Vertical

After the assassination of Mohandas K. Gandhi in 1948, the great pundit Walter Lippmann distinguished the work of ''seers and saints'' from that of ''legislators, rulers and statesmen.''He devised a simple spatial metaphor. Statesmen were oriented ''horizontally. . . . They act in the present, with men as they are, with the knowledge they possess, with what they can now understand, with the mixture of their passions and desires and instincts. . . .''The insight of the seers, on the contrary, is vertical: They deal, however wide their appeal, with each person potentially, as he might be transformed, renewed and regenerated.

Jon Isherwood and John Ruppert, two of the three sculptors in this month's Grimaldis show, investigate relationships between the natural and the man-made worlds.Isherwood takes huge pieces of rock and, by smoothing out sides, slicing through them or creating interior spaces, suggests man's aspirations and ambitions, with references to both past and future.His "Guardian," with its naturally rough sloping side and its smoothed-down vertical side punctuated by a mouth-like slit, reminds us of the mysterious stone sculptures of Easter Island -- not just because it looks a little like one, which it does, but because its quiet monumentality suggests an icon, an object of reverence, a reflection of the human desire for more than this earthly existence.

Susana Jaime-Mena's sculptures at Gomez are satisfying and beautifully crafted, but "Blade" is the best work by a long shot -- both handsome and provocative.It consists of two vertical pieces, one of rusted steel resting on the floor and attached to a dark gray vertical piece attached to the wall (it looks like gunmetal, but is actually graphite on modeling paste on wood).The proportions of these two pieces play off against one another nicely, but it is their implications that go on and on. The steel is roughly textured, hard, acidic in color but at the same time warm-toned.

1/8 TC This is a tale of two Davids.David Hess makes furniture out of found objects, mostly metal -- everything from manhole covers to boiler parts. David Klein makes furniture out of found objects, mostly wood -- wood from buildings that have been closed, abandoned or hit by fire. Each has his own studio, but they also make furniture together.A group of their pieces, both individual and collaborative, is now on view at Galerie Francoise, and it's a study in strengths. These works, made from bits and pieces of things, don't look like that at all. They have enormous wholeness, integrity.

Bank insurance fund recoversRecord bank profits and plummeting failures have allowed the fund that insures deposits to build up to $6.8 billion and repay the last of the money it borrowed from taxpayers.The fund's balance, up from $1.2 billion three months ago and a $101 million deficit six months ago, is the best in three years, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said yesterday. A year and a half ago, the fund was $7 billion in the red.U.S. workers' productivity fallsAmerican worker productivity tumbled at the steepest rate in more than four years from April through June, but analysts predicted modest gains during the second half of 1993 as the economy improves.

Off the Walls, the Baltimore Museum of Art Contemporary Performance Series, appropriately closed last night at the museum with the outrageous and amazing works of New York choreographer and performer Elizabeth Streb, who literally had her dancers bouncing off walls.Ms. Streb and her five dancers, who comprise Ringside, bring a new level of meaning to the term "slam-dancing" as she and her dancers aggressively and often seemingly brutally hurled themselves toward any immovable object.Throughout the four dances, this was the floor, or, as in the case of the opening work, "Wall," and the closing work, "Impact," they used a wall and a Plexiglas shield, respectively.

So that's what the Camden Yards version of the green monster looks like. A seven-foot high wall -- modest by monster standards -- that swallows up leftfielders and home-run balls.The Texas Rangers' Kevin Reimer got a cold introduction to the Orioles' wall of intimidation last night. He went up for Chris Hoiles' 360-foot shot in the seventh inning, got a not-so-friendly shove from behind, and came down only with a complaint.Score it a grand slam for Hoiles instead of a sacrifice fly, and chalk up the Orioles' ninth straight win in their new playpen, 8-5, over the Rangers.

Q: We recently bought an old Victorian-style house. Its living room ceiling is 12 feet high with crown moldings, and the windows are tall and narrow. What little furniture we brought along seems too low-slung for such a space. We're going to buy some new furnishings as well as wallpaper and window coverings, but we need your help in making the right choices.A: Let's start with the walls and window treatments. Right off, I suggest you paint the crown molding and baseboards in a color contrasting to the rest of the wall.