The Anniversary installation posits a basic question: How do you know what is real? In our media-obsessed culture it’s hard to define reality and truth. What data is a fact? Can you trust in expert opinion or eyewitness accounts? As a culture self-immersed in media, how do we know what is real and whom do we choose to believe? These are good questions to be asking lately.
This piece is an assemblage of media, hearsay and speculation about the Goatman, Fort Worth's own Bigfoot. Anniversary plays upon our nostalgic view of the late Sixties. The exhibition focuses our attention on a turning point. Some would rightly view the summer of 1969 as the end of our American innocence. Soon to come were the escalation of the Vietnam protests, the Women's Liberation movement, the Gay Liberation Movement, and the dissolution of conventional political practice exemplified by Watergate.
This artwork also examines our end-of-century paranormal obsessions. We have to ask ourselves why we believe and doggedly seek to find "the Other" —Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster or space aliens—in spite of the lack of conventionally accepted evidence. And is it a coincidence that his "attack" was at a lover's lane—the kind of place where so many stories like these emanate. Sounds like the stuff of urban legends or the plot to a teen slasher film, doesn’t it?
Anniversary Research
Robert Hornsby: "To begin the Anniversary project, in 1996 I came home to Fort Worth do research, visit the site and interview a few people who remember the summer of 1969. I spent hours in the Fort Worth Public Library, pouring over microfilm of back issues of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Near the home where I grew up, I visited the River Oaks Public Library, where I found a copy of the book by Sallie Anne Clarke that I remember from childhood. In phoning around town to look for a copy of a statue I recalled seeing, I came to find out that the Lake Worth Public Library had owned one, and so I visited there as well. At every library, the librarians were extremely helpful in delving into their own memories of 1969 and in suggesting other people that I should talk to or see.
"When I returned to my sculpture studio in New York City, I had a wealth of information to sort through, catalog and verify. I had developed professional Internet research skills for a 1997 installation project that was part of Fotofeis, the International Photography Festival of Scotland. These skills were then put to the test as I scanned the complete breadth and depth of the World Wide Web, investigating the social and political events of 1969. These discoveries became the raw materials for creating the environment depicted in the hanging "Media Monsters"—the large flystrips with slices of important events of that fateful summer. In part, my fascination with these images stems from our modern willingness to build a conspiracy theory around people and events--giving them mythic status. It is the cult of personality and in some cases, we worship too readily."
The Installation
The complete installation piece entitled "Anniversary" is a free-form sculptural environment, populated by four elements:
1.The Goatman sculptures
2.The Sightings
3.The Media Monsters
4.The News
These are described in greater detail below.
The Goatman
Robert Hornsby: "The Goatman sculpture is my rendition of the creature seen in Fort Worth during the summer of 1969. My figure is based on an original sculpture by local craftsman Joe Pack (deceased). Now lost with no extant copies, the last known original was in the possession of the Lake Worth Public Library and was irreparably damaged in the late 1970s. I have produced my own version of the Goatman figure based on a photograph of Pack’s sculpture as published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram."
The figure recalls many precedents and references. The man-beast has roots in our most ancient mythology. The primal urge that the Goatman represents is seen again and again throughout the history of sculpture. The half-man/animal is the form we have chosen to depict our most feared evils and our most revered gods. Form the Egyptians’ Ra, to the Hindus’ Shiva, along with werewolves, gargoyles and demons of all kinds. In recent times, we have chased the shadow of Bigfoot from the Northwest Woods to the Himalayas-- and back to Fort Worth, Texas. The Goatman is symbolic of our own primitive past. He also serves as a reminder of the unknown—the "what if" that we find in our dreams and fear in our nightmares.
The Sightings
The Sightings are documents of an event, but also art history running backwards, in a line from performance art to photography to painting to drawing—the original primal art form. Though often mistaken for enlarged motion picture film cells or large black and white photographs do, they are actually drawings. That’s one of their magical qualities. From a distance of 20 feet, the images look like grainy blowups of film cells. In a curious way, they are--they are the frozen moments that flicker past you, like action shots from your peripheral vision.
