Sculpture 201205

sculpture
May 2012
Vol. 31 No. 4
A publication of the
International Sculpture Center
www.sculpture.org
Object as Concept
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GROUNDS F OR S CUL P T URE
MlNGFAY
,
SHAPNENGELSTElN

WlLLlE CLE

MAPlLYNKEATlNG

Thru February 2013
Images: Ming Fay, Canutopia (detail), 2012, multimedia installation; Sharon Engelstein, Tethertwin, 2004, nylon, zipper, forced air, 10 x 12 x 15 feet. Courtesy of Sioux City Art
Center; Willie Cole, The Worrier, 2011, bronze, patina, 21 x 8 x 10 inches. Publisher: beta pictoris gallery/Maus Contemporary Art, Birmingham, Alabama. Photo: Jennifer Consoli, r
courtesy of Rowan University Art Gallery; Marilyn Keating, Fort DeSoto New Year, 2012, 17 x 8 x 1.5 inches (with contribution by Debra Sachs). r
Thru September 2012
Thru September 2012
Thru October 2012
PREMIERE EXHIITIONIN
OUR NEW7,500 SQ. FT.
EAST GALLERY!
>>
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THE WORLDS NEWSSTAND
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Grounds For Sculpture (GFS) in Hamilton, New Jersey is easily reached by car or train just one hour
from NYC and Philadelphia and features over 270 contemporary sculptures in an exquisite 42 acre
arboretum. In addition to mounting over a dozen exhibitions annually, GFS presents concerts,
performances, workshops, and tours and ofers fne dining at the renowned Rats Restaurant.
For additional information, directions and a calendar of events visit groundsforsculpture.org.
Open year-round, Tuesday Sunday, 10 AM 6 PM
126 Sculptors Way, Hamilton, NJ 08619; (609) 586-0616
Ming Fay
Willie Cole
Sharon Engelstein
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___________________________
___________________________________________
October may seem a long time away, but I would like to offer my
perspective on why you should begin planning now to attend our
International Sculpture Conference scheduled for October 46 in
Chicago. If you go to <www.sculpture.org>, you will see a preview
of the many great presentations and learning opportunities we are
planning. Even for those of us who read a wide variety of magazines,
books, and blogs every month, there is still something special about
learning at a conference. You experience the passion of the speaker,
and if youre actively listening, you cant help but learn more by experi-
encing it first hand.
More importantly, by being there, you can network. This is one
of the great benefits of attending the conference. ISC conferences
attract people from all corners of the sculpture world and provide
a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and get new perspectives
on sculpture.
Prepare yourself to decide what you want to experience and what
you are willing to miss. The 2012 ISC conference has many great
events, including tours of some of Chicagos best galleries and studios,
and, of course, great speakers. I would encourage you to visit <www.
sculpture.org> and learn more about the conference. Regardless of
what you select, I am sure your conference experience will be great.
I would like to close by once again offering my warmest congratu-
lations to Olga Hirshhorn, our 2012 Patron of the Year. It was my
pleasure to represent the ISC at the award ceremony in Naples,
Florida, in February. After the award presentation, I had the oppor-
tunity join Olga at dinner. She has a great passion for life. I enjoyed
hearing her stories and listening to her discuss her approach to col-
lecting and how art has impacted her life. She has had a lasting
impact on so many of us who believe in the importance of sculp-
ture. What a great joy it was to meet her and present her with our
Patron Award.
Marc LeBaron
Chairman, ISC Board of Trustees
From the Chairman
4 Sculpture 31.4
ISC Board of Trustees
Chairman: Marc LeBaron, Lincoln, NE
Chakaia Booker, New York, NY
Robert Edwards, Naples, FL
Bill FitzGibbons, San Antonio, TX
Ralfonso Gschwend, Switzerland
Paul Hubbard, Philadelphia, PA
Ree Kaneko, Omaha, NE
Gertrud Kohler-Aeschlimann, Switzerland
Creighton Michael, Mt. Kisco, NY
DeeDee Morrison, Birmingham, AL
Prescott Muir, Salt Lake City, UT
George W. Neubert, Brownville, NE
F. Douglass Schatz, Potsdam, NY
Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, Iceland
Boaz Vaadia, New York, NY
Philipp von Matt, Germany
Chairmen Emeriti: Robert Duncan, Lincoln, NE
John Henry, Chattanooga, TN
Peter Hobart, Italy
Josh Kanter, Salt Lake City, UT
Robert Vogele, Hinsdale, IL
Founder: Elden Tefft, Lawrence, KS
Lifetime Achievement in
Contemporary Sculpture Recipients
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Fletcher Benton
Louise Bourgeois
Anthony Caro
Elizabeth Catlett
John Chamberlain
Eduardo Chillida
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Mark di Suvero
Richard Hunt
Phillip King
William King
Manuel Neri
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen
Nam June Paik
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Gio Pomodoro
Robert Rauschenberg
George Rickey
George Segal
Kenneth Snelson
Frank Stella
William Tucker
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Departments
16 Itinerary
22 Commissions
24 Forum: Sculpture by the Sea (SxS) by Ken Scarlett
80 ISC News
Reviews
67 Newark, New Jersey: Amy Young
68 San Francisco: Brian Wall
69 Santa Barbara: Brad Miller
70 Santa Monica: Adrian Saxe
71 Atlanta: John Grade
71 Chicago: Dianna Frid
72 Indianapolis: William Dennisuk
73 New York: Michael Combs
74 New York: Matt Hoyt
74 New York: Esther Kls
75 Pittsburgh: Factory Installed 2011
77 Seattle: Matt Sellars
78 Humlebaek, Denmark: Ai Weiwei
79 Dublin: Tool-Use
On the Cover: Andre Woodward, Darklands
(13), 2011. Asphalt, audio electronics, mortar,
MP3 player, olive trees, and steel, dimensions
variable. Photograph: John Santoni.
Features
26 A Living Thing Shouldnt Be There: A Conversation with Andre Woodward by Michal Amy
34 Hauntings: A Conversation with Susan Hiller by Ina Cole
42 Delivering to the Moment: A Conversation with Manon Awst and Benjamin Walther
by Ana Finel Honigman
48 Corin Hewitt: From the Dirt by Milena Hoegsberg
54 Between Fun and Desperation: A Conversation with Erwin Wurm by Carolee Thea
42
sculpture
May 2012
Vol. 31 No. 4
A publication of the
International Sculpture Center
34
48
Sculpture May 2012 5
54
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S CUL PT URE MAGAZ I NE
Editor Glenn Harper
Managing Editor Twylene Moyer
Editorial Assistants Elena Goukassian, Joshua Parkey
Design Eileen Schramm visual communication
Advertising Sales Manager Brenden OHanlon
Contributing Editors Maria Carolina Baulo (Buenos
Aires), Roger Boyce (Christchurch), Susan Canning (New
York), Marty Carlock (Boston), Jan Garden Castro (New
York), Collette Chattopadhyay (Los Angeles), Ina Cole
(London), Ana Finel Honigman (Berlin), John K. Grande
(Montreal), Kay Itoi (Tokyo), Matthew Kangas (Seattle),
Zoe Kosmidou (Athens), Angela Levine (Tel Aviv), Brian
McAvera (Belfast), Robert C. Morgan (New York), Robert
Preece (Rotterdam), Brooke Kamin Rapaport (New
York), Ken Scarlett (Melbourne), Peter Selz (Berkeley),
Sarah Tanguy (Washington), Laura Tansini (Rome)
Each issue of Sculpture is indexed in The Art Index and
the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA).
isc
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E-mail <advertising@sculpture.org>
I NT E RNAT I ONAL SCUL PT URE CE NT E R CONT E MPORARY SCUL PT URE CI RCL E
The International Sculpture Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
that provides programming and services supported by contributions, grants,
sponsorships, and memberships.
The ISC Board of Trustees gratefully acknowledges the generosity of our
members and donors in our Contemporary Sculpture Circle: those who have
contributed $350 and above.
I NT E RNAT I ONAL S CUL PT URE CE NT E R
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New Jersey State Council on the Arts
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Nadine Witkin, Estate of Isaac Witkin
Mary & John Young
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About the ISC
The International Sculpture Center is a member-supported, nonprofit organization
founded in 1960 to champion the creation and understanding of sculpture and
its unique and vital contribution to society. The mission of the ISC is to expand
public understanding and appreciation of sculpture internationally, demonstrate
the power of sculpture to educate and effect social change, engage artists and
arts professionals in a dialogue to advance the art form, and promote a support-
ive environment for sculpture and sculptors. The ISC values: our constituents
Sculptors, Institutions, and Patrons; dialogueas the catalyst to innovation and
understanding; educationas fundamental to personal, professional, and soci-
etal growth; and communityas a place for encouragement and opportunity.
Membership
ISC membership includes subscriptions to Sculpture and Insider; access to
International Sculpture Conferences; free registration in Portfolio, the ISCs
on-line sculpture registry; and discounts on publications, supplies, and services.
International Sculpture Conferences
The ISCs International Sculpture Conferences gather sculpture enthusiasts
from all over the world to network and dialogue about technical, aesthetic,
and professional issues.
Sculpture Magazine
Published 10 times per year, Sculpture is dedicated to all forms of contemporary
sculpture. The members edition includes the Insider newsletter, which contains
timely information on professional opportunities for sculptors, as well as a list
of recent public art commissions and announcements of members accomplish-
ments.
www.sculpture.org
The ISCs award-winning Web site <www.sculpture.org> is the most comprehensive
resource for information on sculpture. It features Portfolio, an on-line slide
registry and referral system providing detailed information about artists and their
work to buyers and exhibitors; the Sculpture Parks and Gardens Directory, with
listings of over 250 outdoor sculpture destinations; Opportunities, a membership
service with commissions, jobs, and other professional listings; plus the ISC
newsletter and extensive information about the world of sculpture.
Education Programs and Special Events
ISC programs include the Outstanding Sculpture Educator Award, the Outstanding
Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards, and the Lifetime
Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture and gala. Other special events
include opportunities for viewing art and for meeting colleagues in the field.
Directors Circle ($5,0009,999)
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for the Arts.
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16 Sculpture 31.4
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Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
||oe||e|o, tcnne:||:o|
Found
||co| |one :o, .o:.
This suite of solo exhibitions features
six artists who work with appropri-
ated ideas and salvaged materials.
Though drawing from diverse
sources, they share the belief that
repurposing/re-presenting common-
place items and ideas narrows
the gap between art and life. From
Barros whimsical, freewheeling
mashups of porcelain and ceramic
objects and Jim Dingilians ephemeral
renderings on found objects to Roy
McMakins altered furniture, Regina
Silveiras manipulations of objects
and their shadows, Kathryn Spences
dirt and scrap animals ironically
cleansed of consumer detritus,
and Xu Bings tobacco-based explo-
rations of cross- cultural exchange,
pleasure, and exploitation, these
works celebrate the power of cre-
ative recontextualization to upend
set patterns of perception and
behavior.
Tel: 203.438.4519
Web site <www.aldrichart.org>
Arter
||cn|o|
Mona Hatoum
||co| |c, .,, .o:.
Hatoum transforms everyday domes-
tic objects into uncanny sculptures
that harbor a nagging sense of
displacement, uncertainty, and con-
flict. No longer reassuring spaces of
protection, her domestic territories
subvert familiar forms such as chairs,
beds, and kitchen implements while
reconfiguring clean, Minimalist
forms into ciphers of ambiguity and
threat. In her surreal terrains, even
the human body becomes strangely
unfamiliar and disassociated. This
show features more than 30 works
from the 90s to the present, includ-
ing two new pieces that continue an
ongoing investigation into the
intersection of the poetic and the
political.
Tel: + 90 (212) 243 37 67
Web site <www.arter.org.tr>
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art
6c|e|eco, ||
Andrea Zittel
||co| |c, .o, .o:.
One of Americas most influential
artists, Zittel uses architecture and
geography to explore the psycho-
logical, biological, and economic
aspects of human habitation.
Interested in what humans need for
survival, she researches, designs,
and creates personal domestic set-
tings that serve as test cases for
experimental and utopian living sys-
tems. Over the last 20 years, she
has dressed in the same home-sewn
uniform for months, tested spatial
restrictions by occupying an artifi-
cial island, and lived without mea-
sured time. This exhibition focuses
on work developed at A-Z West,
Zittels studio in Joshua Tree, Califor-
nia, where she has created minimal
households in which everyday activ-
ities such as sleeping, eating, cook-
ing, and socializing become artistic
actions. Instead of using the desert
as a metaphor for escapism, auton-
omy, and freedom, Zittel examines
how it makes the cultural, political,
and economic organization of popu-
lated spaces even more evident.
Tel: + 44 (0) 191 478 1810
Web site <www.balticmill.com>
Hamburger Kunsthalle
|cm|o|
Louise Bourgeois
||co| |one :,, .o:.
Over the course of a prolific career,
Bourgeois worked in dialogue with
most of the 20th centurys major
avant-garde movements, but she con-
sistently stood apart from trends and
itinerary
Top left: Barro, Seus Afluentes.
Center: Kathryn Spence, Barred Owl
and Object. Both part of Found.
Right: Mona Hatoum, Kapan. Left:
Andrea Zittel, A-Z Wagon Station
customized by Jennifer Nocon.
sculpture
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frequently at the forefront of con-
temporary practice. Her powerfully
inventive sculptures run the stylistic
gamutengaging abstraction, real-
ism, and the readymadeand
explore almost every possible mate-
rial. These different inflections, how-
ever, always remain at the service of
an unswerving set of themes, pulled
forth from the depths of human
experience. This show focuses on
work from the last 15 years, includ-
ing sculptures, installations, etch-
ings, tapestries, and the intimate
late fabric works made from pieces
of Bourgeoiss own clothing. Reincar-
nations of the past and testaments
to memory, these altered fabric
forms express a tormented but pow-
erful femininity.
Two more odes to Bourgeois, both
focusing on her unique psychologi-
cal penetration, are on view in Doha
and London. Conscious and Uncon-
scious, at the Qatar Museums
Authority through June 1, features 30
works ranging in date from 1947 to
2009 characterized by raw emotion
and formal invention <http://qma.
org.qa>. The Return of the
Repressed, at the Freud Museum
through May 27, features Bourgeoiss
recently discovered psychoanalytical
writings, as well as drawings and
sculpture <www.freud.org.uk>.
Tel: + 49 (0) 40 428 131 200
Web site
<www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de>
Henry Moore Institute
|eeo, ||
Michael Dean
||co| |one :,, .o:.
Whether small, portable objects or
large, looming slabs, Deans concrete
sculptures possess an overwhelming
tactile appeal, inviting us first to
touch with the eyes, and then allow
ourselves to touch with the hand.
The new works featured in Govern-
ment were all cast from surrounding
exhibition spaces. Heavy, brittle
forms that change appearance over
time as they dry and pick up marks
from use, some are designed as seats
and resting places; others operate
as projection screens; and some
invade the institutes structural fab-
ric. Touch isnt the only sense at work
here: languageits sound, forma-
tion in the mouth, and associative
poweralso comes into play. 6c.
e|nmen|, ,e, nc, eoo:c||cn, |ec|||,
and |cme spell out their titles in
abstracted typography, leading to a
thoughtful and participatory consid-
eration of how impersonal systems
become personal when they impact
everyday experience.
Tel: + 44 (0) 113 246 7467
Web site
<www.henry-moore.ac.uk>
Kunsthalle Wien
/|ennc
Urs Fischer
||co| |c, .3, .o:.
A maker in the truest sense of the
word, Fischer turns everything he
touches into an unexpected vignette
of transformed existence. Charac-
terized by an open and fluid
approach to materials and a disre-
gard for practical limitationsglass,
wood, and aluminum meet raw
clay, melting wax, and rotting veg-
etableshis work describes a state
of constant flux, dominated by
the passing of time. In his ongoing
quest to engineer new worlds, he
has built houses of bread, excavated
gallery floors, animated puppets,
and dissected objects to reveal the
secret mechanisms of perception.
While acknowledging his ability to
transform the most prosaic of set-
tings into mesmerizing environ-
ments, this show focuses on the
ephemerality at the heart of those
interventions. Fischer imbues every-
thing he touches with temporality:
for him, evolution and disintegration
(though not without a whiff of
vanitas) transcend tragic still-life to
express the unpredictable pleasures
of internal dynamics.
Tel: + 43 1 52189 0
Web site
<www.kunsthallewien.at>
Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall
|c:||c|m
Ai Weiwei
||co| |one :o, .o:.
A wide-ranging creator, Ai has
engaged in a huge range of interdis-
ciplinary projects, everything from
sculpture and installation to archi-
tecture, design, publishing, and
curatingnot to mention politically
volatile blogging and other activist
efforts that have put him on a
collision course with Chinas ruling
regime. Responding to Ais disap-
pearance last year and his continuing
house arrest, this show brackets
its political emphasis with two of the
artists pointed statements: a basic
Above: Louise Bourgeois, Cell XXII (Portrait) (detail). Top right: Urs Fischer, Skinny
Sunrise. Right: Michael Dean, state of being apart in space.
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postulate, Liberty is about our
right to question everything, and
its logical consequence in the face
of denial, You have to act or the
danger becomes stronger. While a
selection of monumental installa-
tions and documentary films fos-
tering social change constitutes the
physical exhibition, the complete
show follows Ais example, spreading
his concerns through a Web-based
reading room component that
includes interviews, videos, and digi-
tal projects. A series of related talks
addresses the struggle for democ-
racy, freedom of expression, and
human rights in relation to creativity
and digital media.
Tel: + 46 8 545 680 40
Web site <www.magasin3.com>
Museion
3c|cnc, ||c|,
Claire Fontaine
||co| |c, :,, .o:.
Fontaine describes herself as a
collective, ready-made artist (the
name comes from a popular French
brand of notebooks). The groups
neo- conceptual installations,
machinery-sculptures, videos, and
texts, which often look like other
peoples work, attempt to unmask
the impotence and crisis of singu-
larity permeating much contempo-
rary art. But if the artist defines her-
self as the equivalent of a urinal or
a Brillo boxas displaced, deprived
of use value, and exchangeable as
the products she makesthere is
always the possibility of the
human strike, which makes Claire
Fontaine a self- defined existen-
tial terrorist in search of subjective
emancipation. This show brings
together new and recent works
(including a sculptural anti-stress
tool personalized for Lehman
Brothers) that reflect on the economy
as a closed, irrational system intent
on preserving the status quo at
any price, asking us to rethink the
contradictory protocols of private
property.
Tel: + 39 (0)471 22 34 11
Web site <www.museion.it>
Museum Moderner Kunst
Stiftung Ludwig
/|ennc
Claes Oldenburg
||co| |c, .3, .o:.
