uniform manner, so as not to interfere with the soldiers' line of vision. It is the term for relinquishing weapons when they are not in use, but also often signals the end of war.

This sculpture was also inspired an element in Edouard Detaille's 1888 monumental painting "The Dream," which depicts soldiers laying on a battlefield along a row of stack-arms in the early hours of dawn. But rather than being the casualties of war like those pictured in so many Matthew Brady photographs, these soldiers are simply asleep, resting up for a new day's battle.

And rather than being the sad victims of a nightmarish fate, these soldiers are instead dreaming of revolution, and their future revenge against French Republican rule. Filling the clouds is a rousing muster, a gathering of the troops in Detaille's imagination, from every important battle he could think of.