In 1990, Robert Blackstone began building a miniature landscape on his grandmother’s dining room table. That first landscape has evolved into a giant found-object installation called Crystal City.
“It’s a piece that I lived with for a long time, for maybe two or three years at my grandmothers and then after that you could say I took it on the road," Blackstone said.
Over the years he's moved it to different locations around town. Recently, I met him where the project is on display — a former bank lobby on Second and Ludlow in Dayton, Ohio where passersby can see Blackstone at work through large plate glass windows.
He gave me a tour of the piece.
“It’s got like the radio on it, disco balls, lasers, fish, video games, trains, racetracks, real live water, fire, just everything. I took everything and made it mine," Blackstone explained.
It resembled a circus calliope — one that’s gone haywire. There was a constant hum of music from the video game Space Invaders, tunes from a toy carousel and the occasional boom of thunder from a CD player.
Stacked up tables and platforms contained scenes made of hundreds of figurines packed into every possible crevice including aliens, memorials to loved ones and world events like 9/11.
“We have two cardboard boxes that I took and put tar on tar and glass on there to represent the Twin Towers frozen on that terrible day, in the smoke and the gray, if you can capture that day, that’s it right there, that’s what you’re looking at, that day," Blackstone said.
If you look deep into the center of the installation you can see the original scene from Blackstone’s grandmother’s house. It’s called Crystal Lake, made of shards of green glass.
“Glass is always in there," he said. Glass and broken mirrors and broken marble, ‘cause glass is awesome. It’s almost like captured lightning. You know what I mean? You strike the glass and ccchhh you got the picture of lightning. So yeah, you got the picture of lightning right there and that’s what I see, in the little curves and the mirrors and the glass fragments. In some of the crystals you see faces too. It’s just amazing.”
Blackstone works without a predetermined plan, as he said it's a "blank mind.” He mentioned finishing Crystal City but then waved that idea off. He wants to find a permanent home for it and he’s looking for roommates.
“It’s a big piece you can see right and on this table, I had little sections that I wanted to share with other artists," Blackstone described. Crystal City wasn’t made for me to do by myself, 'Why have it out here?' I wanted to pick up other artists along the way and have them work on Crystal City with me. You know, have just a little piece of real estate on Crystal City. You know, maybe a miniature gallery — just anything you want to add. Or maybe if you don’t want to add anything to "Crystal City" you can sign it — like a cast.”
Like a witness to the life of Crystal City. What I witnessed was a rare kind of devotion. Unedited, uncensored. A diary with pages wide open, an evolving archive of an artist’s life.