Over the course of a long solo and
collaborative career, Oldenburg
redefined the concept of sculpture,
disrupting expectations of how ordi-
nary objects behave. His work
seems to speak a clear language of
the everyday and commonplace,
but behind the faade of familiarity
lies a subversive urge to disrupt the
commodity and reveal its strangeness
as a symbol of imagination, desire,
and obsession. This show, which
highlights the metamorphic heart
of his ground-breaking early work
from the 1960s, features a plethora
of transmogrified items, from a bio-
morphic ray gun to home dcor sta-
ples, in addition to rarely seen film
footage. Most importantly, it offers
an unprecedented gathering of key
elements from |e ||ee| and
|e |c|e, landmark performance
installations that plunged viewers
into the role of protagonists query-
ing their own behavior in the face
of urban encounter and commerce.
The |coe |oeom, a walk-in
collection of 385 souvenirs, bits of
kitsch, and studio models, doubles
as a window into the artists mind,
where the detritus of capitalist cul-
ture washes up in all its incredible
variety and mystery.
Tel: + 43 1 525 00 0
Web site <www.mumok.at>
Scottish National Gallery of
Modern Art
|o|n|o||
The Sculpture Show
||co| |one .!, .o:.
A primer (not a history per se) cover-
ing the last 110 years of sculptural
history, The Sculpture Show pre-
sents a quasi-canonical procession
of 150 works, starting with the
impressionistic gestures of Rodin,
Degas, and Rosso and ending with
last years Turner Prize winner
Martin Boyce and nominee Karla
Black. In between, the route makes
stops at Cubist sculpture, Hepworth
and Nicholson, Epstein and Gill,
German sculpture between the wars,
British sculpture of the 1950s
(the geometry of fear), the real body
Top left: Ai Weiwei, World Map. Left:
Claire Fontaine, Foreigners Every-
where (Italian). Bottom left: Claes
Oldenburg, Soft Dormeyer Mixer.
Above: Martin Boyce, Untitled (after
Rietveld), from The Sculpture Show.
sculpture
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(Hanson, Mueck), the surreal body
(Giacometti, Bellmer, Lucas), Min-
imalism and its successors, Fischli
and Weiss, Pistoletto, and Roger
Hiorns. Among the highlights: six
new works by Pistoletto and Hiornss
monumental outdoor installation
of two aircraft engines taken from
decommissioned U.S. Air Force
planes. Once deployed over Afghan-
istan, these abandoned behemoths
are now stuffed with (inaccessible)
anti-psychotic drugs. A prime exam-
ple of what Hiorns calls excess
power left lying in the street for
the citizen or artist to pick up and
re-use, his re- constituted engines
trade military surveillance for
metaphoric duty, calming fear and
anxiety with a tranquillizing dose of
certainty, security, and well-being.
Tel: + 44 (0)131 624 6200
Web site
<www.nationalgalleries.org>
Serpentine Gallery
|cnocn
Hans-Peter Feldmann
||co| |one ,, .o:.
Feldmann, whose casual inventories
of ordinary things have influenced
two generations of European artists,
creates elegantly spare installations,
sculptures, books, photographs, and
paintings that illuminate the mys-
teries of daily life. Sifted through
a conceptualist sieve, his collected
images and objectswhether
mass-produced or artist-generated
re-present the vernacular, the ama-
teur, the ephemeral, and the unat-
tended, bringing order and under-
standing to bear on a cacophony of
visual trivia. This latest Exhibition
of Art, as Feldmann titles all of his
shows, features a wide range of
worksincluding a new museologi-
cal display filled with handbag
spoils, from credit cards to address
booksthat uncover the unexpected
life hidden behind the mundane,
taking us back to a time of inno-
cence, when any image or piece of
junk could become a window into
another world.
Tel: + 43 020 7402 6075
Web site
<www.serpentinegallery.org>
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
|eu 'c||
John Chamberlain
|c, :,, .o:.
A pioneer of non-traditional, activated
process, Chamberlain paved the way
for todays sculpture born of crushing,
folding, bending, cutting, coiling,
smashing, twisting, and squeezing.
Though his assemblages dont flaunt
the history of their making quite so
brazenly as their descendents, they
share the same gestural vigor and
gutsy physicality. And their materials
are just as unconventional. Whether
realized in automotive steel, foam
rubber, Plexiglas, metallic foil, or
brown paper bags coated with poly-
ester resin and watercolor, these
forms anticipate the much- carica-
tured crumpled sources of Frank
Gehrys signature buildings; unlike an
architect, however, Chamberlain has
no fear of color and plays the chro-
matic scale with abandon. This retro-
spective includes more than 100
works, from the early welded iron-rod
sculptures to the large-scale, foil
compositions of recent years, all
demonstrating a sustained commit-
ment to directed experimentation.
Tel: 212.423.3500
Web site <www.guggenheim.org>
Tate Modern
|cnocn
Yayoi Kusama
||co| |one ,, .o:.
Immersed in obsession and neurotic
escapism, Kusamas workfrom
painting and film to sculpture,
installation, and performance
entices viewers into a singularly
mesmerizing interior world (she
has voluntarily lived in a psychiatric
institution since 1977) of endless
dots or nets and infinitely mirrored
spaces. An early advocate of social
transformation through happenings,
performances, and installations, she
soon rose to the forefront of Pop
Art with soft sculptures and clothes
featuring food-based imagery, but
she is best-known for her room-
size installations covered in eye-pop-
Top left: Roger Hiorns, Untitled
(Alliance), from The Sculpture Show.
Above: Hans-Peter Feldmann, Curtain
with Golden Rings. Left: John
Chamberlain, Shortstop. Right: Yayoi
Kusama, Kusama posing in Aggrega-
tion: One Thousand Boats Show 1963.
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ping, psychedelic patterns that
unfold in seemingly boundless opti-
cal confusion. Vivid, playful, and
somewhat claustrophobic, these
insider outsider visions make the
traumatic palatable, even desirable,
adding a contemporary, partici-
patiry twist to the romance of the
artist as tormented genius.
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7887 8888
Web site <www.tate.org.uk>
Wiels
3|oe|
Rosemarie Trockel
||co| |c, .,, .o:.
Since the late 1970s, Trockel has
challenged gender stereotypes and
prejudices, particularly in terms of
imagination and creativity. Drawing
on the legacies of Dada and Sur-
realism, as well as the activism of
Beuys, her installations, sculptures,
collages, ceramics, furniture, cloth-
ing, and books cannot be reduced
to a single genre or stylethe com-
mon denominator resides only in
the intensity of their content. Works
such as knitting pictures bearing
nationalistic logos, a steel cube fitted
with six hot plates, and Minimalist
monoliths made of yew trees estab-
lish bridges across the gendered
chasm of production. Altered spider
webs (made under the influence
of LSD and hash) and a mechanical
painting machine with brushes
composed of donated hair (from
Cindy Sherman and Georg Baselitz,
among others) probe the intercon-
nections of creativity and survival.
This survey, which includes all cate-
gories of Trockels work since the
early 1980s, features an expressive
group of 40 recent collages and
several new works, all formulated
with her precise, poetic, and idio-
syncratic vocabulary.
Tel: + 32 (0)2 347 30 33
Web site <www.wiels.org>
Rosemarie Trockel, Abuse of Beauty.
sculpture
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__________________________________
lAwknc Akont
Leap
Sacramento, CA
Sacramento International Airport recently added a 56-foot-long red rabbit to its
public art collection. Caught mid-leap on its way down from the sky-lit roof,
the creature looks as if it is about to disappear down a curious rabbit holea
liquid vortex contained within a giant granite suitcase. Lawrence Argents Leap
greets tired travelers making their way toward baggage claim with storybook
humor and an outsized, dynamic presence. I wanted the piece to act as a
guide as you entered the open space of the terminal from the people mover, he
explains. From this vantage point, you only see a glimpse until you approach
the escalator and then, as you transcend to baggage claim, you are mesmerized
by the scale, surface, and the underbelly of the creature before you.
Reminiscent of Argents I see what you mean (2005),
a 40-foot-tall blue bear peeking into the windows
of the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Leap
exudes an inescapable playfulness. In my public art
projects, I am attempting to somewhat reduce the hier-
archical nature of what is assumed to be art, he says.
So much of what audiences gather as the definition
of art, particularly contemporary art, is a fear of not
knowing what it is supposed to be. My philosophy is
to break down these barriers.
22 Sculpture 31.4
commissions commissions
Above: Lawrence Argent, Leap, 2011. Aluminum, steel, crushed glass, polyurethane paint,
granite, and bronze, rabbit: 56 x 24 x 11.5 ft.; suitcase: 96 x 72 x 30 in. Below and right:
Inges Idee, From Above, 2011. FRP and steel, 2.9 x 5.3 x 2 meters.
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Through works like Leap, Argent strives to transform the generic into the
thought-provoking. Frozen in time, the journey of his rabbit offers a welcome
distraction from the stresses of air travel, as well as an invitation to ponder
the nature of transience in both the natural and manmade worlds.
Inos Iu
From Above
Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Berlin-based artist collective Inges Ideecomposed of Hans Hemmert, Axel
Lieber, Thomas A. Schmidt, and Georg Zeyhas been creating quirky public
art projects since 1992, from awkwardly sized park benches to jewelry and
piercings for buildings. One of the groups latest endeavors takes the form of
a snowman peering down into the new Global Center at the Expo 2005 Aichi
Commemorative Park in Japan, site of the 2005 worlds fair.
The melting snowman seems to have dropped his red hat and is pondering
how to retrieve it. Humor is central for our work, Hemmert says. He goes
on to explain that because Inges Idees works appear in public spaces,
they need to draw the attention of passersby, casual viewers not necessarily
on the lookout for art. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this is
through the playful and the unexpected.
At the same time, a more serious side also characterizes the collectives
projects. The implication that the snowman is melting, for instance, speaks
to transience. The resultant puddle serves as a reflecting pool, and looking
down at his own reflection, the snowman inadvertently assumes the role of
Narcissus.
From Above intrigues with its wittiness and draws viewers into its clever
implied narrative. Visitors entering from the ground floor of the Global
Center first see a pot floating in a pool of water and look up to discover the
snowman. Meanwhile, those strolling along the rooftop garden first
encounter what appears to be an abstract smoke sculpture billowing from the
opening. Inges Idees use of smart and calculated humor is probably the
collectives greatest strength. From Western Europe to East Asia, Singapore,
and Canada, this unconventional approach transcends borders and cultures.
0onAtu ltskt
Jackson
Reno, NV
Taking inspiration from Jasper Johnss idea of making
art through the repeated transformation of the same
object, Donald Lipski has created Jackson for the new
RTC 4th Street Bus Station in Reno. Lipski had seen
how the vernacular folk image of a car or truck raised
on a pole served as a sign for car dealerships, mechan-
ics, and truck stops and set out to do the same for a bus
station: Using an actual bus was a natural choice.
Lipski wanted a 1962 fishbowl transit bus as his
transformative object, and he knows the history of
his chosen example: It was originally a transit bus in
Newark, New Jersey, and later became a Los Angeles
tour bus, and was eventually bought by Colonel Santo
Chase, Ret. of Lexington Park, Maryland. As a child,
Santo thought that a bus symbolized adventure and
romance. When he retired as a Vietnam-era helicopter
pilot, he began a career as a long-haul bus driver.
Eventually, he became a collector of buses. He rented
the bus out as a prop in several movies.
Lipski cut the bus up and re-assembled it so that it
tapers at the end with a sleekness reminiscent of comic-
book-style propulsion. He sees echoes of the Auburn
Boattail Speedster, the Batmobile, and Buckminster
Fullers Dymaxion car. Jackson also recalls Gabriel
Orozcos La DS (1993), a Citron sliced lengthwise in
thirds and recomposed without the middle section.
Lipskis retired bus finds new purpose as an iconic
symbol, its upward tilt conjuring the Space Shuttle as
it breaks free from the pull of the Earth. Jackson (his
sons name) appears on the rolling banner listing the
stops. At night, the interior lights, headlights, taillights,
and running lights burn bright. Lipski observes, In the
neon glitz of Reno, it is shockingly comfortable.
Elena Goukassian
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Donald Lipski, Jackson, 2011. 1962 GMC fishbowl transit bus, structural steel, and light-
ing, 40 x 40 x 10 ft.
Juries are convened each month to select works for Commissions. Information on recently completed commissions, along with high-resolution
digital images (300 dpi at 4 x 5 in. minimum), should be sent to: Commissions, Sculpture, 1633 Connecticut Avenue NW, 4th Floor, Washington,
DC 20009. E-mail <elena@sculpture.org>.
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____________
The 15th installment of Sculp-
ture by the Sea (Bondi, 2011)
opened in a blaze of color and
activity. A glorious day of blue
skies brought the crowds out in
thousands to walk the spectac-
ular route, at times along the
beach, other times high above
the waves crashing against the
rocks far below. Sydneysiders,
tourists from overseas and inter-
state, groups of schoolchildren,
joggers, and gallery directors
mingled as they moved at vary-
ing paces along the two-kilo-
meter path. With an annual
attendance of more than half a
million visitors, SxS at Bondi
(the Aboriginal word for the
sound of crashing waves) has
indisputably gained a large and
enthusiastic following: it is
not just an exhibition of current
sculptural practice, it is also a
great public event.
With the publication of a lav-
ishly illustrated book surveying
the history of SxS, it is an
appropriate time to consider its
contribution to contemporary K
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Australian sculpture and the
changes that have occurred
since its inceptionfor the
changes have been dramatic
and far reaching.
1
Until recently,
painting overwhelmed sculp-
ture in Australia. The deroga-
tory stock phrases still applied:
sculpture was something you
bumped into when you stepped
back to view the paintings,
it was the poor cousin of the
other visual arts. Over a period
of merely 10 to 15 years, how-
ever, the relative positions have
been reversed; sculpture is
now the field of innovation and
action.
The factors contributing to the
rise of sculpture are numerous
and complex. Certainly there
has been a rapid increase in the
number of practicing sculptors,
even if only a portion of them
work full-time or earn a living
from their work. For many
years, it was difficult for sculp-
tors to convince commercial
galleries to accept a solo exhibi-
tion of their work for the very
simple reason that sales were
minimal, or even unlikely. That,
too, has changed. Now, many
commercial galleries (and
Melbourne has more than 150)
are exhibiting sculpture, and
sales have definitely increased.
And while there have always
been private collections of
Australian painting, we are now
witnessing the advent of private
collections of Australian sculp-
ture, particularly of large-scale,
outdoor works.
This activity has been accom-
panied, indeed stimulated,
by an Australia-wide increase
in the number and variety
of sculpture competitions and
prizes. State and regional gal-
leries, wineries, local councils,
tourist promotion organizations,
and groups of sculptors have
all been responsible for an
extraordinary range of events in
Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth,
as well as in numerous smaller
towns. Prizes range from a
modest AUS $10,000 to a gener-
ous AUS $100,000. Sculptors
now have a full-time job merely
reading the entry forms for
these events.
The locations of Australias
sculptural competitions have
contributed significantly to
their popularity. Some are held
annually in vineyards, where
fine wines, idyllic landscapes,
and marvelous restaurants com-
bine to create successful pro-
grams. The biennial Sculpture
Survey and Award sponsored
by the McClelland Gallery and
Sculpture Park takes advantage
of an already impressive collec-
tion of sculpture and a diverse
mix of manicured lawns and
natural bushland. The biennial
show at Lorne benefits from a
caf culture and a meandering
path along the shoreline. All of
these shows attract large num-
bers of visitors, who come for
the experience and along the
way gain insight into the range
of styles that now form contem-
porary sculptural practice.
SxS led the way with its first
exhibition in 1997, a show that
turned sculpture into a popular
art form. From the outset, visi-
tors to Bondi have felt at ease in
a familiar setting. The diversity
of featured work means that
there is always something to
which viewers can relate. SxS
deliberately rejects a defined
curatorial policy, relying on a
small selection committee that
Sculpture by the Sea (SxS)
by Ken Scarlett
Left: Julie Collins and Derek John, Save our SoulsShared Journey, 2011.
Cor-ten steel, approximately 12 meters long. Above: Chen Wenling, Child-
hood Horizon, 2011. Bronze and automotive paint, 210 x 280 x 220 cm.
24 Sculpture 31.4
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artists most frequently exhibit-
ing in their own cities. SxS has
deliberately cast its net wide. It
has brought works from all over
Australia to the exhibitions in
Sydney and Perth, conse-
quently helping to break down
isolation and provincialism. In
addition, at Aarhus it has given
Australian sculptors the oppor-
tunity to exhibit in Europe.
The venue at Aarhus is
superb: a scenic mix of mani-
cured lawns, walks beside the
sea, sand, and rocks, and a for-
est of mature trees provides
an ideal variety of sites. As in
Sydney, local residents turn out
in vast numbers to stroll along
the shore and view the works.
Placing Australian works in this
European venue has done a
great deal to publicize and pro-
mote the work of Australian
sculptors. The tyranny of dis-
tance that for so long isolated
our sculptors is gradually being
overcome, and they are now
selling their work to overseas
collectors and receiving com-
missions abroad.
The various SxS exhibitions
astutely include a wide range of
styles, from monumental works
to ephemeral installations,
environmental works, and light-
hearted, amusing sculptures. As
well as the outdoor works, the
shows also feature small-scale
works and maquettes; in recent
years, these have been installed
in a spacious marquee, which
becomes a veritable supermar-
ket of sculpture. Over the years,
more than 1,000 sculptors have
had the satisfaction of com-
municating with a wide cross-
section of the public, while
viewers, in turn, have had the
opportunity to broaden their
appreciation of contemporary
sculpture.
SxS has come a long way in
its 15 years and has made a sig-
nificant impact on Australian
sculpture. As David Handley
says, Who knows what the
future holdsbut it has been
an exhilarating ride so far.
2
Notes
1
Sculpture by the Sea: The First Fifteen
Years, 19972011 (Sydney: Media 21
Publishing, 2011).
2
David Handley, From Idea to Reality, in
Sculpture by the Sea, op. cit., pp 1014.
chooses the best on offer from
among the hundreds of submis-
sions. From its earliest years,
SxS has included works from
Asia, Europe, and America, and
this has enabled Australian
sculptors to view their work in
relation to the international
scenea critical process that
can deflate provincial egos
or build a sense of confidence.
Full credit for this vibrancy
should be given to David
Handley, the founding director
of SxS, who first had the idea
to organize a one-day event at
Bondi Beach in 1997. On this
occasion, he simply asked a
number of sculptors to bring
their work, install it, stand by
as attendant/security/sales per-
son, and then remove it at the
end of the day. With minimal
financing, the event was run by
a group of volunteers, and yet
from the outset, it succeeded in
attracting mass public support.
Since that extraordinarily sim-
ple beginning, SxS has now
staged 15 such events at Bondi,
and it has grown into a com-
plex organization with a staff
of 15, plus 74 consultants, tem-
porary staff, and interns, 230
patrons and supporters, and
200 volunteers. The annual
exhibitions themselves have
grown as well, spreading over
three weekends and showing
works by 100 or more artists.
