Passage
“I am interested in the manipulation of the common. This involves the use of imagery that deals with the phenomenon of physical world and the customs of a particular time or place.”
Susan Schelle (The Power Plant, 1994)
Passage is a permanent installation created specifically for the lobby of the Chemistry and Computer Science Building. The work reflects on the relationship between parallel systems of knowledge, as represented by the book and the gingko leaf. Schelle layers her narrative with the words: “purify, filter, sublime, essence, pulverize, solve, take, compose” to reference both the language of science and a romantic vision of the natural world.
The gingko leaf, reproduced in terrazzo in the floor, echoes the fauna already present in a grove of gingko trees immediately north of the building. Passage was commissioned from the artist in 1993.