Musician and writer Michael Hearst (Photo by Franck Bohbot)
Michael Hearst, former Richmonder and member of the band One Ring Zero and now a New York City-based musician and writer, adds a third volume to his collection of the extraordinarily wonderful and weird, “Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures.” The inviting book is geared to youngsters, but parents will learn plenty, too, in this globe-girdling, height- and depth-defying roster of built things — large or tiny or unreal yet existing.
This weekend, Hearst returns to give Virginia Commonwealth University's School of the Arts' commencement address at the Altria Theater. “When I was there, it was the Mosque,” he recalls. He’s a bit anxious — the audience may number up to 3,000 people — and he’s revised his talk several times. He’ll have a more intimate setting at the Richmond release for “Curious Constructions” at Chop Suey Books on Sunday, May 14, from 4 to 5 p.m.
“I’ll have slides of some of the structures, and I’ll sing a few songs,” he says. Here’s a sample with the “Curious Construction” book trailer:
To curate the book — selecting which structures to include — Hearst sought, as with his two previous books about people and animals, to create a “well-balanced and fun package.” Before doing this, though, Hearst needed to define for himself what a “structure” meant in terms of the book. He used as a guide the Macmillian Dictionary's definition of “a structure intentionally made.” Which is broad and could include anything from an igloo to a massive airplane (“I didn’t want to get into vehicles,” he says. That’s probably another book). Thus, “Curious Constructions” covers outdoor art installations, Cathedral termite mounds and skateboarder Bob Burnquist’s 350-foot-long, 75-foot-tall Mega Ramp.
Inside the pages, too, are the Arecibo Observatory, the International Space Station and the Large Hadron Collider. The last, Hearst says, he almost gave up on explaining. “I’m a children’s book author. Go ask your parents, kids," he says, chuckling.
He’s used different illustrators for his books, giving each a distinct look and feel. Drawings appeal to kids, and the kid in adults, and, besides, rights and clearances for photographs get expensive. “And I wanted these structures represented in a certain way, and you can’t always get that from a photograph,” Hearst says.
From a list supplied by his publishing house, Chronicle Books, Hearst selected the London-based artist Matt Johnstone. Hearst is modeling the series after old school books, and Johnstone picked up on the vibe.
As Hearst's mind drifted over possible structures to feature in the book, he’d use his iPhone “Notes” application when an idea wandered in, but he also inquired to friends and associates about what they’d want to see in such a collection. “The total of 50 is a self-inflicted number; it’s what I’ve used for each of the books,” he says.
Michael Hearst, author of "Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures," will give an author reading at Chop Suey Books on Sunday, May 14, from 4 to 5 p.m. The book is available for sale here. (Photo courtesy the author)
While some of the structures are wild and whimsical, there are a few in which one can read some deeper and metaphorical meanings. Like the Moai of the Rapa Nui, the giant stone heads of Easter Island. Why the enigmatic colossi were created isn’t clear, and apparently they were hauled into place by rolling them on logs. The process may have contributed to killing the flora and fauna of the island, and its population of 12,000 people fell into civil strife. “I couldn’t not include the heads,” Hearst says, “even though they’re fairly well-known. And then I found out that they have torsos, but that hundreds of years of erosion covered them up. It’s a little microcosm to the greater world that is worth taking a peek at.”
Considering how the creation of the Moai denuded Easter Island, there is for these present times the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Spitsbergen, Norway, also featured in Hearst's book. The center holds seeds for more than 800,000 crops, stored there in the event of natural or man-made cataclysm. Hearst admits that he’s something of an anxious guy, but he’s also a father. “You want to protect your kids, but this is the real world, and you can’t shy away too much.” The vault’s already been dipped into in 2015, because of the war in Syria, to allow access to seeds that scientists couldn’t get to in Aleppo.
Then, like something out of a William Gibson dystopian novel, is the Tower of David in Caracas, Venezuela. If you watched the series “Homeland,” this is where the character Brody got sent. The TV series depicted the tower as a hive for criminality.
The 45-story residential high-rise, begun in 1990, was left unfinished after the 1993 death of principal investor David Brillembourg and a financial crash. People who needed to live somewhere other than the teeming barrios of Caracas took over the building and organized a makeshift community that included motorcycle taxis that used ramps to haul residents to the 10th floor. (There are no elevators in the tower.) The “world’s tallest slum” underwent enforced clearances in 2014. What may become of the building isn’t clear.
The structures Hearst depicts show humankind at its finest and in the more familiar contradictory, fallen state. Hearst writes of artist Alfredo Barsuglia’s “Social Pool,” which sits in a Southern California desert location and, until 2014, could be found only by getting coordinates from the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in West Hollywood. Finding the pool required a drive of several hours and a willingness to hike.
“Alfredo’s a really nice guy, too,” says Hearst, who conducted an email correspondence with the artist. “He’s one of the few people who got a drawing of himself in the book.” Despite the difficulty of finding the pool, vandals left their mark, and not long ago set it on fire. Just as people can exhibit resilience in how they manage to live, they can also get clever about committing random stupid acts. “He’s hoping that a nearby art museum in Palm Springs will accept the pool as a donation,” Hearst says.
The writer estimates he’s visited perhaps a quarter of the structures in the book. But he’s hopeful: He’s pitching the book as a travelogue for a television show, and “if that works out, I’ll eventually see all of them.”
The International Space Station might prove a bit of a stretch, but that could be yet another book.
Michael Hearst reads from his latest book, "Curious Constructions: A Peculiar Portfolio of Fifty Fascinating Structures" at Chop Suey Books (2913 W. Cary St.) on Sunday, May 14, from 4 to 5 p.m. Free.