They have also expanded
beyond Bondi. An equally suc-
cessful Cottesloe version in far
Western Australia (near Perth)
recently closed its eighth exhi-
bition, and the third installment
of SxS in Aarhus, Denmark, is
scheduled for June 2013.
Due to the size of the conti-
nent and the difficulties and
costs of transport, Australian
sculpture has developed around
major centers, Sydney and
Melbourne in particular, with
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Top: Steven Thomson and Jonas Allen, Message in a Bottle, 2011. Resin, leather,
silkscreen, and cork, 50 x 150 x 50 cm. Above: Michael Le Grand, Goshu, 2007.
Painted steel, 170 x 213 x 166 cm. Top right: Peter Tilley, Domestic Bliss, 2011.
Bronze and Cor-ten steel, 140 x 30 x 30 cm. Right: Ken Unsworth, Look This
Way, 2011. Steel, reinforced resin, and fiberglass, life-sized skeleton.
sculpture
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A Living Thing
Shouldnt Be There
ANDRE
WOODWARD
A Conversation with
Never Understand Me, 2009. Cement and juniper tree, 18 x 18 x 36 in.
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Michal Amy: How did these works come about?
Andre Woodward: I studied microbiology at California State Long
Beach for three years and then transferred to the University of
California, Irvine (UCI) to study art. You were supposed to go to
Cal State Long Beach to study art, so I did things the other way
around. Anyhow, at UCI, there is a nice little park with buildings
around it. One day, I happened upon a staircase going some 40
feet underground. I followed it and saw an underworld of things
that run the university. The top level is a faadethe parks are
not real. Somewhat later, I wanted to install a piece on the lawn,
and when I went to anchor it in, I discovered that a mere two
feet down, there was solid concrete. Every lawn is just sod over
two feet of dirt, except in those places where trees were planted.
I found this fascinating. The park, as natural as it looks, is com-
pletely artificial. UCI has been around since 1969, and nature
comes back and develops its own thing. Things sprout up all over
the place. The maintenance guys are constantly going around
the school pulling out whatever was not planned or planted, 24
hours a day, seven days a week. The university is trying to halt
natures take-over.
MA: And thats the balance you examine in your workthe
tightrope dance between man and nature?
AW: We come out of nature. We are nature. What we traditionally
perceive as nature doesnt really exist. The cornfields we plant,
the runways and freeways we build, those are nature, too. They
are simply more of our ecology. When a beaver builds a dam,
thats nature, right? So, when we build a home, why isnt that
nature? John Muirs notion of the preservation of nature is great,
but it isnt natural. I am, however, interested in his idea of
nature. Environmental aesthetics interests me. I like existentialist
writers like Hemingway and Thoreau, who re-examine our position
in the world and re-examine the concept of nature and man.
I talk about a new idea of nature through my work: how cul-
ture drives ecology, which is part of nature. Human evolution
and social evolution are part of nature. Groups get together and
28 Sculpture 31.4
Psychocandy, 2009. Bonsai tree, electronics, grow lights, hose, MP3 player,
pumps, speakers, and steel, 96 x 72 x 72 in.
BY MICHAL AMY
Andre Woodward finds strange beauty in unexpected places. A beaten-up piece of asphalt raised on wheels
and sprouting a small, frail tree becomes a grim urban landscape, mutated for speed. Blocks of concrete
ordered in symmetrical grids or dispersed in random configurations miraculously burst with life, pierced by
small trees that inject the irrepressible vitality of nature into hard-edged, dead, primary structures. In surreal,
assemble-it-yourself landscapes, bonsai grow out of pulsing speakers connected to glowing lamps, their life-
support systems of wires and water tanks exposed to view. Small dead trees coated with bright paint rotate
at the end of music boxes, dancing like branches of coral to canned music while evoking ocean mysteries as
well as land-based tribulations. Woodwards is a process-oriented art that dares to look the abject and the
commonplace straight in the eye. His theme is todays manmade environment versus the timeless rhythms
of nature.
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develop a culture. Cultures are now melting together.
You also need to see the work in terms of a struggle.
The base of that tree is cast in concrete. That amounts
to a death sentence. However, concrete also works
with nature because it is compacted limestone, and
certain trees use that.
MA: Your work is also about time.
AW: My work is definitely time-based. There are about
three different timelines going on in each piece. The
tree grows. In the sound pieces, you need to consider
the duration of the soundtrack, and in the pieces that
incorporate lighting systems, you have that time going
on as well. And then you have the time during which
you are interacting with the work. I produce sculptural
work because, with sculpture, there is you and the
piece. There is not a flat divideyou and the piece
occupy the same space. Once you realize that the
sculpture is alive, something happens. You start to be
sympathetic to the life-force. It isnt merely an object.
Its a living thing.
The trees with their bases cast in concrete are
arranged in five rows of five units or modules each.
Each time I show this work, I add one row to it,
so next time, it will become six by five, and the next
time around, it will become a square again. There is
an idea going on that has to do with the time of the
piece, and eventually this work will cover an entire
floor.
MA: Many of your works incorporate energylight,
heat, electricity, water, and nutrients.
AW: Everything consists, to a large degree, of energy. A certain amount of
energy disappears once the tree diesthe flow has come to a head. Its
something that I have been debating in the work. The situation changes.
I recuperate the dead tree and use it in an epitapha memorial.
MA: What do you call the works that feature a single small dead tree cov-
ered with a coat of brightly saturated spray paint and spray resin?
AW: Theyre titled Impossible Dream. For each piece, I use the manufacturers
color-coding as a subtitle, such as Brilliant Blue. In these works, you feel
the loss of energy, even when you attach a music box to the dead tree.
MA: What music do the boxes play?
AW: Impossible Dream from the musical Man of La Mancha, which is based
on the story of Don Quixote. The music boxes all play the same tune. The
story is about peace and balance, about the ultimate sacrifice for the greater
good. It has to do with the idea of chivalry. But people dont care about these
ideas any more, and Don Quixote is perceived as a crackpot. So, my trees die.
They have lived a semi-noble existence as representations of something that
I think is worthy of consideration, and when they die, its as if they never
existed. Its kind of futilethey have lived in a speaker for two or three years.
MA: Why do you use speakers as planters?
AW: I like the idea of controlling the environment, and the speaker does that.
The environmental stimulus is both sound and touch because the speaker
vibrates. The vibrations amount to major earthquakes for the small trees,
which are constantly being rattled.
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Left: Happy When It Rains (detail), 2011. Bonsai tree, electronics, grow lights, hose, MP3
player, pumps, speakers, and steel, 100 x 56 x 76 in. Below: Taste of Cindy/The Hardest
Walk, 2009. Bonsai trees, speakers, MP3 players, electronics, pumps, hoses, grow lights,
and steel, installation view.
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MA: The earthquake theme is certainly relevant in this part of the
world.
AW: It is indeed. Ironically, because of the carbon monoxide and
carbon dioxide emitted by cars, freeways are among the best
places for some plants to grow. Trees constitute one of the best
filtering systems for airborne particulates, which help the trees
grow, while the trees produce oxygen in exchange. The seeds of
eucalyptus, palm, olive, and ficus trees are carried by the Santa
Ana winds in the fall and penetrate all manner of cracks, and by
June, there is a four-foot-tall tree or bush growing by the side of
the road. Every time a car passes by, there is a vibration in the
ground, because the concrete is so rigid. The next softest area
where the energy can be dispersed is dirt where trees grow. The
energy comes and is released there with a lot of force, thereby
echoing what is achieved with the speakers.
MA: This whole intricate system of plant, speaker, earth, and
water is exposed to view in the gallery?
AW: Yes, indeed. I like the environmental feel when one walks
inthe lights and the sounds affect your mood.
MA: You record ambient noise. How do you go about doing that?
AW: Two things are going on in terms of sound since I use ana-
log and digital technology. The MP3 players and the timers are
digital, while the dial timer is analog. The tree itself is the origi-
nal analog device. Cut a tree down, look at its ringsthey are
records. The sound starts with The Hardest Walk (by Jesus and
Mary Chain), which is played on a record player from the analog
system and put out through a digital system. While the digital
playback comes over, it is also recording, so the analog and the
digital recordings overlap and are off by a bit, which creates a
sort of phase cancellation. The analog and digital wavelengths
are so close that you hear a bouncing. The song becomes ambi-
ent noise, almost the hiss of electricityultimately, it is output
on a digital player. Thats the base track, and then there are addi-
tional inputs, such as sounds drawn from the TV show Robotech
and the sound of milling through a pile of Lego pieces. I also
obtain ambient sound by hiding recorders at sites that are rele-
vant to my work, such as my childhood home and the locations
where record stores stood. Its very personal. My development
is juxtaposed with the development of the tree.
MA: You encase the dead trees, like relics, and place precious
things around them.
AW: There is that thinking behind the work. I find the passion for
relics interesting.
MA: Are you religious?
AW: I am Catholic.
MA: Does the work reflect your religious beliefs?
AW: I think you can impose that on it. The theme of sacrifice
appears in the epitaph pieces. My reliquaries contain trees that
resemble emaciated fingers. The way these pieces look and move
is somewhat creepy. I am against object-making. I cannot bring
myself to make objects. That is why most of this stuff is living
and has a time component to it. These things are part of life. The
tree is alive, and it is always changing; the sound component
makes the change more explicit.
MA: A statue by Bernini also changes constantly under shifting
daylight.
30 Sculpture 31.4
Sowing Seeds, 2008. Cement and ficus trees, 24 x 52 x 52 in.
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AW: Bernini aims for the eternal, while I do not.
MA: Do you provide directions for curators, so that your
work can be optimally preserved?
AW: A list of directions comes with the work. I can only
guarantee the work when you follow the directions.
My work is a self-contained system. I try to make it
easy to read and follow. My idea is that when the pieces
start to fall apart, they get repaired, because thats
how we handle everyday life. The object starts out as
a pristine thing, and the repair is a scar. Just like with
a person, the scar builds characterthe repair adds
to the history, and you develop a connection to it. You
create a level of sustainability. If the tree dies, it can
be replaced. The MP3 players are replaceable, as are
the timers, the cords, the light bulbs. You can purchase all of these things
at a regular store. I like the notion of putting things together myself, and
I re-appropriate commonplace objects. My pieces are made to adapt over time.
We have to think in those terms. We need to find a way so that, when we
produce objects, we no longer have to recycle them. Things should be made
in such a way that their parts can be replaced, rather than becoming obsolete.
MA: Is your work political?
AW: If there is anything political about my work, its that. Consider how they
used to build cars. You could always replace the broken parts or have some-
one do it for you. Today, when things go awry, everything falls apart at once,
so you have to get rid of your vehicle. Thats a capitalist idea. Dont get
me wrong: art is based on capitalism. But being able to replace things is an
important issue. There was a time when you could make money as an auto
mechanic. Now, many people just buy a new car. Its the people with lower
incomes who need sustainability because they cannot afford the higher end.
Design and beauty are great, but we need to stop thinking about beauty
and start thinking about practicality.
I often joke that every piece I sell comes with a repairmanme, though
hopefully, it will not always be me. Some of my pieces have as many as eight
speakers and are quite complex. Each piece is modular, so you can pull some-
thing out and replace it. My work is about balance. It is political in the sense
that it constitutes an acceptance of what we have made and an acceptance
of how we impact nature and how we are ultimately one. We are nature.
Above: Frequency, 200610. Cinder blocks and ficus seedling,
65 x 12 x 12 in. Right: Cut Dead, 2008. Cement and ficus tree,
36 x 18 x 18 in.
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MA: Tell me about the works that use asphalt. Am I looking at material exca-
vated from potholes, raised off the ground, and transposed to the gallery?
AW: Indeed you are. Asphalt is petroleum, since asphalt is tar, and there
is gravel under the asphalt.
MA: You dig out these potholes at night, I presume.
AW: Yes. They come from specific locations. I used to frequent record stores
when I was younger. Each pothole comes from outside one of those stores,
which dont exist anymore. I would keep my eye out for potholes, looking for
cars bouncing off of them. I would come back in the early morning hours and
take my tire iron and pop them out and put them in my station wagon. They
also break up the streets all the time, and the material goes to a recycling
center where I can pluck it. Whenever I see it, I get it, so I have a lot of
this stuff.
MA: These raised asphalt pieces become tables of sorts. Is that intentional?
AW: No. They just work that way. The idea of landscape is at a certain scale,
and an elevation is a table. Costa Mesa means coast tablea plateau over-
looking the ocean. Photographs allow me to replicate how the potholes looked
before I pulled them. Over time, the potholes start to
deteriorate. The material flexes, and the larger ones
cave in.
MA: You welcome the idea of breakdown.
AW: Thats what these pieces are really about. The
breakdown opens a window for the introduction of
other variables, like the tree.
MA: What is the meaning behind the wheels bearing
the asphalt?
AW: In southern California, most of our life is spent
inside cars. So, I just put the street itself on wheels.
Los Angeles is, in a sense, founded on the automobile.
The whole make-up of southern California is devel-
oped around cars. Automobiles and Hollywood came
about together. Look at movies featuring Buster Keaton
or Charlie Chaplinthere is always a car in there some-
where. We dont have the pre-automobile history of
so many places in Europe.
MA: I hear traffic sounds coming from the asphalt pieces.
AW: Indeed. I would hide a digital recorder near the
location where I pulled the pothole, leave it there for
four or five hours, get it, pull the information off of
it, put it back, and do this for about three days, so
that what I obtain is all this overlay. The input is six
minutes.
MA: What does the olive tree mean to you?
AW: The symbolism is a little cheesypeace, balance,
compromise. The olive tree grows out of the asphalt
that we have covered the earth with, and it thrives.
We have struck a balance. We have done our thing,
and nature has returned. A system is established.
Each controls the other. I am interested in the balance
32 Sculpture 31.4
My Little Underground, 2009. Asphalt, audio electronics, mortar,
MP3 player, olive tree, and steel, 26 x 26 x 20 in.
April Skies, 2011. Redwood burl, steel, speakers, MP3 player,
electronics, artificial quartz, paint, and resin, 36 x 36 x 36 in. T
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between these interactions. Eventually,
either someone comes along to rip out
the tree or the tree destroys the road. The
asphalt nurtures the tree, by keeping
moisture locked in, and the tree roots
stabilize the asphalt, which is constantly
flexing, and prevent it from degrading.
So, the olive tree represents a type of social
harmony, as it did in antiquity.
MA: Since so much is manmade in your
constructions, ones first reaction is to
perceive the tree as a painstakingly fash-
ioned thing. I am thinking of the work of
Tony Matelli or Roxy Paine. One must
examine your work at close range to see
that its not a hyper-realistic rendering
of a tree but the real thing.
AW: At Cal State Long Beach, where I
started playing with these things, the
head of sculpture did fabrication work for
Roxy Paine. He tried to get me to start
producing artificial trees, arguing that my
trees were going to die and become a has-
sle. I repeatedly refused, and I think that I
offended him. I often get the reaction that
you mentioned. The realization that the
trees are alive comes as an epiphany. Its,
to some extent, wrong. A living thing
shouldnt be there. I cannot fake it. The
work is about your relationship to the living
thing that should not be there. A lot of
people see me plant these trees in their
concrete bases, thereby condemning them
to death.
MA: Tell me about the juniper.
AW: Juniper trees are often used as bonsai,
which means tray treea tree grown in
a tray. The juniper represents a controlled
system, nature miniaturized, though it is
completely unnatural for juniper trees to
be grown and maintained that way. Thus,
the juniper becomes more of a representa-
tion or idealization of nature than nature
itself. Thats why it appears in my work.
Its a symbol of nature idealized. Bonsai
need to be trimmed, but I dont trim my
trees too much because I want them to
drop their growth. I dont trim the roots,
just the top. If you keep the canopy a
certain size, the roots will mirror thatthey wont grow any farther than they need to. If
you stop trimming the canopy, that can cause problems, which is an important issue for
any future owner of the work. The trees adapt to the system that I establish, and the
system controls the environment.
In the early and mid-90s, there was much discussion of chaos theory, which takes all
kinds of circumstances and variables into account. When my work lives, it becomes its own
equation. I set up the first system, and whatever is added to this system comes in great
part from the environment and whoever comes into this environment, and that has a lot
to do with the workthe idea of a large number of stimuli affecting the work over the
course of its life. The soundtrack consists of many noises coming from different places. The
light is another stimulus, the water and its consistency are different stimuli. When all of
these are combined, that equation produces the tree, which becomes the sculpture, and
the tree itself becomes another input into the equation. It really isnt chaotic at allits
kind of practical. We have been doing this in the world of finance for years. A lot of artists
take only a couple of stimuli into the equation to produce the work. You look at the input,
and you can almost predict what you are going to get. In my work, on the other hand,
there is always a level of unpredictability. I could be gone for a couple of days and then
come back and the tree would be infested with mites and be dead. Thats part of the work.
I dont have control over that. The work invites relationship with the outside world
it is up for debate whether that destroys the work or completes it.
Michal Amy is a professor of the history of art at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Impossible Dream, Real Orange/Navy Blue, 2010.
Ash bark shavings, music box movement, petrified
wood, recycled rosemary bonsai, and spray resin,
15.25 x 9 x 9 in.
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HAUNTINGS
Susan Hiller
A Conversation with
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Witness, 2000. Audio-sculpture with 400 speakers, wiring, steel structure, 10 CD players, switching equipment, and lights, view of installation at Tate Britain.
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Ina Cole: Youve lived in the U.K. since the 1970s, but what memo-
ries do you have of growing up in Florida, particularly in relation
to your early interest in anthropology and art?
Susan Hiller: I was born in Tallahassee but grew up in Cleveland,
Ohio, until my parents moved back to Florida, to Coral Gables. As
a child, I was always interested in art. My father, an amateur
painter, was very supportive, and I had a corner of my bedroom
set up as a workspace with art supplies. The anthropology came
in high school when I found a fascinating booklet by Margaret
Mead called Anthropology as a Career for Women. Mead, who
was responsible for the first generation of women anthropolo-
gists, offered the field in a gendered way that seemed terrifically
interesting. At that point, I thought that being an artist was
impractical; but at university in the U.S., I took art courses to
keep up with it. So, my career as an artist was partially formed
by a vaccination of anthropology, but that doesnt mean my work
is anthropological. Its simply that my definition of art is anthro-
pological, which leads me to be interested in certain things.
IC: Part of your practice involves recycling paintings into three-
dimensional forms or burning them and displaying their ashes
in glass cylinders.
36 Sculpture 31.4
Monument, 198081. 41 photographs, park bench, and audio track tape,
view of installation at Tate Britain, 2011.
