MICHAEL CARDACINO

TURTLE PORTAL

Drawing becomes structure. Structure becomes passage.

THE ORIGIN - A CIRCLE TO PASS THROUGH

The idea began with a form I encountered in China: the traditional circular moon gate.

I began wondering what would happen if the opening itself became sculpture - something you didn't simply look

at, but passed through.

I wanted to make a sculpture you didn't stand in front of. You passed through it.

THE HAND BECOMES THE SYSTEM

I drew the turtles individually, then began placing them within an irregular woven grid. The drawing eventually became the structure itself.

DRAWING BECOMES MATERIAL

The drawn turtle and the irregular grid were translated into cut metal. What began as marks on paper became a

structural skin.

A small 3D-printed, copper-plated version allowed the portal to exist first as an intimate object - a complete

sculpture in miniature before it became architectural in scale.

FROM FROM OBJECT OBJECT TO TO HUMAN HUMAN SCALE SCALE

At full scale, the idea became a physical problem: proportion, passage, structure and the relationship of the

body to the opening.

FABRICATION - SCULPTURE BECOMES ARCHITECTURE

Cut, formed, welded and assembled in aluminum, the portal acquired depth, an interior and an exterior. A

person no longer stood before the sculpture. The body entered it.

THE JOURNEY

Even the practical reality of monumental sculpture becomes part of the story: fabrication, packing, transport and

installation.

MICHAEL CARDACINO

ARRIVAL — THE PORTAL IN THE GARDEN

The machinery disappears. What remains is a circle in the landscape — drawing,

structure and passage becoming one.