This installation was part of a group show of the Boston Sculptors At Chapel Gallery

who were invited by the Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA to explore their extensive

collection and connect with a piece. Each artist responded to one of the 10,000 works.

The "Collection Connection" show ran from Sep. 21 2003 to Jan 11, 2004.

"Bivouac Perspective"

"All of the pieces fell in place for this installation when I read President Abraham Lincoln's 1864 letter to Michael Kahn, the newly elected governor of Louisiana cautiously suggesting that the governor might consider allowing the state's Negro civil war veterans the voting right. As a student of military history, I had seen the photographs of the ordered rows upon rows of white general purpose tents at Andersonville and Appomattox - the Lincoln letter triggered that memory and it melded with other images from my own days and nights at bivouac and further to the recent TV shots of the tent cities in Kuwait. There were many stops in between. Tents began to take on a more symbolic meaning: not only did they serve as a home away from home for the individual soldier, but collectively, in the form of a bivouac, they represented a military presence. It is a presence with no implication of threat, no heroics and absolutely no glory, just the quotidian utility of temporary shelter from the elements. Since the military is known as the second oldest profession, the bivouac, in one form or another, has been a part of the social fabric of humankind and will likely remain so as far as the eye and mind can see."

Ken Hruby, July 2003

This installation was supported by a generous donation of time and materials from the Heritage Flag Company of South Boston, MA. , www.heritageflag.com.

Bivouac Perspective - September 2003

Bivouac Perspective - back view

Tight view

Bivouac Perspective - Oct 2003

December 2003