BY INA COLE
A pioneer of multimedia installation art in the 1980s, Susan Hiller went on to create a complex body of work
that subverts our understanding of reality, offering an intellectual investigation into the darkest recesses of
the human imagination. Accepted arguments are swept aside as Hiller embarks on an enquiry into alterna-
tive modes of representation and explanation. Her multi-faceted use of materials and technology immerses
the viewer in a world of imagery and sound, creating an altered state of consciousness that questions the
very nature of existence.
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SH: Theres an idea that sculptures existence as an object is the
most important way to define it. My work isnt committed to
objecthood in quite the way of traditional sculpture. With the
recycled works, Im interested in how far you can go before some-
thing doesnt exist materially anymoreits an investigation.
A few years ago, I was invited to participate in a conference on
Henry Moore at the Sainsbury Centre because of a shared interest
in ethnographic art, and I explained that my decision to leave
anthropology had taken place during a lecture on African art.
D.H. Lawrence criticized the photographic idea of sculpture, as
opposed to the African commitment to all-roundness that
characterizes Moores work. My own commitment to the idea of
sculpture being all in the round rather than flat against the wall
has emerged in my installations in a fundamental but less obvi-
ous sense. Some installations document particularly well because
you see them from one angle like a theater set, mine less so
because theyre in the round and use sound, which goes back
to the very beginnings of my interest in African sculpture.
IC: Monument is a signature work from the 1980s, a moving explo-
ration of how people continue to live through the thoughts and
voices of others. How did this work represent a breakthrough for
you?
SH: It was the first work Id made like that. The photographs are
inset into a wall and presented with a park bench and sound. The
soundtrack is in analog format, so you can rewind the tape machine
and my voice unwinds in your ear in a physical way, which doesnt
happen with digital. People approach the work from a distance,
move closer, stop, and read the panels, then notice that theres
a place for them to sit, listen, and become part of the ensemble.
The memorials are from a London park, which is wonderful now,
but was overgrown and melancholy then, and I photographed them
because I found the texts poignant. People sat on benches with
their backs to the plaques, and I realized then the fate of memo-
rials or monuments of any kind. Theyre ignored, no one pays
attention to them. The idea of this invisibility became important
in the work.
IC: Monument also reflects on our difficult relationship with tem-
poral existence.
SH: It was made up of one panel for each year of my life. The ele-
ment of time, which is so important in sculpture, is fundamental
in this piece because the subjects of the texts exist longer as rep-
resentations than as living creatures. If I die and someone keeps
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Belshazzars Feast, 198384. Video program and installation, view of instal-
lation at Tate Britain.
Painting Block, 1971/84. Oil on canvas, cut and bound with thread, 11.5 x
16.5 x 7.3 cm.
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a photograph of me, Ill be around as a representation for other
people, not as myself, which is curious. Our society is obsessed
with conserving histories because we cant conserve ourselves,
and I addressed this explicitly in the soundtrack. Monument is
built up around the idea of memory and commemoration, but it
doesnt provide answers; it just raises more questions. Empirical
explanations dont satisfy our yearnings for continuity. Theres a
kind of Hollywood mishmash of cult fantasies and beliefs, a des-
perate groping for something that used to be taken care of by
religion. A lot of work needs to be done to address these issues
because the fantastic explanations posited by physics about the
nature of reality dont match the boring, commonsense, empiri-
cal view thats pounded into society. When people wonder about
other possibilities, others usually laugh at them. Its a big prob-
lem, and our society is in crisis. Do you feel that?
IC: Yes, I think weve reached a crisis point in terms of human con-
sciousness. People still pursue answers, but these experiences
tend to be individual and quite insular rather than of collective
significance.
SH: In a recent work, From Here to Eternity, I explored the medi-
eval idea of creating an altered state of consciousness by meta-
phorically undertaking the great pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The
work is based on the idea that time and space can be experienced
from a diagram. There are three slow, silent, video projections of
three different labyrinths with little dots going round a pathway,
similar to an early computer game graphic or a Frank Stella painting.
Theres something very interesting about the concept of a laby-
rinth as opposed to a maze. A maze is a place to get lost; a labyrinth
has only one right way to go, but its complicated, and you often
seem to be going backwards or in the wrong direction. You think
this cant be right, but it is, and thats why its such a great state-
ment about life. If you follow the moving dots, youll feel your
attention moving from one side of your brain to the other in a
very physical way. My work is increasingly designed to create
situations in which people begin to understand something about
themselves, and this work does it without text or sound.
IC: In Belshazzars Feast, the central element is a television screen
set within the configuration of a living room. In movies, the
screen frequently serves as a paranormal device whose victims
become obsessed with occult transmissions. Here, it creates ten-
sion through its dual nature as an accepted everyday object that
nonetheless has the power to subsume us all. Can you discuss the
ideas behind this work and explain why the screen shows footage
of flames?
SH: Communication at a distance, starting with the radio and the
telephone, opened up new possibilities of spookiness in the history
of Western culture. Belshazzars Feast is based on newspaper
articles about apparitions appearing on screens after a broadcast
had ended. Marshall McLuhan had a very rational explanation
about the lure of television when he said that it had replaced the
living room hearth. Deconstructing television isnt my primary
interest; Im interested in the phenomena of reverie that can happen
regardless of what program is on, which is similar to what hap-
pens if you stare into a fire because of the little blips of light. If
youre good at imagining, youll see pictures and make up a story.
Its probably the origin of image-making. The biblical story of
Belshazzars Feast describes a collective hallucination in which
everyone sees a hand writing a message of doom. The relation-
ship of that story to my piece is that numerous people rang the
BBC after the close of broadcast saying that they could still see
images, which they found very spooky. This work is about projec-
tion, which can be a source of great pleasure if you enjoy imagi-
nation, otherwise its scary.
IC: An Entertainment offers a moment of high drama, presenting
itself as a visual and acoustic shock to the senses. Here, the spectator
38 Sculpture 31.4
An Entertainment, 1990. 4 synchronized video projections and quadraphonic
sound, view of installation at Tate Britain.
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becomes the victim, boxed within a four-screen installation. Is it
important for you that viewers become complicit in the interpre-
tation of a work, that by experiencing it they become something
like collaborators?
SH: In An Entertainment, I wanted to put the adult in the place
of the child, and the only way to revive the hypersensitivity of a
child was to make things big and make us feel small. All the rep-
etitions in the piece are from Punch and Judy shows, and because
the puppets perform from a box, I thought, Lets put us in a box.
I invented a projection system that surrounds the viewer with
images coming from all sides. I went to many puppet shows when
my son was growing up, and Id hear the littlest children crying
and wanting to leave, and their parents saying, Oh, look at Mr.
Punch, isnt he funny or Dont be so silly, theres nothing fright-
ening here. I realized that denial is a ritual in our societywere
training to deny our own experiences and laugh at our fears. An
Entertainment has the attractiveness of a certain kind of fear
because it triggers childhood memories in which youre terrified
of something that turns out not to be real. In childhood, you dont
anticipate, and with An Entertainment, the sound and image sud-
denly come from behind, forcing you to turn around. This uncer-
tainty is a deliberate part of the piece. With my installations, the
degree of involvement and three-dimensionality increases through
time, starting with Monument, which you can just walk past,
to An Entertainment and Witness, where they become greater.
IC: In Witness, hundreds of suspended microphones emit an insane
cacophony of voices recalling stories of alien encounters from
across the world. In the past, people looked to religious icons,
while contemporary witnesses often see spectral or extraterres-
trial phenomena. Do you think this phenomenon represents a
yearning for something greater than ourselves, something to make
our earthly existence more tolerable?
SH: In the past, there was a context for heightened psychological
experiences, which could be translated into known iconic figures
and therefore made acceptable. Were now out on a limb with
this because society is more and more on the surface; we dont
have metaphysical ponderings and depth. Freud said that the lost
pleasures of life on this earth are compensated for by a belief in
occult theories. He saw that there was a need and was sympa-
thetic, even though he didnt believe. Thats the place to be, tol-
erant but skeptical, and I think more work needs to be done on
these issues by psychologists and scientists.
In Witness, the UFO experiences usually begin when someone
is driving through empty countryside at nightthe monotony
triggers receptivity. Its hard to talk about these experiences, so
people create straightforward narratives. Was it an angel, a flying
saucer, or just a bright light? It depends on the person, and these
stories have a very long history. William Blake saw angels. Are
we supposed to mock Blake? No, I dont think so. So what do we
do with the stories?
IC: Perhaps science ignores the workings of the subconscious mind
at its peril.
SH: Yes, and because we dont allow people to have regular paths
to unconsciousness, certain issues become big social problems.
Everyone yearns for peace, but we have more war than ever because
unconsciously somethings happening and we cant get at it. It
would require a fundamental shift of focus to change things, and
I cant see how were going to achieve that. In Witness, these
experiences erupt in consciousness when the person is in a state
of receptivity. We have this capacity to see the most beautiful
things, which may be there or not. Scientists tell us that there
are nine dimensions, that everythings happening simultaneously,
but how are we supposed to put that together with the stupidity
with which were brought up? Were the prisoners of our senses,
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Witness, 2000. Audio-sculpture with 400 speakers, wiring, steel structure, 10
CD players, switching equipment, and lights, detail of installation at Tate
Britain.
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we have bodies, which is why people invented the idea of the soul.
I dont think were ever going to resolve it, but its interesting
to provide experiences that allow people to think about it.
IC: The Last Silent Movie highlights 400 extinct languages, and The
J. Street Project is a collection of 303 street signs incorporating the
word Jew. Both works reflect on traces of individuals cast aside by
societal conventions. Is our civilization becoming more and more
homogenized, with individual traits conveniently erased?
SH: You could say that Im erasing the individualism of streets
and languages by collecting them, but Im notIm pointing
out their existence and uniqueness. In The Last Silent Movie, the
decision not to have pictures is important because it takes away
one of our senses. We listen to voices, and every voice is unique
like a fingerprint. We have a closeness when hearing the recorded
voice of someone whos dead, because the voice is still living,
although that wasnt my first intention, which was to look at the
phenomenon of disappearing languages. The fact that languages
are collected and shut away in academic archives is very peculiar.
So much effort is made by anthropologists and linguists to record
languages as the last speakers become old and fade away. We
should be asking, Why are these languages dying? Whats going
on? But we never ask these questions because were stuck on
the implications of our own way of life, which is eating up the rest
of the world. The Last Silent Movie and The J. Street Project are
about how to make that disappearance visible.
IC: From the Freud Museum responds to Freuds lifelong passion
for collecting. The installation, which youve referred to as an
archive of misunderstandings, includes 50 archaeological stor-
age boxes filled with mementos, relics, and talismans that you
acquired. Can you elaborate?
SH: Freud collected everything, and his collection was the kind
that any cultivated European of his period with sufficient income
would have acquired. Im not saying that it wasnt personal, but
its typical of a middle-class man of his time, whereas the things
I collected have no value other than that they are perplexing
or curious. The misunderstandings are of various kinds. Each box
has its own title referring to a particular discourseart history,
anthropology, psychoanalysis. Theyre juxtaposed randomly so that
the different perspectives problematize each other, with each
individual box deciphering other kinds of misunderstandings. One
box holds colored salt from a mine near Auschwitz that contains
40 Sculpture 31.4
Above: Hand Grenades, 196972. Ashes of paintings in glass jars, rubber
stoppers, labels, and Pyrex bowl, 11 x 18 x 18 cm. Below: From the Freud
Museum, 199196. Vitrine, boxes, and video, view of installation at Tate
Britain, 2011.
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beautiful carvings made by the miners and a ballroom with semi-
transparent walls that glow when lamps are placed behind them.
It was used as a TB sanatorium because of the pure air and as a
facility for advanced technologies because there was no dust. One
of these advanced technologies was the basis for a Nazi armament
factory using slave labor. Hundreds of people died, but the tour
and the tourist map of the mine dont mention the slave labor
camp. I found a book about this mine with a chapter on the camp.
So, I placed a photocopy of the tourist map in the box with these
lovely orange, green, and gray samples of salt, drawing the loca-
tion of the slave labor camp in red. That kind of juxtaposition is
what the boxes are about.
Another box contains a praying mantis in a painstakingly made
glass coffin, with a big red glass jewel set in the top. I juxtaposed
this with an excerpt from a 1970s House of Lords debate on UFOs,
because the words mantis and mantic relate to prophecy and
supernatural knowledge. I thought of someone placing a praying
mantis in a coffin, thinking it was a creature from outer space,
ceremonially treating it as though it were holy. The fact that the
House of Lords had an official debate on UFOs was irresistible to
me. A touch of humor had to enter into this work from time to
time, which relates to Freuds idea of the joke, the misreading,
and the omission. The individual boxes work by association, and
viewer associations probably override my own.
IC: Youve created a series of Homages to 20th-century artists
and writers including Marcel Duchamp, Gertrude Stein, and Joseph
Beuys. All were radical thinkers, but why did you select them?
SH: Im interested in whats hidden, left out, or continues to haunt
us. The history of Modernist art includes elements from occult tra-
ditions that are underplayed or ignored. These artists and others
of their generation transmitted occult concepts down to the pre-
sent. For many years after he gave up retinal painting, Duchamp
quested for a vehicle. It isnt generally acknowledged that he went
through various occult movements before finally ending up with
alchemy. He was interested in human auras, and Portrait of Dr.
Dumouchel portrays his friend, a radiographer, with auras. Duchamp
deliberately conflated the idea of the occult aura with the light
of radiography. I wanted to take that further and explore what
that means in a digital age.
As a student of psychology, Gertrude Stein had conducted exper-
iments on automatic writing, which she spent the rest of her life
denying. Behind the New York Public Library is a sculpture of her
by Jo Davidson. Its a conventional figurative sculpture, but hes
exaggerated her fatness, which I also wanted to reflect on in my
piece. I found a wonderful, rounded piece of art deco furniture,
which I stacked with books on automatic writing, books on using
the other side of your brain, and books about new concepts of the
human being as a result of some advanced thinking at the time. So
Homage to Gertrude Stein emphasizes the implications of an
aspect of her work that tends to be suppressed or ignored.
Beuys haunts contemporary art, and his controversial pose as a
shaman mediating between two worlds has both seduced and
repelled people. I was interested in representing how he tried to
stay on the edge of that by using bottles of holy water. All waters
are in constant circulation, so water from one place probably isnt
any more holy than water from another. The U.K. has a super-abun-
dance of holy springs, and I started collecting the water years ago.
This work situates the holy waters in a felt-lined vitrine and con-
nects Beuys to a current of popular belief that is both credulous
and skeptical, because even though people return from official
sites like Lourdes with water, I dont believe they think its actually
magic. Beuys was trying to create a bridge between some of the
things weve been talking about, but his shamanistic pose and
biography as a celebrity create a problem. Its an encouragement
for credulity rather than for thinking.
Ina Cole is a writer based in the U.K.
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Home Nursing: Homage to Joseph Beuys, 19692011. Vitrine, boxes, and
video, view of installation at Tate Britain, 2011.
sculpture
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Manon Awst and Benjamin Walther create collaborative sculptures,
performances, and paintings that combine ephemeral materials
such as ice, grapes, and gelatin with plaster, metal, gold, and
other materials. The husband-and-wife team take inspiration from
their individual backgrounds in theater and architecture. Dresden-
born Walther worked as a theater director after studying art and
philosophy at Berlins Humbolt-Universitt. Awst was born in the
Isle of Anglesey in Wales and studied architecture at Cambridge
University.
For the Young Contemporaries program at Englands Modern
Art Oxford (MAO), Awst and Walther staged an understated per-
formance that introduced the central themes of their work: inti-
macy, collaboration, architecture, history, theater, beauty, and
space. Following their performance, we discussed their work, the
relation of their sculpture to the script staged at MAO, and the
nature of their distinctively rich creative relationship.
Opposite: Body Bag, 2010. Pigmented
gelatin, 46 x 70 x 30 cm. Above:
Temptation, 2008. Plaster and gold
leaf, 20 x 10 x 8 cm.
BY ANA FINEL HONIGMAN
Delivering
to the
Moment
Manon Awst and
Benjamin Walther
A Conversation with
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44 Sculpture 31.4
various situations. We explore different modes of representation
and construct a narrative, however loose and fragmented that
might be.
AFH: When considering your work as a whole, Im especially inter-
ested in how Temptation, an image of a gold-leaf apple and
grenade, has become the most reproduced, representative image
associated with you, at least in Berlin. How well do you think
this one piece and its associated image represent your full
body of work and your interests?
MA: Its one of our earliest pieces, and it was originally part of a
performance. For us, the components have a very specific history.
But there is a clear duality to the piece, which people pick up on
in a lot of our work, and the notion of beginning and end.
AFH: In the performance, the lines Are you here because Im here
and vice versa are repeated. Do you feel that you would have
decided individually to move away from architecture and theater
toward art, if you hadnt met and started collaborating?
BW: Yes. I had to liberate myself from the medium of theater, which
I found very old-fashioned. But we were both looking for this col-
laboration. Collaboration is the way forward. Thats one really
Ana Finel Honigman: Your performance at MAO, which was based
on a script that you developed, presented some of the main themes
of your workisolation, time, intimacy, memory, space, and col-
laboration. How does this format relate to some of the other ways
that you work through these issues?
Manon Awst: This is the first time that we brought words into the
work so directly. A lot of our work stems from conversations across
a table. We recently started to record these discussions since many
fragments and interesting trails of thought somehow get lost in the
process of making. We wanted to document these threads before
they disappeared. The transcribed discussions are edited to
create a script that we draw on in our most recent sculptures and
installations. The plan is to eventually bring the physical elements
together with a performance.
AFH: As a condensed demonstration of your collaborative process,
how do your backgrounds in architecture and theater influence
the dialogue?
MA: We discuss the creation of a new room and the psychological
impact of this room on the human being. So its all about the exami-
nation of space, and the relationship of the body to spacethis
directly links architecture and theaterbut the dialogue developed
instinctively.
Benjamin Walther: Like a stage, this new room is a space for pro-
jection where were role-playing and throwing each other into
Left: Installation view of Components at Hannah Barry Gallery, London,
2012. Above: Latent Measures Component 17, 2011. Polished aluminum, plas-
terboard, steel profile, screws, and plaster filler, dimensions variable.
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great thing about theatera group of
people coming together to create some-
thing.
MA: I think that if we were working sepa-
rately we would probably be doing very
different work.
AFH: How does audience response to your
work relate to your collaboration? Do you
feel that your dialogue renders the audi-
ence less important?
BW: Actually, it is the opposite.
MA: The work needs to be public, other-
wise it makes no sense. The interesting
thing happens when you put yourself out
there. Putting your sculpture in a gallery
is like putting yourself on a stage, and the
consequent discussion allows you to grow.
In this respect, an audience is always impor-
tant for us. And going back to your ques-
tion about our backgrounds, this interest
in audiences and public situations makes
perfect sense.
