Charles Simonds (American, born 1945) Number II (Ritual Furnace), 1978 Clay with wood base, 71 x 30 x 30" Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Armand J. Castellani, 1996

Charles Simonds has created an entirely imaginary civilization of a race he calls Little People, complete with its own history, belief system, and way of life. The people themselves are never seen; we know them only through the architecture they have left behind. The forms of the architecture are reminiscent of Native-American structures, especially those of the Southwest, which Simonds visited as a child. These references are also appropriate since, like the Native Americans, the Little People’s lives are centered "around belief attitudes towards nature, toward the land." Their buildings are made of clay, which comes from the earth, and other natural elements such as twigs, bones, or sand.

Simonds has two types of exhibition space for his work: inside galleries and museums and outside in the streets. The indoor pieces, such as this work, are larger and more complex than their ephemeral outdoor counterparts. This particular structure is subtitled "Ritual Furnace." A path leads through an opening in the dilapidated wall to a staircase that ascends to the upper section of the building. One has to imagine the inside configuration and how a person would reach the staircase at the back of the structure, which exits directly onto the roof. On the roof is a hexagonal construction with a circular wall in the center. Inside the circle is black pigment, which implies that something was burned, perhaps a ritual sacrifice of some sort.

Simonds began his career creating miniature buildings in the streets of New York. Working primarily on the Lower East Side, he built structures out of these tiny clay bricks inside broken segments of wall and other unusual openings. People gathered to watch him work, children were allowed to help, and he soon become well known in the neighborhood. He explained: "At first I was just a crazy man to the people on the Lower East Side….I was a phenomenon, an anonymous vagabond who made visionary things. As time passed, I became a folk hero, then an active member of many community groups." With these groups, he has worked on housing, the development of open space, and other activities designed to promote community awareness. He finds his street creations more satisfying than those in museums because, as he says: "the streets are where my work finds its meaning and direction, in people’s reactions to it. I’ve often sensed the feeling of loss about the brutalization of that fragile fantasy which is emblematic of the lives they themselves lead, that sense of ‘well, every time you try to do something good or beautiful around here, it’s always destroyed.’ It awakens and politicizes that consciousness. The park [that Simonds help to plan and build on the Lower East Side] is gathering those energies and a channeling of them through existing community organizations so they have a positive result. That’s a political act. It’s intended that way."

Thus, in evoking a past time, Simonds guides viewers to think about the present. The structures of the Little People are not intended as an escape from reality, but as a stimulus to consider our society today: what we create, what we destroy, what we value, what we believe, and what we will leave behind as our ruins.

— Mariann Smith and Nancy Spector

SUGGESTIONS FOR HANDS-ON AND DISCUSSION ACTIVITIES

• As a class or individuals, create imaginary groups of beings. Where do they live? What do they eat, and how do they get their food? How do they work? What do they do in their leisure time? How do they keep their society in order? How big are they? Create a symbol for your society’s flag. Use your imagination!
• Take a walk around your school and classroom and see if these people you’ve created could live anywhere on the school grounds. Is the place high or low? Would your beings need structures to get to the dwelling place? Try to pick a spot that is out of the way. With whatever supplies are available, have the students divide into groups and create buildings for their imaginary society (it might be a good idea to take measurements of the chosen spots and sketch the ideas first).
  
  
• Each student could build a tiny structure out of toothpicks, q-tips, or other small items, paper or other material, and find a place inside her/his desk for it. This might entail some desk-cleaning for some!
• If you have access to play-dough or self-drying clay (recipe below) have the students roll out long snakes, shape them into rectangles by pressing them softly on the desk, turning them, pressing again, etc. Cut the snakes into tiny bricks and let them dry. Build with the tiny bricks alone, in groups, or as a class. Glue might help hold some fragile structures together. They could then draw floorplans for the interior of their structures.

Recipe for Play-Dough
2 cups flour
3 tbsp. cream of tartar
11/2 cups salt
21/2 cups boiling water
3 tbsp. oil

Mix dry ingredients. Add liquids. Let stand until salt dissolves. Stir until cool and then knead until smooth. Makes enough for 5-6 children to each have a 2" diameter sphere of dough.

Will last indefinitely in sealed container. Can be colored by adding drops of food coloring. To make bright colors, use a lot of food coloring. Play-dough can be air-dried thoroughly and painted. Do not bake.