Nothing Gold Can Stay (Stay Golden Little Chapel) is a three piece multi-medium installation that contains; a 1 min long conceptual film, a wooden sculpture and a golden framed canvas. By containing figurative and literal references to the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” written by Robert Frost, the piece as a whole highlights the importance of appreciation in transient human lives.

The installation is composed of three separate elements that are connected through the conceptual understanding of the piece. The first part of this multi-medium installation is the wooden sculpture. The tree alike structure of the figure establishes the first bond between the project and the original poem. Frost, mentions the ever changing routine of the seasons in the lines where he specifically talks about the flower that could only last for a short frame of time.

(Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.)

As the author mentions the short life span of a beautiful leaf, this helps us to find more about the unknown “time and setting” that poems takes place in. The question we need to ask is, why and when is nature’s beauty hard to hold? It is safe to say that the authors approach to set up a mood and setting for an occasion that takes place in the Autumn truly depicts the tone of the poem. As getting inspired from the analyzation based on the setting and time, I decided to welcome the audience with a tree like sculpture that represents the natural setting and time of the season that poem takes place in. The wooden sculpture will be finished with the most prominent colors of the Autumn leaves in order to become a representation of a classic Fall tree.  The geometric approach to imitate proportions of a maple tree by getting inspired from the Bauhaus lamp of Wilhelm Wagenfeld (1924) portrays the personal interest and artistic style of the creator himself.

The second part of the installation is a 1-min long conceptual short movie that contains original footage from multiple settings with multiple metaphoric relations to the Robert Frosts’ poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay”.  (today February 26th, the film only contains the footage from St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church, more to be filmed at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in the next couple weeks). In the film we experience the visual narrative for the themes “growing up” and “loss of innocence”. The artist achieves to visually communicate his concept with pointing out a sharp contrast between the strong and the weak, and a comparison between the beginnings and the ends. Throughout the film the audience encounters multiple shots from the St.Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church, Trinity Church Cemetery and the sunset over the little Chapel. The first contrast that is introduced is the relationship of Chapel itself to the ever-changing routine of nature. St. Paul’s became a remarkable site for rescue and recovery workers for the next nine months following up the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. The golden distinctiveness of the structure is represented with the footage where the audience gets to discern the golden hue of the sunshine that paints on the windows of the little Chapel. However, as we get mesmerized with the beauty and strength of the “little Chapel that stood up” it is inevitable that the end of the day is slowly coming soon and the Chapel will be broken-away from its golden hue. Frost, explains this unstoppable yet accustomed moment of grief with referring to the allegory of Adam and Eve and their lost paradise in the 5th and 6th lines of the poem.

(Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief,)

The second narratorial element of the film is the comparison that is offered between the natural beginnings and the ends. The hidden timeline and the metaphoric relationship between a flower and a grave represents the major journey of life and the the form of existence in the setting of post personal apocalypse. The unstoppable expedition of the day is compared with the unpredictable possibilities of life, where death could be one of those possibilities. The question we shall ask to ourselves is, we know when “dawn goes down to day” or day goes down to night, but do we know when will our sun set?

The video underlines where ‘In an environment of unpredictability appreciation is the key to happiness.’ and as we live in a doubtful world how can one survive without being appreciative?

The last but not least component of the installation is the canvas that is structured to be the backdrop for the film. The canvas will be framed with a rectangular wooden frame that is painted in metallic gold to be most direct and literal reference to the original text by Frost. Canvas is picked as a material to be a design solution to project film in a decently bright environment. The wooden golden frame, will be designed according to a reference to the first line of the poem “Nature’s first green is gold”.

The artists portrays his fervent appreciation to the greatest source of light with reflecting back to it while crowning it with it’s golden hue.

The artist celebrates his childhood with referencing to the author who made him realize “awfully big adventure of growing up”

The artist works his way around this concept in order prove his family that he is filled with appreciation towards the ones who made this journey of life more durable.