AFH: It is also interesting how time, mem-
ory, and ephemeral materials play into
your work. Can you tell me how gelatin
relates to these themes?
BW: Gelatin itself is not ephemeral, but it
has a performative quality that relates
strongly to time and memory.
MA: When we began experimenting with
different materials, we were searching for
visceral stuff. That gelatin is a pure protein
really attracted usit represents strength
and structure, yet it has an inherent vul-
nerability through its materiality.
AFH: What is gelatins real-world applica-
tion in relation to how you use it? Its
mostly used in food, right?
MA: Yes, but also in confectionary, cosmetics,
and photographic processes.
AFH: Its one of many animal products
that we use to adorn ourselves.
MA: Its derived from the skin and bones
of animals and has a very shiny, glossy
surface when its cast. It is actually reflec-
tive, so there is an element of Narcissus
to it, in the sense that it provides a mirror
for the modern individual. It also hints at
the appeal of the superfluous. And since
the material has a performative life after
it has left our hands, theres a strong sense
of disruption. This conflict is important.
AFH: Do you relate to the gelatin differently
during its different phases? As the people
Above: Latent Measures Component 1, 2010. Stainless steel mirrors, steel, and cement sacks, 220
x 150 x 400 cm. Below: Latent Measures Component 11, 2011. Pigmented gelatin, aluminum, ply-
wood, and nails, dimensions variable.
sculpture
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who know it best, how do you respond to it emotionally, psychologically, and physically
during its different permutations? Are there moments when you are most attracted to
it, like when its shiny, and then moments when you feel disgust? It is a rather uncom-
fortable thing to confront once it gets old.
BW: It triggers several sensations. When melted, it smells strongly and its quite nause-
ating. Then, when its freshly cast and solidified, all firm and glossy, it is extremely
attractivewe cant wait to take it out of the mold. Its very sensual and calm at the same
time. Over time, the cast form shifts from a fleshy, moist substance to a bone-hard mater-
ial thats almost like a fossil. At the end, you look at it with the curiosity of an archae-
ologist rather than the gaze of a voyeur.
AFH: How does this sensuality express the idea of luxury, another of your key themes?
Youre very interested in exploring what luxury signifies for individuals and societies, as
well as the trends that may or may not be able to tempt or support desire. At one point,
the gelatin is a very fancy product. It has a fetish aspect, glossy and really glamorous.
As it gets older, it becomes more like a ruin. Is this something you want to evoke?
BW: I would consider luxury as a tool. Its our Trojan horse. We use its seductive power
to create an entrance for other layers of meaning and associations.
MA: For example, you see it most directly with this luxurious chandelier made from green
grapes. The piece is called Das se Leben, meaning the sweet life, and it plays with
the idea of a product thats very attractive
and highly valued but is ultimately unsus-
tainable. So were drawing on ephemerality
as a theme that cant be ignored in todays
world.
BW: Its quite interesting to think of sculp-
ture in this context. If you cast a form in
bronze, then theres a sense of it being
untouchable, that it will exist for thou-
sands of years and outlive us all. As attrac-
tive as this is, it doesnt relate to our con-
temporary world in which everything is
passing by so rapidly. I mean this in the
most positive way, in that you have
to deliver to the moment and experience
that particular moment in time. It is quite
46 Sculpture 31.4
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I Miss You, 2011. Polystyrene, jesmonite, poly-
urethene paint, and lacquer, 350 x 190 x 130 cm.
sculpture
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interesting to think of this in relation to
making sculpture.
MA: Sculpture traditionally was made to
survive. Were interested in the moments
when sculpture and performance connect
in works that perform themselves or have
an autonomous element.
BW: It also has to do with the acceptance
of death.
AFH: You directly address death in Body
Bags. How do the fleshy, morbid forms fit
with your ideas of how death is understood
and addressed in contemporary culture?
MA: The Body Bags have a distinctly human
scale since theyre based on human tor-
sostwo broken torsos in an embrace.
Theyre almost like found fragments of
larger sculptures. Were fascinated by
ancient heritage, fragments of the past,
and ruins, which is where the Body Bags fit
into the picture. They have an unnerving
texture, which could be read as veins or
ruptures. Theres definitely an association
with fossils, or mummies. The relation to
the body comes out very strongly.
BW: The body is an important subject for us.
AFH: When you say the body, how do you
discuss these issues with both of you having
such different bodies? Your different heights,
relation to space, and genders mean that
you live in the world differently despite your
extreme connection.
MA: Its interesting that you say this since
the idea of measurement is key to engaging
with our work. Our last exhibition in Berlin
was Latent Measures, a title that applies
to most of our recent sculptures. Theyre
all to do with how we relate ourselves
to spacephysically and psychologically.
Some measures are directly connected to
our own bodies, so biological, while others
are cultivated, like values or ideologies.
AFH: To what degree do you look at these
issues of measurement as you combined or
as a median between your two personali-
ties, your two ways of seeing the world?
BW: Of course, the base is our combined
experience and understanding of the world,
but we hope that the measures are human
enough to allow the work to speak to the
onlooker.
Ana Finel Honigman is a writer based in
London and Berlin.
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Above: Das se Leben, 2011. Grapes, stainless steel, and neon, dimensions variable. Below: Latent
Measures Component 18, 2012. Plaster and clothing, dimensions variable.
sculpture
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From the Dirt
Medium/Deep, 2010. Cast dirt and mixed media, view
of installation at Laurel Gitlen Gallery, New York. R
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BY MILENA HOEGSBERG
Since 2007 Corin Hewitt has produced a
series of evolving works that blend sculp-
ture, photography, and performance.
1
The
most recent of these appeared at the Laurel
Gitlin Gallery in New York last year, and a
new iteration is scheduled to open at the
Cleveland Museum of Contemporary Art in
January 2013. In each installation, Hewitt
performs inside an enclosed space (part
studio, part laboratory), creating sculptural
objects that feed into a body of still-life pho-
tographs. Although distinct, the works
which take their cues from the site and
region in which they are performedare
conceptually linked. Each builds on and
integrates elements from preceding projects,
drawing on a continuously growing, idio-
syncratic vocabulary of forms, materials,
and colors.
In Seed Stage (October 2008January
2009) at the Whitney Museum of American
Art, Hewitt occupied a tall, white structure
built within the ground-floor gallery that
left only a narrow space for visitors to walk.
Three and a half days a week for three
months, museum-goers could watch the
artist work through vertical, almost shoulder-wide, ground-to-ceiling slits in the four
corners of the room. Inside the walls, a colorful and cluttered makeshift set revealed itself.
The internal architecture of the installation reiterated Marcel Breuers 1966 inverted
ziggurat museum design, which Hewitt linked to the base of Brancusis similar-looking
sculpture Prodigal Son (1914). In addition to the workspace and materials that one expects
to find in an artists studio (a plasticine color wheel, a tripod, Polaroid and digital cam-
eras, photo studio lights, a large color printer, and a laptop), the space was outfitted with
a rudimentary kitchen, custom-built rolling shelves filled with jars of pickled vegetables,
50 Sculpture 31.4
Seed Stage, 2008. 2 views of performance/installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 2008.
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a root cellar, and composting bins with worms. Monochrome printouts running the span
of the color spectrum followed the top perimeter of the space, mirrored in a motley col-
lection of objects scattered around the room, including plaid fabrics, prints of colorful
baskets woven out of pasta (produced during previous performances), and homegrown
vegetables in different stages of decay. The space most resembled the set of a TV studio,
yet the feeling of watching Hewitt at work was decidedly unspectacular, his performance
devoid of any overt theatricality.
Seemingly unaffected by being on view, Hewitt moved through the space at an unhur-
ried pace, thoughtfully collecting, processing (cooking, casting, canning, eating, com-
posting), sculpting, and organizing both organic and inorganic materials into still-life
compositions. These temporary sculptures existed only long enough to be lit and pho-
tographed from different angles with a variety of cameras and lenses; they were then
disassembled so that their materials could feed back into the circulatory process of pro-
duction and reappear in subsequent works. Most of the digital photographs taken over
the course of the installation were reused in later compositions, as cut-up fragments or
backdrops, or placed in bins of mulch, where they slowly dissolved into matterthe
foundation for new activity and new images. In addition to the composting bins, Hewitt
used another image-processing tool, equally essential to the installations development
and function. With assistance from artist Seibren Versteeg, Hewitt developed a piece of
software called Ouikiltit, whose algorithm turned digital images into digital plaid-
making loops, enabling him to digitally compost images into abstract plaids. A ubiq-
uitous presence in the architectural interior, the prints functioned as digital chromatic
abstractions of what happens as worms digest organic material and turn it into soil.
Hewitts feedback loop activated the temporality of creation, positing its process as
grounds for continuous discovery. As he explored the relationship between his physical
actions and the transformation of his materials, viewers became aware of themselves
as temporal beings. The installation was a sort of living sculpture, an evolving organism,
in which nothing was fixed. The site con-
tained both the histories and the possible
futures of the objects and images within
it. Hewitts insistence on the ephemerality
of his compositions reminded viewers that all
materialslike bodieswill inevitably decay.
The photographs taken in the installation
aimed to lift moments out of the flow of
Right: Untitled #1 from Drying Flowers with Microwaves, May 8, 2010, 2010. Digital pigment print on
cotton rag paper mounted on aluminum, 48 x 39 in. Below: Drying Flowers with Microwaves, 2010.
Installation view at the Dorsch Gallery, Miami.
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time, rather than freeze the process into permanence. The dialogue between the activities
in the space and the photographs resulting from them is essential to understanding
Hewitts project. As he explains, The sets existed as the ground that objects would
move upon and then would get immersed into. The photographs were grasping at these
short-term arrangements as the sets absorbed and then bloomed new arrangements.
2
Different lenses explored the potential in the double take, the repeated look at the
same object in and over time. This was, in fact, the viewing condition encouraged by
the installation itself. The vertical slits in the room functioned as wide-angle lens aper-
tures, rendering the three-dimensional temporal space as a two-dimensional surfacea
live image. This conversation between two-dimensional surfaces and the three-dimen-
sionality they make claim to is also evident in the digital and analog prints, exhibited
over the course of the project at the Whitney. Out of the hundreds of prints made, Hewitt
selected only 72 photographs, 45 of which were shown over the course of the project
on the walls of the gallery surrounding the installation. The photographs point to his
keen interest in investigating the relationship between figure and ground through surface
accumulation (texture, color, light, and material). Neither preconceived images nor straight
records of Hewitts activities, the photographs are their own layered, visual spaces. As a
body of work, they highlight the mutability inherent in the process of their making. Many
are collages of fragmentary photographs of objects, saturated spectral colors, and patterns
in plaid fabrics. For Hewitt, the photographs and their making activate basic questions
about the stability of things. If the layered surfaces of the photographs suggest a figure/
ground relationship in flux, then the dissolution of the photographs into composted soil
represents both the resolution of the dichotomy and dialectic fertility.
The potential that Hewitt sees in the dissolved and composted state of his materials
reflects his general interest in the re-thinking of materials and objects. Imbued with their
own histories, often of personal significance, the materials and tools that inhabited the
installation present a foundational and historical base from which to re-form or rethink,
in Hewitts words, a history of physical objects.
3
The materials indexical relationship
to time and place is, in a sense, what allows Hewitt to reconsider notions of origin and
agency.
4
Each material is investigated in its encounter with others. Through the process
of selecting materials and deciding how they are placed and framed when photographed,
Hewitt explores objects (raw materials and assembled sculptures alike) as potential.
Hewitts evolution from one installation to the next was evident in Drying Flowers with
Microwaves (Dorsch Gallery, Miami, May 7June 5, 2010). As in Seed Stage, he set up a
viewing situation in which the installation operated as an image-making machine, which
visitors could enter visually, but not physi-
cally.
5
In Drying Flowers, the terms of visual
engagement changed significantly. Audi-
ences could only watch Hewitt work in the
reflections of three Plexiglas mirrors mounted
above a closed-off section of the gallery.
The relationship of the audience to the
artists bodymediated through the three
mirror relays or missing from view entirely
was less immediate than in Seed Stage,
and the experience of the work therefore
less intimate. Because visitors had a more
privileged visual access to what was
directly in front of Hewitt than to the artist
himself, the focus shifted from the space
and activities performed in it to the images
produced by these activities.
The title of the installation comes from
a book that describes the process of covering
fresh flowers in silica sand and heating them
in a microwave to control the position in
which they dry. Hewitt was interested in
the microwave as a processing device, anal-
ogous to the photographic process of
freezing the motion and decay of objects.
Over the course of the performance, he
created sculptural objects with seasonal
dried and fresh flowers, drawing on mate-
rials and visual vernaculars particular to
both Vermont (where he grew up) and Miami
(the exhibition site). As in Seed Stage, Hewitt
highlighted the tension between the objects
changing over time and those frozen in the
photographic image. He used microwaves
to accelerate the death of the flowers, then
52 Sculpture 31.4
The Grey Flame and the Brown Light, 2010. 2 views of installation/performance at Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT.
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to freeze them in a specific stage in the
life cycle and prevent decay. Hewitt connects
this process to snow-bird culture, in which
people from the Northeast travel south to
Florida for winter or to spend their last days.
More so than the Whitney project, this
installation probed representation through
a stark juxtaposition between the process,
reflected in the unstable surfaces of the
mirror relays, and the photographs resulting
from the process, stable records of the
objects. The relays were two-way mirrors,
oscillating between translucent and reflec-
tive, and the images that appeared and
disappeared in them were often distorted
visions, warping the space and situation
while demonstrating their own making
and dismantling. As a result, the material-
ity of the image and its conveyed visual
information were constantly shifting.
In contrast, the photographic prints
resulting from this performance feel more
static and complete, shifting the terms of
the perceptual issues of the figure/ground
relationship activated by the Whitney series.
Each shows a freestanding sculpture
against a solid-colored backdrop, reminis-
cent of Miamis colorful architecture and
vegetation. In some, the objects are
cloaked in another kind of mirror image,
here made by cast shadows. In one, two
flowers are held in molded vessels, one
resembling the negative cast of a closed
fist. Behind them looms a piece of drift-
wood, from which hangs a paint-stained
yellow rubber glove (belonging to Hewitts
grandfather), which lends the image
an eerie beauty. For Hewitt, the collapse
between figure and ground in the Miami
series happened more culturally and mate-
rially, as materials linked to Vermont (flow-
ers, logs, soil, and his grandpas paint
glove) contrasted with the natural and cul-
tural products of Florida, a place of death
and new beginnings.
Essentially, Hewitts installations are, as Gregory Volk points out in a recent essay, a rig-
orous system in which to investigate perception and observation.
6
The works are essentially
about how we perceive things and locate ourselves, and our own agency, in the limited time
that we have in a world of pre-existing objects. Each installation, and each photograph that
it brings into being, activates a notion of something foundational to the process of making
or, to borrow Hewitts words, the pedestal or the ground or soil or foundational history on
which we think we can act.
7
His projects call attention to how each encounter with an object,
a work of art, is filtered through memories of past objects and the desire to categorize things
and visual stimuli in order to understand them in relation to the self.
8
The experience of the
photographs produced by the performances is inevitably influenced by assumptions based
on past experiencesour projections. Exhibited independently (as each body of photographs
from previous installations has been), the photographs from both the Whitney Museum and
the Dorsch Gallery reveal little about the space or the situation in which they were conceived.
The Seed Stage series contains, however, aspects of the process of its making, rendering
figure and ground, and time and space, as fluid and overlapping elements. In Drying Flowers,
the feeling of disjunction between the producer (the installation) and product (the printed
images) is perplexing. Little of the experience of the ever-shifting surfaces of the relays is
retained in the eight deliberated and controlled still-lifes produced by the installation.
Having experienced the process that brought the photographs into being, you are inevitably
confronted with the desire to read them in relation to the circumstances of their making,
rather than on their own terms. Setting materials, objects, and images in a state of con-
stant physical and perceptual modulation, Hewitts work makes us active observers. As the
series grows to encompass increasingly complex vantage points, it continues to challenge
us with its exploration of reproduction and the potential of transformation.
Milena Hoegsberg is Acting Chief Curator at Henie Onstad Art Centre in Hvikodden, Norway.
B
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Notes
1
The projects are Toad in a Hole (Red Hook, New York, 2007), Weavings
(Portland, Oregon, 2007), Seed Stage (Whitney Museum, New York, 200809),
Wall (Western Bridge, Seattle, 2010), Drying Flowers with Microwaves (Miami,
2010), and The Gray Flame and the Brown Light (Burlington, Vermont, 2010).
2
Authors conversation with the artist in which he expands on a discussion
from Corin Hewitt and Michael Brenson in Conversation, in Michael
Brenson and Marisa Sanchez, WEAVINGS: Performance #2 (Portland, OR),
(Atlanta/New York: J&L Books, 2009).
3
Brenson, op. cit.
4
Marisa Sanchez discusses this aspect of Hewitts project in Portland in her
thoughtful essay An Evolution of Experience, in WEAVINGS: Performance
#2 (Portland, OR), op. cit.
5
I borrow the term image-making machine from Michael Brenson.
6
Gregory Volk, Corin Hewitt in Vermont, The Grey Flame and the Brown
Light, exhibition catalogue, (Burlington: Burlington City Arts, 2010), p. 29.
7
In/Visible: Corin Hewitt: The Desire and Anxiety of Reproduction and
Decay, THE STRANGER, Podcast, by Jen Graves, April 22, 2009,
<http://www.thestranger.com/gyrobase/blogs/Post?id=InVisible&year=200
9&month=04&day=22&basename=invisible-corin-hewitt-the-desire-and-
anxiety-of-reproduction-and-decay>.
8
This discussion draws on a 2010 interview with the artist, included in the
Dorsch Gallery exhibition pamphlet.
Wall, 2010. View of installation at Western Bridge, Seattle.
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____________
Between Fun
and
Desperation
Erwin
Wurm
A Conversation with
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Performative drinking sculpture,
2010. Installation view with Pollock
cabinet, Kippenberger credenza,
Edvard Munch kitchen cabinets,
and Willem de Kooning dresser.
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BY CAROLEE THEA
Since the 1980s, Austrian artist Erwin Wurm has
worked to expand traditional notions of sculpture.
Through his one-minute sculptures, which document
conceptual performances in films and photographs, he
invites viewers to realize that actions are more impor-
tant than objects. Inspired by popular culture and an
idiosyncratic exploration of space, form, and volume,
Wurm employs furniture, houses, cars, buckets, and
other quotidian objects of modern culture. Demon-
strating a signature tongue-in-cheek humor, he mixes
melancholy, irony, absurdity, and ephemerality. As
Wurm himself points out, his work revolves around the
question, Is this an action or is this a sculptureand
when does one turn into the other?
The one-minute sculptures from the 1980s marked
the beginning of Wurms use of the body as inspiration.
