Even if you’ve have never heard of Chico artist, Michael Bishop, if you live in Sacramento, you have most likely seen his work.
Arresting examples of his public art include the gold metal grid and river on the Alhambra water tower, the foxes in the Downtown Library galleria and the soles of the feet and shoes at the Capitol East End complex.
Because of Bishop’s unusual take on the world, his work is meant to make people think.
“Especially in the Alhambra piece, I was really interested in what the tower does and what its history is,” says Bishop, a department chair and professor of art at California State University, Chico. “I also was interested in the issue of natural, organic space versus humanmade space, the Jeffersonian grid we can see every time we get in an airplane.”
Although not a direct representation of the actual water cycle, the circle in the center of the work lights up to symbolize water going up and down in the tower. “I timed it so you get the full rotation as you drive along the freeway,” says Bishop. “Without staring at it, you would be able to see it go all the way up and back down again – as long as you weren’t speeding.”
In its curving lines, the viewer can see the tributaries of the river flowing into the tower and out to the square grid of the city. Art decoaged concrete water vessels tie the sculpture to the bas-relief over the tower door and to images dating back to antiquity.
Using iron, aluminum, steel, fiberglass, synthetic concrete and LED lights, Bishop cuts, rolls, drills, bolts, casts, sandblasts and finesses his pieces into shape. The choice of materials lends the work a presence and solidity that should stand the test.
Perhaps because the public work is a collaborative effort between the artist and the people on committees that fund, choose and sometimes give direction to the work, Bishop’s public art may not be as enigmatic as some of his more personal pieces.
“I have two separate bodies of work. One is the public work; one is the studio work. The studio work is my exploratory world,” says the 62-year-old Bishop.
Bishop’s best known works include castiron baby heads taken from a 1940’s Bakelite model, the Max Headroom faces and female death masks from the Victorian era. Combined or seen separately, these images speak to moments in time that capture the inscrutable and even haunting reality of life.
Individual pieces often are arranged in pictorial fashion – groups with chairs, benches, boats or other objects of modern life. At its finest, Bishop’s art tells viewers more about themselves – their dreams, difficulties and disappointments – than they sometimes want to know.
“I’m not so much interested in a narrative that’s open and closed anymore,” says Bishop. “Maybe, as you get older, you realize how big and open-ended the whole picture is. My work is getting that way, more distilled down with more of a focus. It’s having the confidence to have less there – and to let it be more poignant.”
Michael Bishop’s work can be seen through the John Natsoulas Center for the Arts, 521 1st Street, in Davis. Hours are Wed-Thurs: 11a.m.-5 p.m., Fri: 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Sat-Sun:12 p.m.-5 p.m. For more information, call the gallery at 530-756-3938 or go to natsoulas.com/html/artists/michael.html.
