ART & SOUL JESSICA PRUDHOMME
Gabriel Bienczycki
When invited in 2005 to do an installation at Philadelphia’s Eastern State Penitentiary, now a museum, Dayton Castleman began by putting himself in the shoes of the former inmates. He was struck by the fact that the prison was designed to isolate the men—from the world and from each other—and that a Bible was the only possession they were allowed. “In Genesis 2 it says, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone,’” observes Castleman, who wondered whether the sanest of the men, rather than the most reprobate, would have tried to get out. “I began to see physical escape as a spiritual act.” And so he mapped out an escape route on a monumental scale, with over 600 feet of 2-inch steel pipe, painted red. The pipe traces a labyrinthine path through cellblocks and doorways, culminating in a 30-foot climb over the prison wall. A few years before completing his End of the Tunnel project, Castleman experienced a dramatic escape of his own, one that continues to inform his art. Shortly after moving from Chicago to Philadelphia in the summer of 2001, a
routine doctor visit revealed a tumor growing in his brain. Less than a month later he underwent surgery to have it removed. Although the tumor proved to be benign, Castleman faced months of recovery. During that time he relied heavily on both his faith in Christ and his love of art to guide him through the healing process. “My sudden introduction to the fragility of life caused me to start making sculptural work,” explains Castleman, who up to that point had worked primarily as a painter. “I can’t say exactly what caused me to recover, but I believe that making sculptures helped me deal with my illness. My first sculptures were about death and suffering and turned out to be very therapeutic.” Having made a complete recovery, Castleman went on to create Tilting at Giants in 2006, a public installation at an old Philadelphia church that consisted of a dozen 10-foot windmills suspended over the sanctuary. “I intended Tilting at Giants to be as firmly rooted in universal human experience as it is boldly wandering into mysterious worlds beyond the senses,” says Castleman. “It invites the sleeping parishioner to wake, the skeptic to hope, the believer to doubt, and all who enter to consider whether these windmills are not giants after all.” Are they the 12 disciples awaiting the winds of Pentecost? Are they a tribute to the courage and vision of Don Quixote? Whatever the viewer sees in them, Tilting at Giants is a fitting addition to Castleman’s body of spiritually insightful work. Another turning point in Castleman’s artistic journey has been his discovery of the nonprofit organization Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA.org), a group that aims to support artists, serve the church, and engage the culture. On the recommendation of a fellow artist—and somewhat reluctantly—he attended a CIVA conference back in 2001 and got much more than he had planned on. PRISM 2008
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“I went in with some amalgam of naiveté, cynicism, and curiosity,” Castleman says of the event. “I’d never been to an art conference at all, let alone one populated by Christians. While being a Christian myself, I held onto some pretty common stereotypes about others. That conference began a series of very important shots to my irrationally bloated ego.” After the conference Castleman’s cynicism was dispelled, and the bar regarding his own art was raised. “CIVA became for me an important place to find people with whom I shared a common faith, and who could mentor and help me grow as an artist. It also became a place where I could participate and serve,” says Castleman, who is currently a board member of the organization, working to foster a cooperative relationship among those in the arts, the church, and the culture. Now based in Chicago, Castleman continues to seek out unique opportunities to showcase his creativity and intrigue audiences with his work. He has gained the admiration of many in his field both for overcoming his terrifying illness and for channeling the experience into passion for his faith and his art. ■ Jessica Prudhomme is a senior, majoring in communication arts, at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass.
Dayton Castleman
Turning Points