Today, his anthropomorphic and often obese or emaci-
ated works, including Fat House and The Convertible,
continue the trend. He claims that the fat works sug-
gest a notion of over-consumption, but, for me, they
embody the grotesque, which aims to bewilder and dis-
orient, to jolt us out of accustomed ways of perceiving
the world by offering a radically different, disturbing,
and alienating perspective. Viewing Wurms sculptures,
I am reminded of the 20th-century Russian philosopher
Mikhail Bakhtins defense of rude and crude carnival
grotesques in Rabelais. Discussing the proto-Modernist
novel Gargantua and Pantagruel, Bakhtin explains how
exaggerated realism (greed, gluttony, and hedonism)
constitutes an alternative to the impersonal, conformist, superficial, unequal,
and numbing realities of commercialism or, more abstractly, a resistance to a
society of spectacle and nothingness. In Wurms work, we see just such an
interaction across the social, the artistic, and the physical. His sculpturescar-
toonish and absurdisthint at the slapstick comedy of Laurel and Hardy. And
viewers are invited to look, play, cavort, stare, and interactoften to a deliber-
ately uncomfortable degree.
Last years return of Art Basel to Miami Beach for the 10th year coincided
with a major rally on Wall Street, as concerted efforts by banks around the
globe led to hopes that Europe would avoid a debt crisis. Inside the convention
56 Sculpture 31.4
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Beat and treat (anger sculptures), 2011. Bronze and patina, 7.1 x 14.9 x 9.1 in.
Installation view with (left to right) The bob, 2011, polystyrene and paint; Homegulp,
2011, acrylic and paint; and The bob, 2011, polystyrene and paint.
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center, high-priced art was selling, and the parties were outrageousparticularly at the
Bass Museum of Art, where Wurms exhibition Beauty Business featured the baccha-
nalian enticements of Performative drinking sculpture. When this work premiered at the
Middelheim Museum in Antwerp, intoxicated museum-goers damaged several sculptures,
and portions of the exhibition had to be closed for repairs. As a result, the Bass Museum
limited the drinking/performance portion of the piece to opening night. A video of the
resulting antics remained on display for the duration of the exhibition.
Carolee Thea: The works in Beauty Business underscore the dark humor that feeds
your sculpture.
Erwin Wurm: My oeuvre is more about desperation and a specific attitude toward an
artists work and life, a need to express a will and a certain understanding against the
common understanding of society and excess.
In Performative drinking sculpture, I dis-
assembled and reconstructed vintage night-
stands, credenzas, and closets, which open
to reveal bottles of liquor. Each work bears
instructions to pour a stiff drink from the
bottles stored inside and then to sit on
or walk into the furniture openings while
drinking. In weird ways, you know some-
thing is wrong. My purpose is to open up
different ways of using these objects and
to make people drink; when youre drunk,
the piece is finished.
Its the excess that interests me, the
drunken result of drinking, which pushes
you out of the social arena. I inscribed the
drinking sculpture pieces with the names
of Jackson Pollock, Martin Kippenberger,
Francis Bacon, and other artists who were
Beat and treat (anger sculptures), 2011. Bronze
and patina, 3.9 x 16.15 x 7.9 in.
The bob, 2011. Cor-ten steel, polystyrene, and
paint, installation view.
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alcoholics; I also included a few who did
performance work that featured drinking,
like Tom Marioni and Gilbert and George. I
was very close to the Austrian writer Wer-
ner Schwab, who died of alcoholism at the
age of 35. He was a terribly unhappy per-
son, disoriented by the sense of society,
and drinking helped soften his anger.
CT: Isnt this a strange way to play with
alcoholism, by enticing others into com-
plicity?
EW: This work was also inspired by my take
on the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj iek,
who says theres not much freedom left in
the Western/capitalist/liberal world, where
things like smoking, sex, drinking, and
eating fatty meat are scorned. If youre
under enormous moral pressure to abstain,
it takes away the freedom of a so-called
good life. iek, very cynically, said that
its not important to die healthy, its impor-
tant to live well.
CT: Who or what were your early influences?
EW: I grew up after the end of World War
II within a haunted social background and
trained with the generation of Beuys and
Adorno. At school, in 197677, I was a
painter, but at the Academy of Arts, I was ushered into the sculpture department, even
though I wanted to be in the painting department. Looking at Greek and Roman sculp-
turesthose idealized human bodies, some wearing thin veilsmade me think about
skin, mass, volume, and surface. It was at this formative time that I studied with Bazon
Brock, an important German theorist connected to Fluxus, and that became a major
influence in my work.
CT: Sculptures like Fat Convertible, Fat House (2003), Fat House Moller/Adolf Loos (2003),
Mies van der Rohe Melting (2005), and Art Basel Fucks Documenta (2006) all demonstrate
a curious preoccupation with buildings. Le Corbusier once remarked that the purpose of
architecture is to move us. You realize that concept in your work, where the power
lies in how deeply your sculptural objects make us feel. A dwelling, for you, is between
outside and inside worlds, a state that compels contemplative lingering. One might also
say that your constructions generate an echo of de Chirico.
EW: I believe that our feelings about such personal architectural sites are mixed, that
we are often drawn to what both attracts and repelsthe artist understands this intu-
itively. If, in the (inner and outer) space surrounding these objects, we experience our
own ambivalence about certain issues more intensely, it is because, in theme and struc-
ture, my work holds these contradictory elements in tension.
The large, obese house works in the Bass show are related to my original Fat House,
which I did 10 years ago. A small silver house was the model. For this exhibition, I cut
the obese house apart and began working with its bulbous forms. When you put the pieces
back together, the result moves in the direction of architecture and the human body.
CT: You enlist architecture and object as direct social and artistic fodder. Your fat sculp-
tures resonate directly with the body while alluding metaphorically to gluttonous con-
sumerism and overweight financial markets.
EW: Well yes, these structures are synonyms for social structures.
CT: I saw Narrow House at the Venice Biennale. Is this work different in intent?
58 Sculpture 31.4
Left: City model, 2011. Wool, wood, and Styrofoam, 45.25 x 20.5 x 48.4 in. Above: Architecture, 2011.
Fabric and wood, 33.5 x 23.6 x 43.7 in.
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EW: Narrow House is a replica of my familys
house. I kept the original length but nar-
rowed the width to one-sixth. One could
enter squeezed rooms and see squeezed fur-
niture. Its about claustrophobia, and it
relates to the 1950s and 60s, when I was
growing up in a rigid, fearful, and angry
Austrian society. Inside, there are narrow
chairs and tables, narrow bookshelves lined
with narrow books, a narrow sofa, and nar-
row rooms covered with a distinctly 1970s-
style wallpaper. The house is disturbingly
tight, and I ask visitors to walk through it.
CT: Can you explain what the large knitted
wall piece is about?
EW: That wall piece blurs the boundary
between human form and museum building.
You could say that I am clothing the
museum for warmth and security. Another
series of smaller sweater sculptures was
included in the show, too. The sweater forms
are stretched and altered by crude wooden braces. I believe that these altered works
transform the visitors view of the sweater forms into the present moment, omitting any
history or future, which are outside of the experience and perhaps illusionary. I also made
a new series of hoodie works that push the human form and showcase how balance
can be found within gallery spaces. These forms wear hoodies or raincoats. They were
plastered inside, not as defined forms, but as deformed ones that we cast in bronze.
Theyre called House. The hoodie doubles as the skin of a human beingsomething that
has become a kind of uniform for dissident people who make riots.
CT: Are the works also about the protesters?
EW: Well yes, but not just the protesterthey are about the rioter. In England, the rioters
wanted to break into shops and steal things.
CT: They were exhibiting their anger at discrepancies in the social structure.
EW: Their dress suggests theyre more interested in becoming invisible, in not being recognized.
CT: Considering that the understructure of these sculptures is rough and abstract and the
outside is polished, I cant help but think of Steve Jobss comment about Apple products:
The inside should be as elegant as the outside. These works are the reverse, and as such,
they have compelling implications.
EW: Well, their wooden armatures relate to my very early work when I used discarded
wood. It is a kind of architecture that holds the human form. Its a house with an interior
that is done very roughly.
CT: Is it fun to make them?
EW: Its always between fun and desperation.
Carolee Thea is a writer living in New York.
House I, 2011. Bronze and patina, 20.5 x 42.9 x
35.4 in.
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______________ __________
__________________ ____________ _____________ ___________
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_________________
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_______________ __________ ________________ __________________
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__________________
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_____________________
______________
NtwAsK, Ntw j tsst
Amy Young
Kedar Studio of Art / Index Art
Center
Inspired by the Street Art movement,
social media, and the work of Walker
Evans, Amy Young has created a
series of tiny sculptural works nes-
tled in the art of giving and sharing.
Since June 2010, she has placed
hundreds of tiny street-art works in
New York, London, and Paris. Each
work is part of an edition signed
and dated by the artist, who identi-
fies herself by printing her Web site
address and a QR code on each
piece. A complete list of the works,
along with the comments of those
who find them, is posted on her blog
at <www.seemetellme.blogspot.
com>.
The three editions on view in the
exhibition Monsters, Saints and
Cool Summer Dresses illustrate
three different aspects of Youngs
large and still- growing project.
o|uc, c|n| ||| (m|n|; (2011) was
inspired by Youngs daily commute
and by Walker Evanss |cn, c|e
tc||eo. In 1938, Evans hid his cam-
era in his overcoat and surrepti-
tiously photographed subway riders.
Following his example, Young shot
250 clandestine images, assembled
them into tiny, accordion-style
books, and placed each book into a
clear plastic box decorated with
beads, gold paint, and sequins. She
then glued a magnet to the back of
each box. To place them in the sub-
way (to bomb the subway, in
Street Art parlance), she searches
for anything that will hold the mag-
net. Once a collector has found
a c|n|, Young gives the additional
gift of participation: open the little
box, pull out the tiny accordion
book, and then post a comment on
the blog.
|||||e |cn|e| ||| (2011) is built
using the same plastic boxes and the
same magnetic attachments. This
time though, the images are taken
from the Greek, Roman, Roman-
esque, and Gothic Revival sculptural
motifs that decorate buildings all
over New York. Each |cn|e| comes
equipped with a tiny LED light and a
cluster of silver beads. Once you find
one, you can open the box, pull the
tab that protects the LED leads, and
the |cn|e| will be illuminated
red, green, blue, or yellow. When
Young bombs the subway with |||||e
|cn|e|, she sometimes illuminates
them and sometimes leaves the LED
dark for the collector to discover. All
50 pieces displayed at the Kedar
Studio were illuminated and installed
in a shining grid of tiny nightlights.
In the ee |e e|| |e |||| (2011),
which were built differently, each
piece consists of a tiny sleeveless
dress hung on a miniscule hanger.
The ee |e e|| |e |||| were cre-
ated in two different editions. In the
first edition of 25, Young decorated
the front of each dress with an image
found in a New York art exhibition.
For the second edition of 25, she
used images created by street artists
working in New York, London, and
Paris. In both series, the back of each
dress is created from a shopping bag.
The participation aspect of the ee
|e e|| |e |||| exists within the
joy of play and play-acting.
Visitors to the show were encour-
aged to take two of Youngs pieces
with them. The instructions asked
each participant to keep one piece
for his or her own collection and to
give the other to a friend or to place
it out in the world. In exchange, each
new collector filled out a label with
his or her name and e-mail address
and placed the label on the wall
where the collected piece once hung.
Young has successfully married
two formally distant arenas: fine art
and contemporary social media.
She gives her collectors a way back
into the history of art and a way
reviews
Amy Young, Subway Saints, 2011. Photography, watercolor, rice paper, plastic boxes, beads, bells, sequins, magnets,
thread, and string, installation of 50 elements, 1.75 x 1 x .5 in. each.
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68 Sculpture 31.4
forward into exploring their own
art-making and critical faculties.
The See Me Tell Me project was
not created in a passive voice. It is
admirably universal and generous,
and all of its aspects create move-
ment and growth. It is both an
echo of and a bellwether for the
burgeoning wealth of creativity
inspired by new technologies.
|cn |||e,
SAW IsAWct sco
Brian Wall
Hackett | Mill Gallery
The tradition of Constructivism is
still with us and remains especially
strong in the San Francisco Bay Area
with two outstanding sculptors
Brian Wall and Fletcher Benton.
Wall, whose early work was recently
shown in Hackett | Mill Gallerys
Brian Wall: Spatial Planes 1957
1966, was born in London in 1931
and moved to St. Ives in 1954, where
he became an assistant to Barbara
Hepworth the following year. Hep-
worth and her husband (Englands
foremost abstract painter, Ben
Nicholson) were friends of Naum
Gabo, a leader of the Constructivist
movement in Moscow, who moved
to St. Ives at the beginning of World
War II and remained there until
1946. There is little doubt that Con-
structivist theory and praxis had an
impact on the young Wall, whose
sculpture defines the space it occu-
pies.
Piet Mondrian had been a personal
friend of Nicholson and Hepworth,
and Wall had seen the Mondrian
exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery in
London in 1955. The canvases of the
Dutch painters equilibrated relation-
ships created an indelible mark
on the young artist, as did the sculp-
tures of Julio Gonzlez, which he first
saw on a trip to Spain in 1960.
In 1955, Wall, who originally
trained as a painter, began to make
three-dimensional wooden construc-
tionsboxes with slats and shelves,
painted in primary colors. A year
later, he created his first welded steel
structures with painted sheets, which
attained an elegance that could not
have been achieved in wood. Steel
has been his medium ever since. The
61-inch-tall |n||||eo (1957) trans-
formed the equipoise of Mondrians
painting into a steel construction
with elegant grace. He painted the
steel members in matte black, giving
a sense of unity to the work that was
lacking in his earlier painted pieces.
These abstract black sculptures have
been compared to the paintings of
Franz Kline and Pierre Soulages, but
it is doubtful that Wall was familiar
with either painter at that time. By
1958, Walls sculptures became more
complex. A work like |cno|n |c|m
is less rectilinear, and its numerous
diagonal members create a dynamic
composition, which articulates the
surrounding space.
Wall was not the sole English sculp-
tor using industrial materials in the
early 1960s. Anthony Caro, Phillip
King, and William Tucker worked in
a similar manner, but, as Kenneth
Baker, reviewing Walls show, notes,
Wall...matured in the idiom of con-
structed steel sculpture ahead of
Caro. Still, Caro got the attention.
In 1966, the eminent British critic,
John Russell, asserted that when
pressed to name the most under-
rated artist in England, I usually put
Brian Wall near the top of my list.
In the same year, Walls show at the
Grosvenor Gallery received very posi-
tive criticism, and the Tate acquired
one of his sculptures. In the works of
this period, including |co||e (1966),
the viewer engages with two squares
of open space defined simply by thin
lines of painted steel.
In 1969, Wall accepted a professor-
ship in the Art Department at the
University of California, Berkeley. His
work became more horizontal, and
Above: Amy Young, See Me Tell Me
Shifts (detail), 2011. Photography,
heat-transfer images on rice paper,
beads, sequins, wire, thread, and
string, installation of 25 elements, 8 x
4 x .25 in. each. Left: Amy Young, Little
Monsters (detail), 2011. Photography,
plastic labels, plastic boxes, silver
beads, magnets, and LEDs, installation
of 50 elements, 2 x 1 x 1 in. each.
sculpture
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the floor itself became the pedes-
talno more problems with finding
a base or plinth. In California, his
work grew stronger in some
instances and somewhat playful in
others, and today, with no drawings
or maquettes, he supervises con-
struction relying on his spontaneous
sense of balance. These cantilevered
sculptures create their own asym-
metric, rhythmic equilibrium. We are
confronted with an apparent paradox
of movement within stasis, resulting
in works of high simplicity.
|e|e| e|
SAW1A 8AssAsA
Brad Miller
Cabana Home
At the core of Brad Millers unusually
diverse workceramic vessels,
burn paintings, site-specific instal-
lationsthere is a principle shared
by set theory, blastocoels (early
dividing embryos), electron disper-
sions, computer programming, com-
positional aesthetics, and political
economies. That principle might be
described as the manner in which
systems spontaneously and randomly
distribute units, space, information,
and materials, while observing a
kind of meta-patterning, or internal
logic, ordered enough to achieve
effective/symmetrical/efficient/
attractive solutions.
Millers interest in this process
underlies several bodies of work that
can seem aberrantly unrelated, even
by postmodern standards. His
ceramic vessels are built of flattened
pod shapes that seem to mass organ-
ically (of their own accord) into inex-
act concentric patterns whose logic
leaves see-through perforations that
defy the whole notion of a vessel.
Though one is tempted, outdated
tropes of high versus low and art
versus function dont seem Millers
point (and therein lies the particular
freshness of the work). What we
sense across a 30-year career is a
dogged discovery-by-doing that aims
at watching, understanding, and
expressing the very nature of growth.
In Millers sculptures and installa-
tions, the repeating ovoid gives way
to another natural formbranching
that terminates at bulbous ends.
This structure describes brain convo-
lutions (Einstein had a preponder-
ance of such branches), grape
stems, long bones giving way to
end joints, and the geometry of the
millions of axons that make humans
tick. Miller truncates, thickens,
rotates, and subtly varies this pat-
tern into innumerable cast permu-
tations. Black or ashen white, these
nearly identical, yet infinitely
unique units are combined to make
elegant, stand-alone, three-dimen-
sional wall sculptures or hung
in clusters of truncated formations
that travel, swarm, and prolifer-
ate around a corner or up a ceiling.
With fascinating parallels to com-
positional rules in art (and the
latest research mapping creative
thought), the repetitions, symme-
tries, and counter-symmetries of
line and arc that preoccupy Miller
echo both nature and the simple-
shape staples of platonic, Czanne-
esque, or Minimalist thinking.
When the structural metaphor is
linear/branched, it is called dendritic,
and that is indeed the model
for computer hyperlinks, capillaries,
and those synaptic branches that
enervate, oxygenate, feed, and com-
municate. When the line curves
and closes to make variations of the
Euclidian arc (as in soap bubbles
and cell division), the word accre-
tion comes to mind, as used by
Jean Arp to describe the freeform
Above: Brian Wall, Kind of Blue, 2000. Waxed steel, 360 x 204 x 63 in. Below:
Brad Miller, installation view of Primordial Algorithms, 2011.
sculpture
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70 Sculpture 31.4
ovals generated by a mind/hand
engaged in Dadas unedited free
play.
Millers burn paintings combine
aspects from all of this. He begins
with fine lines that divide wooden
panels into symmetrical Cartesian
quadrants. Dictated by this grid, he
wields an acetylene torch to scorch
radiating circles emanating from a
central point of greatest heat. Using
the quasi-random burns as rough
maps, Miller weaves lush eccentric
colorsteals, gilded oranges, deep
umbersinto bejeweled abstract
matrices similar to the best Klimt or
Art Nouveau backgrounds (where
natural growth is also a theme).
