Fight or flight is located near the southeast corner of 8th Street and Main Street.

Artist: John Mark Luke
Dimensions: 120”H x 60”W x 60”D

Materials: Recycled/repurposed solid oak banister, laminated plywood, steel rebar, old plow disks, and rectangular steel tubing
Price: $5,000

Fight or Flight is an abstract sculpture made from 100% recycled materials. From the top the sculpture features thorn-like elements made from solid oak banister rails inserted inside a center band of metal tubing and petal/blade-like elements made from laminated plywood, held in space by a series of steel rebar “vines” the suggests a lyrical swirling, or dancing, movement in space. These elements are welded to a center base made of an old plow disc the suggests a “tipping point” from the chaos above to the quieter elements below. The piece is about the escalation of energy to a point of decision, fight or flight.

“My life is fulfilled in the creative endeavor, art is not optional, it is necessary. Art not only enhances the environment it’s placed in, but also affects individuals within that environment. I am drawn to juxtapositions in life. There is a harmony found in the light-dark, smooth-rough, and the sweet-salty. The one gives life to the other. It all starts in the studio. Inspiration is found throughout the process of work.

As far as materials go, I love to use salvaged, recycled, and reclaimed materials as much as possible. Industrial materials strictly manufactured to do a job, never to be appreciated for it’s inherent beauty. I especially love to use common steel rebar rod. It’s manufactured to be covered in concrete, so vital to the world’s physical infrastructure yet such a satisfying material to shape into prominent features of art.

My approach in making work is to create what I want to see in the world. In these times it seems our society is flooded with information and opinions that constantly insist that you think this way or that way, buy this thing or that thing, you must choose us or them – crazy! The hope is, my work doesn’t “talk at” the viewer but invites conversation.

It is a great joy to exhibit my work in indoor exhibitions as well as outdoor public art, I find it fascinating the way different viewers interpret the work. It opens a conversation where often a viewer will reference a meaning from a specific feature, or another way of looking at the piece that I have not previously considered. I begin the creative process from a personal perspective that can only be truly finished in a variety of ways of the viewer’s consideration and interpretation.” John Mark Luke