Robert Hornsby: "I wanted to see the island from the Goatman's perspective, so I went to the site of the original Goatman incident. I climbed the trees, swung from vines, jumped from trees and ran around like a banshee, while a documentary photographer followed and tried to catch me on film with a still camera.
"I took the resulting images and made painted enlargements by hand and then drawings using an unusual technique I developed. When you look at them, the question is this: are you seeing something there? Finding a figure in the jumble of dots? I'm often surprised by how little information it takes to suggest a figure in space.
"So, strangely, but not accidentally, these images reference several things at once: film footage of famous monsters, the original site, other bigger, more well known Bigfoot sightings like the Patterson film footage and even Antonioni’s film masterpiece Blowup.
"These large black and white images are actually drawings made by hand. I used the smoke from a candle to create dots on a sheet of clear Plexiglas. I trapped the drawing between another sheet of Plexiglas and sealed the edges. The carbon is not fixed in any way—just hangs onto the Plexiglas. You could wipe them completely away with one swipe. But isn't that like a memory unrecorded? Or a time that's now lost?"
The Media Monsters
Robert Hornsby: "I knew the summer of 1969 was a very active period politically and socially in America—I was surprised to find so many resonant events and images. I collected many pieces of images from my library and Internet research, which I used in making the 'media monster' flystrips. They are thin slices from larger images, which represent what a small amount we actually know about these people. I'm interested in the contrast between the supposed innocence of the time and the dark side."
This is where media images become larger than life and monsters are created. Demonized and enlarged in stature by media attention, these people (and their acts) are set apart from everyday life. They become both famous and infamous. And there were many that summer, including Neil Armstrong, Charles Manson, Ted Kennedy, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland and Lt. William Calley, to name a few names.
The News
The four pieces mounted on Plexiglas are actually full-scale black and white photographs of front pages of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. When the Lake Worth Monster story first appeared on the front page it elevated a rumor into news. When looking back on these pages, one cannot help but compare the content of the coverage and the tone of the reporting with recent reporting. Taken as a whole, a comparison of a single back-issue of the Star Telegram with a contemporary issue gives one pause--so much has changed--particularly our level of general skepticism and willingness to challenge authority.
Before we take pride in that contempt, consider that, as a culture, we still accept and revel in things that are both irrational and unprovable--like psychic hotlines, UFOs and other extreme paranormal activity. The discussion shifts to what proof really is. These artworks point to four days in our collective memory--and offer themselves as proof of the events. An interesting exercise is to compare four days in Fort Worth to the same four days in New York City, Los Angeles or London--the differences you'll find in the coverage is surprising.
Robert Hornsby: "I remember very well my excitement in learning to read the newspaper that year in school. When the Goatman appeared on the front page, it was a small boy's wish fulfillment of the highest order. A real monster—right in our backyard! It had to be true—it was there in black type, front-page news. The story captured my imagination as well as the curiosity of the entire town. And then just a suddenly as he had appeared, the Goatman vanished from the news. He was replaced by other news of events as otherworldly as himself—a few days later men landed on the moon. The moon landing and the other historic events of the following days swept the Goatman story from the front page into memory and obscurity."
Educational Component
The educational component of the Anniversary project linked library research to a pop-culture event. It offered as opportunity for learners of all ages. Kids learned about 1969 social history; adults who remembered reflected on the convergence of all these cultural forces. Because the exhibit was situated within the Fort Worth Public Library, visitors had ready access to the library's resources to pursue inquiries of their own.
In advance of the exhibit, I contacted several local schools around Lake Worth. I offered art teachers my story about the Goatman legend. Teachers at Brewer High School and my own alma mater, Castleberry High School presented the story to their students without having seen my own artwork. The students then made their own renditions of the Goatman and parts of the story. Some took it as starting point to explore the idea of monsters in general, inspired in part by the classic Hollywood movie monsters of the 1940s and 50s. The resulting images were exhibited in the exhibition hall, which will debut alongside my installation.
The Performance
Robert Hornsby: "My story: 'How I Found the Goatman' included a dramatic reading, a story-telling performance with images and music. It was an entertaining saga of the many trials and tribulations that I encountered in assembling the "Anniversary" project. It included 35-mm slide projections and props that depict or represent aspects of my search."
