Jim Leach: 'a structure' for the Mind

To earn a bachelor's degree in sculpture from Kent State University, one must complete a senior show project that includes a public show of art plus a statement that describes the art. When it came Jim Leach's time up to bat, he meant to figure something out about the structure of reality.

Leach, as his thin frame bent over a cigarette, told me that after eight months of contemplation, this, for him, was an honest piece. 

The piece, a structure, was inspired by Leach's understanding that reality is a product of interpreting our senses. Therefore, reality is something that is ordered within our minds.

For Leach, this translates into an understanding that very little is definite. He attributes this discovery to a study of his own changing perceptions of reality throughout his lifetime. Because of this he believes that "everyone's consciousness is continually reformulating."

In thinking about the structure of the mind, Leach found an old shed in Amherst that he was able to use to demonstrate his thoughts through art. 

This shed — once a kitchen, once a garage, then a reclaimed shed — had obvious signs of age that the least of which included discolored and deteriorated wood. Leach dismantled this structure to symbolize the dismantling of our minds that occurs when we are faced with a shift in our perception of reality.

He then reassembled the piece in the gallery. For Leach, this enacts the process of an individual responding to a need to restructure a dismantled reality.

Adding new surface treatments, Leach used plaster gauze, white nails and white fabric to invest his mark on the time-weathered beams. This process was meditative for Leach. "It was kind of a nice to spend six hours pounding white nails into wood," he said. This meditation is necessary for the restructuring or reinterpreting of changing reality. 

Along the outer edges of the gallery, Leach posted a text that he pulled from his practice of free associative writing. He explained to me that over time a character began to emerge in his writing. This character, "Rael," probably came about when Leach learned from his parents that it was almost his birth name. Confronted with the magnitude of a possible life as Rael, Leach appropriated this character as the object of his paradoxical musings. 

Weighted heavy near the gallery floor, the text reads, "Rael, through his perceptions, created reality. As creator he was infallible, but was met with uncertainty. This paradox dismantled Rael and his universe." 

On the floor inside the structure Leach arranged the rusty nails that he pulled from the old shed into a shadow-like form of a human figure. This figure, meant to be Rael, represents the dismantling of a universe enacted as Leach dismantled the shed. 

This is the only part of this show that has the potential for reconfiguration for me. If I could add my two cents, I would argue that this dismantled shadow belongs as a separate piece, outside of the gallery, leaving only the structure of the shed and the idea of Rael to resonate inside the minds of the viewers. 

This is only an artist musing over the endless possibilities that present themselves in an artwork, however. The piece is nonetheless spectacular. 

His piece, a structure, in addition to showing the incredible beauty in time and change, is a strong example of the power that comes from an artist's disciplined introspection. This piece emits the presence of its purpose with an incredible silent strength. In its relative simplicity it palpably holds hours of careful contemplation. 

You can't get more honest than that.