In the burn paintings, one doesnt
sense Miller talking about post-
Modernisms dated indictment of
the pure brushed gesture (he dis-
plays painting chops to spare).
What we do sense is the extreme
aesthetic fineness of the end result
and an artist determined to under-
stand the universal collaborations
between system and serendipity
at the heart of natural phenomena
and, one might argue, of creativity
itself.
|c||enc |c||c|:,||cnc|oe
SAW1A MoWt cA
Adrian Saxe
Frank Lloyd Gallery
While Adrian Saxes previous work
embodied dual aspects of beauty
penetrating attraction and a natural
link to the grotesquethe work in
his recent exhibition, GRIN, is not
easy on the eye. The sculptures
are freeform Surrealist objects that
make suspect everything that cate-
gorizes the sense of things. The link-
age of a highly crafted, non-utilitarian
object with a utilitarian technology
is, as de Lautramont wrote, as
beautiful as the chance meeting
on a dissecting table of a sewing
machine and an umbrella. Such dis-
sonance is characteristic of Saxes
work. Each object bears overtones
that stand in ambiguous relation-
ship to its tangibility. The current
work is humorous in a deeply ques-
tioning, philosophical fashion.
The objects are distancing because
of the bravura, almost brutal, force
of Saxes technical skill. Yet the work
in GRIN is also made approach-
able by its seductive use of gold
lusters (shiny metallic glazes).
Saxes glaze is as familiar as the gold
of a wedding ring or a gilded pattern
printed on tableware. Even though
luster helps draw viewer to object,
its icing on the cakeinviting as
the objects are, theyre demanding
and not an easy read.
In terms of form and detail, every
work has close ties to the Chinese
ceramic tradition and its aesthetic
philosophy; all are made of porce-
lain or earthenware, and most are
placed on traditional wooden bases.
Most of these works are not conven-
tionally beautiful; instead, they
have the intense attraction and fas-
cination of the grotesque, resem-
bling termite mounds or botanical
specimens. Saxes work is saturated
with a complex and subtle idea
of beauty that derives from two
sources: historical Chinese ceramics
and Western chinoiserie.
|,ncm||emc|| tc|||c|n|c |oe|
|c|| consists of a running elephant,
trunk held aloft, that bears a golden
pot sprouting a glassy, fiery-red plant.
In Chinese culture, the elephant sym-
bolizes strength, wisdom, prosperity,
good luck, and prudence. Saxes
elephant, a true piece of orientalist
kitsch, is covered with small, button-
like emblems, each bearing a differ-
ent decorative motif. The flame-like
plant is dotted with small, colorful
crystals. The whole ensemble stands
on an antique wooden base that lifts
it into a quasi-historical, ambiguous
realm. Its a chimerical geep of plant
and animal mixed with a reference
to sushi.
The GRIN of the exhibitions title
is an acronym for Genetic Robotic
Information Nano (Technologies).
Titles are important to Saxe, and this
one underscores a particular aspect
of the new workembedded QR
codes. |c|, ||n||,, |c|, c||, oc| is
a shiny, narrow, cylindrical vessel
with two ornate handles. One side
bears the carved Chinese words fat,
salt, and sugar. The other side fea-
tures three stacked plaques, each
bearing a QR code. When a code is
scanned, it links to an image associ-
ated with fat, sugar, or salt. These
simple and direct pictures evoke a
problematic aspect of contemporary
American culturefast foodwith-
out further commentary.
0o||c:| tc||eo|c| is completely
covered in gold luster. Its clay body
was mixed with an ignitable addi-
tive that burned out in the kiln,
leaving a heavily pocked, porous
surface. Reminiscent of a termite
mound, scholars rock, or branch of
coral, the object bears spherical
protrusions on all sides that termi-
nate in tiny, emerald green, translu-
cent pearls. A black and white
QR code on a square chip sticks out
from the side of an upper branch.
When scanned, the code links to
the image of an Australian termite
mound at dusk. The luminous, phos-
phorescent gleam of the mound
mirrors the green stones embedded
in 0o||c:| tc||eo|c|.
Saxes use of QR codes creates a
network of linked imagery that
extends the dimensions of his work
into the virtual world of cyberspace.
In this body of work, he has rede-
fined sculpture by expanding its
conceptual boundaries. The idea of
an object with a correlate in anoth-
er dimension seems more like theo-
retical physics than art, but Saxes
QR works prove otherwise.
|c|||een H|||ne,
Top: Adrian Saxe, Outback Cathedral,
2011. Porcelain, lusters, and mixed
media on antique wood base, 15 x 7
x 7 in. Left: Adrian Saxe, Holy Trinity,
Fat, Salt, Sugar, 2011. Porcelain,
lusters, and mixed media on antique
wood base, 16 x 8 x 5.38 in. C
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A1tAW1A
John Grade
Emory University
John Grades ||eomcn| ||.|oe installa-
tions at Emory University inhabited
two very different areas of the cam-
pus. A constantly moving curtain of
hundreds of individual parts was sus-
pended over the Quadrangle, a
grassy, tree-filled space briskly inhab-
ited by students, faculty, dog walkers,
and pecan gatherers. The location is
close to the busy streets flanking this
urban university, and campus auto
traffic comes even closer, a counter-
point to the ostensible calm of the
Quadrangle. The second installation
appeared in the Lullwater Preserve,
an unusual feature to find on an
urban campus. An expansive, park-
like setting, the preserve can be
approached and traversed only on
foot. Here, a strange and glittering
island of unreal vegetation sprouted
in the large, central pond. Silvery
stalks took on color from tricks of
light, responded gently to air cur-
rents, and were wholly ignored by
the ducks and geese.
Grades environmental art is a nat-
ural fit for Emorys commitment to
sustainability. The installations
incorporated thousands of recycled
plastic bottles cut up and melted
into slim, spiraling, transparent
wands. Susceptible to any breeze,
they gave movement to forms
meant to suggest water as a flowing
conduit of biological life and per-
petuation, as Grade has said.
What the viewer first responded
to, however, was the sheer beauty
of this throwaway material. In the
Quadrangle, it was an unlikely ban-
ner, occasionally shedding a compo-
nent or two when rattled by the
wind, a fact that underscored the
ubiquitous nature of the material.
We tend to think carelessly of water
in those same terms, and Grades
installation was a gleaming sugges-
tion that we see water as the finite
and irreplaceable element it is.
The impromptu island in Lullwaters
pond suggested impermanence even
as it caught the light and moved
in the breeze. Like much of Grades
work, these installations were char-
acterized by their ability to change
form in subtle or sometimes overt
ways during their brief lives.
The Piedmont plateau that titles
Grades two-part installation sepa-
rates the Blue Ridge and Smoky
Mountains from the coastal plain
of the Tidewater region. For Grade,
the plateau suggests separation
and connection of two directions.
Installation (November 2011) and
disassembly (April 2012) of the
sculptures involved volunteer partic-
ipants, including students and area
residents. The Emory Visual Arts
Gallery served as a studio for the
project. Seattle-based Grade super-
vised both the beginning and end
of his installations as Emorys Artist-
in-Residence. The inclusion of volun-
teers was an important part of a
project meant to trigger new con-
sideration of the environment.
Grades work is temporary, non-inva-
sive, and always thought-provoking.
It is visually compelling as well. The
Emory campus, with its contrasting
settings, proved a hospitable host
for these ideas and a fine back-
ground for installations that made
beauty out of a most unlikely mate-
rial.
|cne |o||e||
tMt cAso
Dianna Frid
devening projects + editions
Five hundred years ago, Albrecht
Drer created a vivid woodcut of
a rhinoceros not from first-hand
observation but from hearsay. Now
that weve closed the gap between
the exotic and the observable, one
can use Drers method to describe
the world retroactively. That artistic
strategy was manifest in Dianna
Frids recent solo exhibition. In this
materially sensitive and richly
formal showing of wall-bound and
freestanding sculptures, handmade
cloth books, and lithographs, it was
tempting to disregard Frids titles and
simply float among her boundless,
Above and below: John Grade, Piedmont Divide, 2011. Heat-formed salvaged plastic bottles, 2-part installation at Emory
University; work over Quadrangle 18 x 22 x 24 ft., work in the Lullwater Preserve, 7 x 28 x 28 ft.
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72 Sculpture 31.4
freeform abstractions, but the titles
frame the works. Evidence of the
Material World was the exhibitions
name, and though the material
world has not vanished, Frid re-cre-
ated its elements by interpreting
found texts.
Frid draws content from poetry
and also from scientific treatises,
which she reads as lyric, their florid
language seeded with ideals
for educating and inspiring readers.
She illustrates comets, waves, the
moon, and clouds. Although these
natural phenomena are well
explained by science, they continue
to charm even casual observers. The
constant appearance of stars, sun-
sets, and clouds enables us to mea-
sure ourselves in relation to those
who came before. Just as myth gave
way to science, so too will current
interpretations yield to a future
unknown, while the waves continue
to roll over an invisible arc.
As if rediscovering light, Frid finds
it in reflective foil, which she uses
to activate an internal light source in
her work. Like scientific and poetic
texts, Frids works are proxies for an
original experience, crafted in a loose
likeness and spun until they match
the magnificence of that which
evades capture. Frid detaches her
materials from their conventions,
using raw linen canvas, for instance,
as pages in accordion books or lay-
ered on the floor in |e |e|o|en|
(all works 2011), which resembles a
crepe cake in construction and a cos-
mic lotus-seed pod in form, flecked
with a rainbow spectrum. The lay-
ered-canvas sculpture has a small
notch removed from one side, which
Frid filled with a smooth chunk of
graphite. This small surprise becomes
visually available if you look at the
sculpture long enougha gesture
that indicates Frids working method.
Materials guide her hand, while she
tailors a world of her own making.
Shannon Stratton, a proponent of
fiber arts and soft sculpture, has
remarked that fiber art is two-and-
a-half dimensional. Certainly one
can see Frid playing with spatial
perception when she uses raw linen
canvas for 3e|n ||e |cnm|||e|,
a wall-bound sculpture whose small
wedges push the textile slightly for-
ward and produce pockets of shadow.
Discussing the height of a pair
of plaster- coated monoliths, Frid
explains that they are the relative
length of two Homeric lines. They
are about the height of a person,
which makes them an excellent way
to keep Homer alive.
|ccn |com|e|
l Wbt AWAott s
William Dennisuk
White River State Park
The Herron School of Art and
Design
William Dennisuks vessels designed
for outdoor display and his works
meant for indoor exhibition were
recently seen in tandem for the first
time. Three of his stately, mesh-like
vessels graced White River State
Park, floating on water in appar-
ent defiance of gravity; while just
steps away, inside the Herron
School of Art, forms in the Hidden
Variables series were positioned
behind translucent Plexiglas, appar-
ently dissolving into a painterly
haze. The two sets of containers rep-
resent dual incarnations of Den-
nisuks focal preoccupationthe
fluctuating and sometimes precari-
ous interaction of human conscious-
ness with the outside world.
Fashioned from bronze rod, each
of the majestic outdoor works is dis-
tinctive in configuration. Expanding
from a conical base, its body criss-
Left: Dianna Frid, The Refulgents, 2011. Cloth, colored pencil, clay, paper,
and graphite, 37.75 x 13 x 11.5 in. Below: William Dennisuk, Hidden Variables,
200811. Rebar and Plexiglas, 7 x 3 x 3 ft.
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crossed with diagonal ribbing, |o|e
(201011) hovers as though gyrating
from the impetus of a gentle
breeze. Swelling from a pointed
base, /c|en:e (201011) balloons
into a spheroid. |n (201011)
seems to pause momentarily in a
measured twirl, its expansive lip
fanning out dramatically from
an egg-shaped body. Impressive in
scale, Dennisuks vessels appeared
to undulate on the water, scintil-
lating in the light and leaving flick-
ering shadows. Melding with their
environs, they varied according to
atmospheric changes and agitation
on the rivers surface. Pivoting
between substance and transience,
opacity and transparency, they
became one with the fluctuations
of nature. Context became a vital
part of the aesthetic experience.
A similar principle applies to the
indoor works, which relinquish their
solidity behind lucent Plexiglas.
/oom||c|e (2011), its ovoid belly
narrowing into a slender neck
before widening at the lip, reveals
only a shadowy grid-like presence.
Similarly immaterial, |c:e|, (2011)
projects an elongated neck from a
smaller rounded body. Like a ghostly
Greek lekythos, the tall form of
|enom||c (2011) merges into an
extended neck. |c|cno| (2011), a
smaller wall piece paying homage
to the Italian painter, shows a still-
life, indistinct within its Plexiglas
frame.
It is significant that Dennisuk
chooses the vessel as his central
metaphor. Associated almost univer-
sally with archetypal transforma-
tionthe alchemical alembic, the
chalice, the baptismal font, to cite
a few examplesthe vessel is,
according to Erich Neumann, the
form within which matter is trans-
formed. From a more scientific
stance, Stephen Hawking in |e
|n|.e|e |n c |o||e||, theorizes
that the universe emerged from
amorphous shapes analogous to a
lump of clay from which a pot is
sculpted. Dennisuks phantom-like
vessels also recall the shadows
taken for reality by Platos cave
dwellers. They remind one, too,
of the bubbles and shadows that
Buddha termed the world of sight.
Perhaps Dennisuk suggests that our
tenuous grasp of ambient reality,
now seen as shadows, must
undergo a radical alteration. The
environment, he implies, is not
something independent of the viewer
but rather something of which we
are part.
|c|c||, |c|ne|
Ntw osK
Michael Combs
Salomon Contemporary
Be All You Cant Be, Michael
Combss first solo exhibition in New
York, featured a white elephant
in the middle of the room. Standing
atop a delicate, hand-carved pillow,
the creature (cast from a rubber toy,
then enhanced to resemble a charg-
ing bull), is small in size but symboli-
cally huge. ||no |c| |c||e| (2011)
represents the psychological behe-
moths that lurk beneath Combss
constantly evolving theme of macho
male sexuality. It also serves as a
platform for this rising stars begin-
nings as a direct carver in wood and
a launch pad for where hes headed
as a conceptual multimedia artist.
Combs descends from generations
of baymen and decoy carvers who
from 1640 to 1960 made their livings
from the bounty of Long Islands
Great South Bay. By the time that
Combs came of age in the 80s, much
had changed. He recalls the wound-
ed duck in his book bag that just
wouldnt die and the subsequent
guilt that sat in his gut for his role in
plunder for prize. / ||e |c, | |cn
(2011), a bubblegum pink shotgun
affixed to a grainy 1911 photograph
of market gunners, acknowledges the
adolescent epiphany that branded
the taking of trophies as a perverse
measure of a young mans sexuality.
In 2005, that realization sired his
outrageously subversive portrayals
of hunting as a sexually driven
impulsemassive stag heads zipped
in S&M leather. Now, a new genera-
tion of bucks looms as a broader sym-
bol of American competitiveness.
Sporting sleek sexy stripes mimicking
those on racing cars, they are clad
in hides that suggest winners and
losers: |eco c| |c|e (2011) is marsh-
mallow soft and vulnerable; 3|
3c||e| (2011) wears his intricately
cowboy boot-tooled skin tight and
tough.
But far more interesting are new
constructions that use faux and
authentic materials to convey the
divide between masculine temerity
and timidity. S||:| cno |c| (2011), a
quirky rendition of a punching bag,
layers brutal manly aggression
against gentler associations with
naturethe bag, covered in fake ele-
phant skin and real crocodile, hangs
from a birchwood support reminis-
cent of the welcoming rustic furni-
ture that sat on the Combs homey
country porch. And a Dallas Cowboys
Michael Combs, Man Up, 2011. Lin-
coln Logs, rubber cladding, and
fishing suspenders, 55 x 15 x 10 in.
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74 Sculpture 31.4
helmet, reconstructed in |cu ||e
He| Hc Hcn (2011), is a not-so-
hard-hat-of- champions, made from
birch branches and antlers. Under-
mining its symbolic star logo, this
fragile headpiece exposes the wearer,
leaving him as unprotected as
a muscled horned stag facing an
advancing posse of hunters.
|cn | (2011), the star of the
show, says almost everything there is
to say about the primordial urge to
create symbols for sexual rites of pas-
sage. It borrows from body mask tor-
sos of pregnant women carved and
worn by adolescent boys of the
Makonde tribe in Tanzania as part of
their fertility rite of passage. But the
Combs rendition has a different twist.
Covered with Lincoln Logshis
favorite childhood toyand clad in
black rubber, it hangs backpack style
from Grundens foul-weather sus-
penders, the kind his kinfolk wore
when they trolled the Great South
Bay. It suggests American culture,
where a man among he-men must
wear his manliness as a trophy, like
the star on a Dallas Cowboys helmet.
The individual pieces in this exhi-
bition spoke louder than the whole,
which was conceived as a combined
retrospective and teaser suggesting
that something new and grand
is going to happen. The elephant in
the room may be a clue. Remember,
its a charging bull.
|c,:e 3e:|en|e|n
Ntw osK
Matt Hoyt
Bureau
Matt Hoyt recently presented an
inspired, albeit somewhat quizzical
show of very, very small sculptures,
arranged on shelves in Bureaus
diminutive Lower East Side space.
These small wonders are striking in
their specificity of form, repaying
Hoyts considerable investment of
time and labor. Like tiny artifacts
taken from an unknown culture, they
are compelling despite the fact that
their function and purpose remain
unknown. Indeed, they feel closest to
museum pieces, an affiliation height-
ened by the objectivity of their display
in groupsas if individual pieces
might simply fade from view.
Sometimes smaller is, in fact, better,
which becomes clear as these quirky
objects inspire bemusement as well
as admiration.
Partly because the sculptures are
so mysterious, and partly because
they refuse to reveal larger concerns
such as motivation, the groupings
maintain an autonomous silence as
to their manufacture and intention.
The late sculptor Larry Fane also con-
structed works resembling artifacts
from an early, unrecognized culture,
but the scale made each individual
sculpture demonstrably related to
the human. In contrast, Hoyt obses-
sively works and reworks his tiny
forms, building an array of items that
together might be agricultural tools
or ritual objects. Their small size feels
like an arbitrary decision, mostly
because it seems as though their
expansion would not undermine our
aesthetic experience of them in any
way. The groups of things intensify
their effect by means of their auton-
omy: we see a small white crossed
axis, what looks like a farm tool, and
what may be a tiny necklace. The
individual pieces are all made with
exquisite care, heightening our sen-
sibilities as we contemplate their
design and origin.
Our inability to categorize these
objects strengthens their effect.