This piece is an assemblage of media, hearsay and speculation about the Goatman, Fort Worth's own Bigfoot. Anniversary plays upon our nostalgic view of the late Sixties. The exhibition focuses our attention on a turning point. Some would rightly view the summer of 1969 as the end of our American innocence. Soon to come were the escalation of the Vietnam protests, the Women's Liberation movement, the Gay Liberation Movement, and the dissolution of conventional political practice exemplified by Watergate.
This artwork also examines our end-of-century paranormal obsessions. We have to ask ourselves why we believe and doggedly seek to find "the Other" —Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster or space aliens—in spite of the lack of conventionally accepted evidence. And is it a coincidence that his "attack" was at a lover's lane—the kind of place where so many stories like these emanate. Sounds like the stuff of urban legends or the plot to a teen slasher film, doesn’t it?
Anniversary Research
Robert Hornsby: "To begin the Anniversary project, in 1996 I came home to Fort Worth do research, visit the site and interview a few people who remember the summer of 1969. I spent hours in the Fort Worth Public Library, pouring over microfilm of back issues of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Near the home where I grew up, I visited the River Oaks Public Library, where I found a copy of the book by Sallie Anne Clarke that I remember from childhood. In phoning around town to look for a copy of a statue I recalled seeing, I came to find out that the Lake Worth Public Library had owned one, and so I visited there as well. At every library, the librarians were extremely helpful in delving into their own memories of 1969 and in suggesting other people that I should talk to or see.
"When I returned to my sculpture studio in New York City, I had a wealth of information to sort through, catalog and verify. I had developed professional Internet research skills for a 1997 installation project that was part of Fotofeis, the International Photography Festival of Scotland. These skills were then put to the test as I scanned the complete breadth and depth of the World Wide Web, investigating the social and political events of 1969. These discoveries became the raw materials for creating the environment depicted in the hanging "Media Monsters"—the large flystrips with slices of important events of that fateful summer. In part, my fascination with these images stems from our modern willingness to build a conspiracy theory around people and events--giving them mythic status. It is the cult of personality and in some cases, we worship too readily."
The Installation
The complete installation piece entitled "Anniversary" is a free-form sculptural environment, populated by four elements:
1.The Goatman sculptures
2.The Sightings
3.The Media Monsters
4.The News
These are described in greater detail below.
The Goatman
Robert Hornsby: "The Goatman sculpture is my rendition of the creature seen in Fort Worth during the summer of 1969. My figure is based on an original sculpture by local craftsman Joe Pack (deceased). Now lost with no extant copies, the last known original was in the possession of the Lake Worth Public Library and was irreparably damaged in the late 1970s. I have produced my own version of the Goatman figure based on a photograph of Pack’s sculpture as published in the Fort Worth Star Telegram."
The figure recalls many precedents and references. The man-beast has roots in our most ancient mythology. The primal urge that the Goatman represents is seen again and again throughout the history of sculpture. The half-man/animal is the form we have chosen to depict our most feared evils and our most revered gods. Form the Egyptians’ Ra, to the Hindus’ Shiva, along with werewolves, gargoyles and demons of all kinds. In recent times, we have chased the shadow of Bigfoot from the Northwest Woods to the Himalayas-- and back to Fort Worth, Texas. The Goatman is symbolic of our own primitive past. He also serves as a reminder of the unknown—the "what if" that we find in our dreams and fear in our nightmares.
The Sightings
The Sightings are documents of an event, but also art history running backwards, in a line from performance art to photography to painting to drawing—the original primal art form. Though often mistaken for enlarged motion picture film cells or large black and white photographs do, they are actually drawings. That’s one of their magical qualities. From a distance of 20 feet, the images look like grainy blowups of film cells. In a curious way, they are--they are the frozen moments that flicker past you, like action shots from your peripheral vision.
Robert Hornsby: "I wanted to see the island from the Goatman's perspective, so I went to the site of the original Goatman incident. I climbed the trees, swung from vines, jumped from trees and ran around like a banshee, while a documentary photographer followed and tried to catch me on film with a still camera.
