Shoal+(Bone+Shoal+Sonance)

Date: 2003
 * [[image:http://ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/2015/2015.28.2_1a.jpg&max=460 width="270" height="352" link="@http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=109635"]] || Title: **Shoal (Bone Shoal Sonance)**

Artist: **John Grade** Born: Minneapolis, Minnesota 1970

Medium: limba and shedua Dimensions: 39 5/8 × 33 3/8 × 15 in. (100.6 × 84.8 × 38.1 cm) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of Driek and Michael Zirinsky in honor of Sam and Elizabeth Davidson © John Grade

Accession: 2015.28.2 || //Shoal (Bone Shoal Sonance)// is a piece from John Grade's Elephant Bed Series. The series was inspired by the shells of coccolithiphore, a species of phytoplankton that blooms underwater. After the organisms die their shells comprised of calcium sink to the sea floor. Over thousands of years a layer of calcium deposits accumulates and is referred to by geologists as the “Elephant Bed.” The cliffs of Dover near Brighton, England are particularly known for such features. Grade’s work in the SAAM Collection evokes imagery of developing sets of coccolithiphore in addition to the imagined sound of the calcium shells separating and slowly sinking to the sea floor.
 * About the Artwork: **

Grade lives and works in Seattle, Washington. He creates large-scale sculptures, made of natural materials which will denigrate over time. The pieces are evocative of nature forms. Often when building and installing a sculpture, the artist collaborates with a large group. Grade’s Hemlock tree sculpture, //Middle Fork//, was shown at the Renwick Gallery exhibition, //Wonder//. At the moment, Grade is working on a project about the changing landforms above the Arctic Circle.
 * About the Artist: **

Kangas, Matthew. //John Grade: Sculpture and Drawings// (Boise: Boise Art Museum, 2004), 18.

John Grade on Alexander Calder - Connections Video
 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page John Grade website “Wonder” at the Renwick Gallery Elephant Bed Series Limba Entry on the Wood Database Shedua Entry on the Wood Database
 * Links: **