FLIGHT OF FANCY - 1976
A monochromatic depiction of police violence against executed in red ochre. In the center of the image, two mounted officers rain baton blows on the bent backs of three men, one of whom is shoeless. A fourth fights back. In the lower left, two hard-hatted miners work with pickaxes. Hands intrude into the frame above the miners. Beyond them, two roughly sketched figures point a cylindrical weapon at a third, who falls backwards.
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Century Park Sheraton Hotel
599 Pablo Ocampo, Manila, Luzon Island, Philippines 1004
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1976
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Howard Hirsch and Associates, interior designers.
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Fiberglass and fabric.
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15 ft. x 20 ft.
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Unknown
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Unknown. Possibly the Maranaw Hotels and Resort Corporation.
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Unknown. Current photographs of the hotel, which was renovated in 2005, suggest the work is no longer there.
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N/A
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Van Sant’s notes describe this work as a“free hanging sculpture, fiberglass and fabric.” [1] While no photographs of the piece have been found, its materials, hanging form, and title suggest that the work likely had a relationship with Van Sant’s parallel passion project: kite-making.
Van Sant had been introduced to traditional Chinese kite-making in 1972 while working on The History of Flight in Taiwan. In 1974, he adapted fiberglass fishing rods and ripstop nylon to create lightweight, multi-sectioned “airborne structures”– aka modern kites. [2] He then spent much of the next 4-years making, demonstrating, and exhibiting his kites around the world.
It is not unthinkable therefore that, as he would do for Silent Formin 1984, Van Sant hung kites, or “kite-like banners,” at the newly built Century Park Sheraton; which opened in 1976, along with 14 other luxury hotels, just in time to welcome the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meeting to Manila. [3]
[1] Tom Van Sant, “Inventions,” NEW_Resume-Website-CopyPaste-Save.txt, June 10, 2013, TVS digital records.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Charles Champlin, “Critic At Large: A Private Love of Public Art,” Los Angeles Times, May 24, 1984, pg. L1.