"I took the resulting images and made painted enlargements by hand and then drawings using an unusual technique I developed. When you look at them, the question is this: are you seeing something there? Finding a figure in the jumble of dots? I'm often surprised by how little information it takes to suggest a figure in space.
"So, strangely, but not accidentally, these images reference several things at once: film footage of famous monsters, the original site, other bigger, more well known Bigfoot sightings like the Patterson film footage and even Antonioni’s film masterpiece Blowup.
"These large black and white images are actually drawings made by hand. I used the smoke from a candle to create dots on a sheet of clear Plexiglas. I trapped the drawing between another sheet of Plexiglas and sealed the edges. The carbon is not fixed in any way—just hangs onto the Plexiglas. You could wipe them completely away with one swipe. But isn't that like a memory unrecorded? Or a time that's now lost?"
The Media Monsters
Robert Hornsby: "I knew the summer of 1969 was a very active period politically and socially in America—I was surprised to find so many resonant events and images. I collected many pieces of images from my library and Internet research, which I used in making the 'media monster' flystrips. They are thin slices from larger images, which represent what a small amount we actually know about these people. I'm interested in the contrast between the supposed innocence of the time and the dark side."
This is where media images become larger than life and monsters are created. Demonized and enlarged in stature by media attention, these people (and their acts) are set apart from everyday life. They become both famous and infamous. And there were many that summer, including Neil Armstrong, Charles Manson, Ted Kennedy, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland and Lt. William Calley, to name a few names.
The News
The four pieces mounted on Plexiglas are actually full-scale black and white photographs of front pages of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. When the Lake Worth Monster story first appeared on the front page it elevated a rumor into news. When looking back on these pages, one cannot help but compare the content of the coverage and the tone of the reporting with recent reporting. Taken as a whole, a comparison of a single back-issue of the Star Telegram with a contemporary issue gives one pause--so much has changed--particularly our level of general skepticism and willingness to challenge authority.
Before we take pride in that contempt, consider that, as a culture, we still accept and revel in things that are both irrational and unprovable--like psychic hotlines, UFOs and other extreme paranormal activity. The discussion shifts to what proof really is. These artworks point to four days in our collective memory--and offer themselves as proof of the events. An interesting exercise is to compare four days in Fort Worth to the same four days in New York City, Los Angeles or London--the differences you'll find in the coverage is surprising.
Robert Hornsby: "I remember very well my excitement in learning to read the newspaper that year in school. When the Goatman appeared on the front page, it was a small boy's wish fulfillment of the highest order. A real monster—right in our backyard! It had to be true—it was there in black type, front-page news. The story captured my imagination as well as the curiosity of the entire town. And then just a suddenly as he had appeared, the Goatman vanished from the news. He was replaced by other news of events as otherworldly as himself—a few days later men landed on the moon. The moon landing and the other historic events of the following days swept the Goatman story from the front page into memory and obscurity."
Educational Component
The educational component of the Anniversary project linked library research to a pop-culture event. It offered as opportunity for learners of all ages. Kids learned about 1969 social history; adults who remembered reflected on the convergence of all these cultural forces. Because the exhibit was situated within the Fort Worth Public Library, visitors had ready access to the library's resources to pursue inquiries of their own.
In advance of the exhibit, I contacted several local schools around Lake Worth. I offered art teachers my story about the Goatman legend. Teachers at Brewer High School and my own alma mater, Castleberry High School presented the story to their students without having seen my own artwork. The students then made their own renditions of the Goatman and parts of the story. Some took it as starting point to explore the idea of monsters in general, inspired in part by the classic Hollywood movie monsters of the 1940s and 50s. The resulting images were exhibited in the exhibition hall, which will debut alongside my installation.
The Performance
Robert Hornsby: "My story: 'How I Found the Goatman' included a dramatic reading, a story-telling performance with images and music. It was an entertaining saga of the many trials and tribulations that I encountered in assembling the "Anniversary" project. It included 35-mm slide projections and props that depict or represent aspects of my search."