Double Dutch

Double Dutch

oil and pencil on wood form, cast bronze figures, steel supports

13"x 45"x 13"

Sold

I made a whirlygig of a jump roper and this piece grew out of that. In my original whirlygig the jumper is connected to the frame of the piece at her hands as jumps. In the new piece I wanted to figure a way to magically suspend the jumper in between two ropes known as a Double Dutch. Which is something I was always fascinated with when I was a kid. I couldn't wrap my head around when to jump in. I could barely jump with a single rope. So this is my solution to my made up problem. The background is pencil on wood and  projects out in the middle creating a knife edge that inserts itself between the ropes. The girl jumper is painted in oil in a forced perspective that hopefully helps lure you around the piece to engage you and interact with it. The jumpers are frozen in time but the viewer has to walk around it and move back and forth to find just the right sweet spot where everything lines up. I'm essentially trying to get people to "play" alongside the jumpers who are pausing just for you.

Here is a short video to help you understand the action and dimension of the piece.

This is the original jump rope piece.