"Passage" is a meditation on mortality and what follows using an installation of object, light and sound.
Artist Robert Falcone.
“One of my most memorable experiences was a visit to Wat Pho, a Buddhist temple complex in the Phra Nakhon District, Bangkok, Thailand. There I had the opportunity to experience the Reclining Buddha, an enormous effigy of the Buddha modeled in a reclining pose gilded in gold and housed in a huge building filled with Buddhist art and beggar bowels . As the supplicants (and tourists) circumambulated the sculpture they would drop small change into the bowls as an offering. It was dead quiet with only the sound of shuffling feet and the melodic clanging of the bowls filling the air with sound. The experience was evocative and meditative. The visual grandeur of the gleaming Buddha was complemented with the other worldly ambient sound. I have been obsessed with sound as an artistic and meditative medium ever since. In fact, my MFA is in the fine art of sound. I am also obsessed with the mystery of life and what follows. Much of my work since has focused on existence and what happens when it ceases.
This piece explores the concept of existence, and the “Passage” of the soul from the corporeal to the ephemeral. The installation will consist of a large boat shaped grouping of white pond boats, not unlike those popular in the early 20th Century (Model boats sailed on ponds by enthusiasts). The boats face an orb of light spotted on to the wall representing the rising sun. My boats are stripped of detail and painted bright white. Only the boats and the “rising sun” are illuminated with spot lighting in an otherwise dark room. The sails are replaced by wind chimes (also bright white). The boat has been a symbol of passage into the afterlife for millennia and has the same function here, at least for me. Sound is often integral to traditional meditative practice, and the sound generated by the chimes is meant to encourage a meditative state.
As the participants circumambulate the installation clockwise (preferably three or more times), as they become immersed in the mesmerizing cacophony of the chimes. They will be encouraged to introspect and meditate for their own reasons. My work can be engaged on multiple levels. For me it will be meditation on the existential and dedicated to the passage of my late wife Deborah M Meesig, MD, JD, who passed peacefully in my arms on the morning of July 6, 2024. thus the title ‘Passage’.”
Opening Reception Jan. 8, 2026 5:00-7:00 P.M. at Beeler Gallery.