Charles Parson - Tintinnabulation

Tintinnabulation 2008 by Charles Parson. 

Keeping time, time, time

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

to the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

from the bells

This is an excerpt from Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Bells.”

This composite sculptural placement on the grounds of the Arvada Center’s new sculpture garden presents yet another example of the major focus of my work: connections. The blend of everyday construction materials and techniques, stylized abstractions, combined with the familiarity of a bell or a gong, tight focus in each sculptural form, addresses the spirit of sound. This is designed to be placed in such a manner as to provide for several persons interacting with the soft striking of each bell component with the opportunity for a focus on both time and space in which a musical type of sound can emanate. The sound, triggered by an individual artist group, becomes a shared moment of possible pause and reflection. Music is ultimately seen as a clearing of time. 

This sculptural form is a series of variations on the inspirational shape of a remnant of the bell tower I saw at St. John the Baptist cemetery’s chapel in Dublin. This repeated vertical shape, with its emphasis on one singular form in the interior space, has a motif of arcs. These are proportioned to frame, the focal point; another theme in all of my artwork, which is framing what is already there.

One of my childhood memories of the mid-1950s was of hearing a regular 6pm evening sound of hymns being played on steeple chimes from a distant church in our Washington, DC suburb. A bit of comfort and familiarity projected through the neighborhood around us when they were played; a counterpoint to the same shared space and time when the regular air raid sirens would constantly be testing. 

More recently, my encounter form our hotel room in London with the hourly rigning of the bells from the two-block-away location of St. Paul’s Cathedral, creating not only an identification of a shared moment of time, but with resonating quality, had the sense of what the regular ringing symbolized. The sense of survival was communicated after each bombing raid in World War II, which at times was directed specifically at this focal point, St. Paul’s. This ringing communication was possibly a type of celebration of yet another day survived, again, with the ringing of the bells. As I found myself listening with more scrutiny on my second day, in this broad shadow of St. Paul’s Cathedral, I could hear distant, smaller bells across the city create a sense of life and place, sharing a moment with the broader bells so nearby. Hence the imagery that you are currently looking at.

The placement of the sculptural components is a stylization of those experiences. Personally inspired, but I believe dealing with the universal theme shared as one engages with these works. A final, and more subtle impact of the exterior placement on the soul side, is awareness of one’s own place. This occurs not only with the various proportions, the always-changing light conditions and cast shadows, the singular or shared plane of these works, and the interactive aspects of each form, but also by viewing the small, circular, shallow chambers under each differing bell unit. These are resonating chambers, designed to capture a small amount of moisture, either through rain or snow, that then can gently create a reflective pool of water that provides brief, circular rings caused by the soundwaves emanating from the bottom of each bell-like form. A sense of individual life.

More of my work can be viewed at www.charlesparson.com.