What are they? Why have they been
made? To what do they refer? These
are the kinds of questions set up by
their careful manufacture and lack of
obvious cause. Hoyt implies a whole
world lurking behind these artifacts,
but their context is imaginary, just
like their role in the real world. Hoyt
is surely very clever as he takes
on the role of a minor god, creating
meaning as he goes along. Yet it
is very contemporary of him nc| to
explain the world behind the work,
since if we did know, it would destroy
the enigmatic appeal. Over time, the
small size starts to look like a princi-
pled refusal to fall for the rhetorical
overload of so many sculptorsa
problem since the creation of monu-
mental Land Art and Minimalism
more than 40 years ago. Hoyt seems
to imply that sometimes smaller
objects are better able to make
us focus. We would be wise to take
heed of his assertion, however much
it might remove us from current
ambitions in sculpture.
|cnc||cn 6ccomcn
Ntw osK
Esther Kls
Peter Blum Chelsea
German-born sculptor Esther Kls
came to New York for graduate stud-
ies at Hunter College, and it looks
like she is determined to stay. This is
to the citys advantage, for Kls is an
Matt Hoyt, Untitled (Group 18),
200611. Wooden shelf with ABS
support and 2 mixed-media objects,
1 x 8.5 x 4.75 in.
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excellent practitioner of postmodern
sculpture, a genre that offers consid-
erable freedom and a respite from
the burdens of traditional art.
Although Klss work clearly engages
in a dialogue with Modernism, there
is an ad hoc, indeterminate, and
informal attitude in her construc-
tions. For instance, |/ (2011) is held
together by tape, while |co.e (2011)
consists of concrete, a coarse mate-
rial associated more with building
than sculpture. Unlike the Minimal-
ists, who usually worked in series,
Kls seems to have a different
motiveor at least an individual
respectfor each individual piece as
a discrete work of art. For example,
the two sculptures mentioned above
share an aesthetic of fundamental,
rudimentary materials, yet visually
they couldnt be more different. Each
work appears to have a different rea-
son for being made, a process that
emphasizes individuality.
|/ consists of three narrow, door-
like forms constructed from thin
spines of wood; in each component,
a tubular, wooden crossbar con-
nects the long verticals of the open
construction. The three parts are
held together by clearly visible tape.
|/ feels like it couldnt have come
about without the presence of Eva
Hesse, who used chance as a major
part of her technique. As the three
pieces of |/ rest gently against the
wall, one notices their heightall
three around six feet or a bit more.
This makes them more human than
they might appear at first glance,
pushing the work in a figurative
direction despite its initial abstrac-
tion. Then, in |co.e (found
in French), we see a low concrete
sculpture that looks very much like
a bed; it has some jade-blue color
applied to its supposed bottom end,
though it is hard to tell whether
this floor piece is oriented in any
particular fashion. Like |/, |co.e
plays with an Arte Povera sensibil-
ity. The forms are so basic that they
seem to exclude the idea of art, but
they compel through improvisatory
means.
In /|| |n (2011), Klss atmosphere
of indeterminacy feels even more
random. The work consists of four
piecestwo sentinel-like forms, one
dark and the other light, a middle-
sized dark brown column, and a very
small hut with a white roof support-
ed by four pieces of wood at its
corners. This is not about formalism,
although one could easily write
about the formal aspects of the indi-
vidual elements. Instead, it is about
differing relations of scale and the
contrast between darks and lights.
Here, Kls makes direct reference to
the figure by including a hand as
a support at the bottom of the dark
sentinel. One is hard-pressed to make
sense of the asymmetrical arrange-
ment of the four components, but
they hold together intuitively, chal-
lenging us to find the relationship
between them while asking that we
accept them as they are. One can see
the influence of Minimalism, yet
there is something new here. Kls is
a genuine and original talent.
|cnc||cn 6ccomcn
t 11ssussM
Factory Installed 2011
Mattress Factory
In 2006, the Mattress Factory intro-
duced a new exhibition series devot-
ed to site-specific work. For Factory
Installed 2011 (the second install-
ment), independent curator Kather-
ine Talcott, together with MF co-
directors Barbara Luderowski and
Michael Olijnyk, selected six interna-
tional artists from 600 submissions:
Natalia Gonzalez (Bolivia), Mariana
Manhes (Ukraine), Nika Kupyrova
(Brazil), Than Htay Maung (Burmese-
born, Pittsburgh-based), Veronica
Ryan (West Indies-born, now New
York), and Pablo Valbuena (Spain,
living in Toulouse, France). This multi-
faceted show fluctuated in value
and presented an assortment of
concepts, materials, and styles.
The most astounding installation
was Valbuenas virtual environment
|c|c||e jmc|||e |c:|c|,j Using
Above: Esther Kls, HA, 2011, Wood and tape, 3 elements: 71 x 25.5 x .75; 73.5
x 25 x 1; and 74.25 x 27.25 x .75 in. Below: Esther Kls, All in, 2011. Aquaresin,
pigments, and wood, 4 elements, dimensions variable.
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76 Sculpture 31.4
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digital architecture to manipulate
space and perception, he extended
physical boundaries through illusion.
In a darkened white room (its two
big windows paneled over), he creat-
ed an augmented space, overlap-
ping real architecture with a super-
imposed light grid. The physical and
the virtual gallery seamlessly over-
lapped, and as the virtual took over,
the real interior appeared to fade
away. This was perhaps the most
well-designed piece in the show, and
it required an investment of time in
order to take in the unfolding struc-
tural changes.
Ryans |e Hec||e| |n|oe explored
disaster. A sizeable room contained
ostensibly everyday objects, including
paper plates, books, quilts, and white
plaster shapes. Ryan explained the
work as a response to the Montserrat
catastrophe, when the Soufriere Hills
volcano erupted on July 18, 1995. The
installations most captivating area
was a long wall with cut-out sections
containing embedded anthropologi-
cal remnants. The five weird objects
on the floor were mostly distracting.
Maungs |, 0||e||n also addressed
disasterthis time, the aftermath
of Cyclone Nargis, which hit the
Burmese delta in 2008. Three hun-
dred white plaster hands holding
loaves of bread (Maung also works as
a baker) repeated in rhythmic config-
urations around the walls and
appealed for help. Each grouping was
for sale for $100, and the proceeds
were donated to a local food pantry.
Kupyrovas |cco|||| occupied a
luminous, white gallery. Made from
secondhand-shop finds combined
into idiosyncratic sculptures, the
installation was funny and surreal.
The room evoked a sterile lab, com-
plete with uncanny specimens. The
unsullied white tile floor held six con-
glomerate objects shaped from toys,
cloth, a candle, a carpeted toilet
seat, and a vase shaped like a large
brandy snifter. A sculpture resem-
bling road kill was formed of nothing
more than a fleece blanket folded
over bird-like fragments and an odd
chrome limb. These eccentric objects
mutated into singular distortions
that raised questions and offered
visitors a flight of imagination.
The MFs cavernous basement served
as a stage for Gonzalezs understated
pageant of changing light and shad-
ows. By means of steel bars, cables,
and automated lighting unitsset in
motion by viewers shifting shad-
owsthe installation became a sci-fi
time chamber, an eerie environment
of objects and silhouettes that opti-
mized the weathered stone walls and
worn concrete floors.
Factory Installed 2011 once again
demonstrated the Mattress Factorys
status as an artists artists muse-
um, a place of experimentation,
investigation, and invention. Over the
past 34 years, it has offered space
and resources to more than 400
artists at all stages of their careers,
enabling them to create site-specific
works in a unique environment.
||c|ne / ||n
Above: Natalia Gonzalez, Light Recordings, 2011. Steel, automated lights, wire, pulleys, plumb bob, concrete, and
shadows, dimensions variable. Below: Nika Kupyrova, Roadkill, 2011. Tile, fluorescent lights, and found materials,
dimensions variable. Both works from Factory Installed 2011.
sculpture
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StA11tt
Matt Sellars
Platform Gallery
Seattle-based Matt Sellars is known
in the Northwest for meticulously
carved minimal forms that suggest
structures no longer in their prime.
A native of Spokane, Washington,
whose motto Near nature. Near per-
fect reveals community ideals firmly
rooted in the natural world, Sellars
has poetically connected images
of the rural landscape (catawampus
barns and swaying sheds) to con-
cepts of transformation, memory,
and loss of resources. Now, with
o|c ||oc|, he takes to the sea.
In 2009, Sellars documented vari-
ous beaches in West Seattle, noting
their exact location, weather condi-
tions, and the types of refuse in the
supratidal zonea specific area
of shore just above the high-water
mark. Placing the gathered rubbish
from each locality in a box, he docu-
mented it with a photo and then
created drawings of the post-cleanup
landscape. The resulting wall-hung
imagescomplete with detailed
descriptions of the conditions on that
daysurrounded a sculptural instal-
lation that took over two distinct
areas of the gallery. At the entrance,
a jumble of terra-cotta boats spilled
from the top of a low bench onto
the floor; then, at the center of the
space, a series of smoothly sculpted
cloud forms perched atop metal
rods. Sellarss terra-cotta vessels are
instantly recognizable. Not so his
diverse clouds. Rising on narrow rods
embedded in pillars, there is nothing
fluffy about them. Sleek and aerody-
namic like ship hulls, these carved
wooden structures seem to strive
toward some yet-to-be-determined
destiny.
Sellarss recorded sites are the for-
mer fishing grounds of the Native
American Suquamish, or people of
the clear salt water. Dependent on
the water for food, the Suquamish
traveled through the region in
dugout canoes fashioned from single
cedar logs. A number of painters at
the turn of the century attempted to
capture scenes of Washingtons rapid-
ly changing coast. Like them, Sellars
sheds a bright light on particular
details of time and placebut with
an added awareness that nothing
stays the same: borders shift, popula-
tions migrate, weather changes, and
debris is carried off on the wind.
Sellars isnt merely painting a picture
of what the area might have looked
like thousands of years ago. By col-
lecting garbage from these selected
sites, hes also documenting the pre-
sent and, in the process, hinting at
our future.
Anthropologist Mary Douglas
famously defined dirt as matter out
of place. In spite of Sellarss photo-
graphic documentation, the concept
of trash in o|c ||oc| remains
ambiguous. Is it what has been har-
vested from the shore, or the popula-
tion that created it? The collision of
diverse habitats, different species of
animals, and the flotsam and jetsam
created and released into nature by
human hands makes the supratidal
zone a subject rife with drama. But
Above: Pablo Valbuena, Para-Site [mat-
tress factory], 2011. 2 views of video
projection, from Factory Installed
2011. Below: Matt Sellars, Supra
tidal, 2011. Detail of Untitled (clouds),
carved poplar, stain, aluminum rods,
and wood pedestal.
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78 Sculpture 31.4
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Sellars unhurriedly navigates
between disparate pools of ideas
related to loss and offers a tender, if
critical, look at everything between
land and sea.
ocnne 3ec|
BuMttsAtK, 0tWMAsK
Ai Weiwei
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
It is difficult to curate an Ai Weiwei
exhibition these days. The 54-year old
Chinese artist/activist has been
unable to travel since his 2011 impris-
onment and, consequently, unable to
work on his shows. Ai is best known
for site-specific works, including the
100 million porcelain sunflower
seeds he installed in Tate Moderns
Turbine Hall and the 1,001 Chinese
men and women he flew to Kassel
for Documenta. At the Louisiana
Museum of Modern Artthe site of
his first Scandinavian solo show
none of the planned new projects
could be realized. Instead, the exhi-
bition featured a handful of older
works. It may sound like a small pre-
sentation, but some of the sculptures
were monumental. For example,
|c|e.e| (2003) is a Duchamp-inspired
readymade of 42 bikes welded
together in a circle. If any of them
were to be removed, the whole struc-
ture would collapse, a reference to
China as a mass society, with a sys-
tem that limits individual freedom.
Louisiana is known for its garden,
and this is where Ais most spectacu-
lar sculpture was on display. |con|c|n
c| |||| (2007) is a 23-foot version
of Vladimir Tatlins |cnomen| |c ||e
|||o |n|e|nc||cnc|, made of crystal
and lit from within like a giant chan-
delier. Tatlins tower was originally
envisioned after the Russian revolu-
tion as a monument to lead the
people into the future of modernity.
Had it been erected, it would have
dwarfed the Eiffel Tower. In compari-
son, Ais sculpture seems small and
frailand ironic. Rather than indus-
trial and futuristic, it looks like an
ornament of the bourgeoisie.
Ais gripping documentaries provid-
ed the highlight of the show. Among
his subjects is the 2008 earthquake
in Sichuan Province, where poorly
built schools collapsed, causing the
deaths of thousands of children. Ai
investigates how authorities silenced
critics and the victims relatives.
There is also a video about Yang Jia,
the young Chinese man accused of
killing six police officers in the sum-
mer of 2008. Although his trial was
widely criticized as unjust and cor-
rupt, Yang was executed only months
after the murders. Ai seems to care
little about the technical aspects of
filmmaking. His editing is sparse,
which makes his documentaries chal-
lenging to watch. But it is worth the
effort. His courage and commitment
keep the interest alive, even through
half-hour discussions with policemen
Above: Matt Sellars, Supra tidal, 2011. Detail of Untitled (boats); handmade
wood table and terra cotta, 24 x 108 x 34 in. Right: Ai Weiwei, installation view
with Rock, 200911, porcelain, 117.8 x 75 x 33.7 cm.; and Tree, 200910, dead
tree from southern China. Below: Ai Weiwei, Fountain of Light, 2007. View of
installation at the Louisiana Museum Sculpture Park.
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who play word games and fake igno-
rance to avoid answering Ais uncom-
promising questions.
The exhibition clearly demonstrat-
ed the difference between Ai the
artist and Ai the activist. While his
art is often ironic and playful, his
documentaries are rough and com-
plex accounts of the abuse of power
in his homeland, a dangerous
critique that most likely caused his
imprisonment. The show at Louisiana
might not have been all that Ai
intended, but it offered a reminder
that freedom of expression cannot
be taken for granted.
||nc .en|e
0ustt W
Tool-Use
Oonagh Young Gallery
Tool-Use provoked surprise, dismay,
and disorientation. Though modestly
scaled objects clung to the gallery
walls and occupied the floor, the
space felt bereft of material content,
hollowed out somehow, more unoc-
cupied than if it were empty. Given
the title, one might have anticipated
works demonstrating unique techni-
cal abilities or processes, but the
selection presented by curator David
Beattie effectively subverted such
expectations. Getting a grasp on
what the work conveyed required
careful consideration and persistent
reconnoitering.
The selected artists all use found
materials, but not in the way one
might imagine. Unlike some of the
startling juxtapositions created by
abrupt re-contextualizations of ready-
made objects, these works failed to
assert themselves visually. They hung
back, remaining stubbornly reticent.
An innate sense of banality perme-
ated the installation. Since they
retained more than a faint vestige of
usefulnesssome choices appeared
to have been wrenched out of former
sites of service and temporarily relo-
catedit was difficult to accept
them as works as art. Yet something
about them gnawed at the intellect
and demanded appraisal. Artist inter-
ventions complicated the matter
since they were not always readily
identifiable. Only Adam Thompsons
|n||||eo (2009)a reclaimed sign-
board mounted in a roughly cast,
dark aluminum framestood out in
this regard. The mounting conferred
an air of studied importance to an
otherwise unremarkable and heavily
abraded piece of advertising detritus.
In contrast, Sean Edwardss |c|n||n
0| / ||c|c:c, |c| / |c|| |coe
|ce| (u||| |||; (2009) risked being
trampled. When noticed, this small,
somewhat grubby, and unfinished
pattern of black, gray, and cream-
colored squares struck up an uneasy
relationship with the floor. Fragility
marked Matt Harles |n||||eo (1994).
No taller than a footstool, this struc-
ture made of wood, straight pins,
and tape-like strips of acrylic paint
sewn together with thread amounted
to a curious and meticulous display
of propping and bracing. Amy Yaos
|c| /|| || t|c:|eo | c 3e (2007)
also illustrated the mechanical prop-
erty of friction. Pinning a newspaper
fragment between a wooden dowel
and a clear glass partition presented
an all-round view of a motionless
state. Finally, Sam Keoghs ||coo
(2011) offered an alternate trajectory.
The unfolded scrap of tin foil faced
with holographic Mylar insinuated
mystical significance.
The run-of-the-mill materials
deployed in Tool-Use performed an
important didactic function. Their
particular qualities summoned view-
ers to look closely, note the means
of production, and contemplate the
materials current condition, arrange-
ment, context, and purpose. As Chris
Fite-Wassilak notes in his accompany-
ing text, The den of the post-ready-
made is where factory objects reac-
quaint themselves to manipulation
and elasticity, where industrial
processes are folded into a prism of
subjective touches. This exhibition
cast the mundane in a new light and
asked us to think about the future of
the readymade.
|c|n 6c,e|
Above: Sam Keogh, Shroud, 2011. Tin foil, holographic, Mylar, and tape, 44 x
36 cm. Below: Amy Yao, Not All Its Cracked Up To Be, 2007. Glass, wood, news-
paper, and household paint, installation view. Both works from Tool-Use.
sculpture
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80 Sculpture 31.4
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isc PEOPLE, PLACES, AND EVENTS
The International Sculpture Center (ISC) awarded its ninth Patrons
Recognition Award to Olga Hirshhorn on February 3, 2012.
Artists, patrons, friends, and colleagues of Ms. Hirshhorn joined
the ISCs Board of Trustees to honor the celebrated patron at
the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art in beautiful Naples,
Florida.
The Patrons Award was established in 1993 by the ISCs Board
of Trustees to recognize indi-
viduals who have made exem-
plary contributions to the
advancement of the arts. Olga
and her late husband, Joseph
Hirshhorn, were instrumental
in the founding of the Hirsh-
horn Museum and Sculpture
Garden in Washington, DC. Ms.
Hirshhorn has also donated
her extraordinary private collec-
tion of decorative and fine art
to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, where she has served as a volun-
teer and Board member since the 1970s.
Guests gathered in the museums Garden Caf for cocktails
and delicious hors doeuvres. Warmth and friendship filled the
air as guests greeted and visited with Ms. Hirshhorn and listened
to the enjoyable sounds of a live jazz trio led by Kevin Mauldin.
Speakers Kathleen van Bergen, CEO & President of the Phil-
harmonic Center for the Arts, Marc LeBaron, ISC Board Chair,
Robert Edwards, ISC Board of Trustees Member and friend of
Ms. Hirshhorn, and Johannah Hutchison, ISC Executive Director,
provided guests with historical and personal stories of Ms.
Hirshhorn and her late husband. Although remarks were kept
short, it was evident that there was much to be said of Ms.
Hirshhorns devotion to the appreciation and preservation of art.
Many colleagues and friends also sent their congratulations.
Richard Koshalek, Director of the Hirshhorn Museum, said in a
letter read at the ceremony, Over the years, you have been a
resource to me and to the museums staff in many ways, not the
least of which is your sharing of history, anecdotes, documents,
and photographs that are now a key part of the Hirshhorns story.
Today, members of the Hirshhorn Board of Trustees, on which
you serve as an Honorary Trustee, consider you not only a great
resource, but just plain fun to have around.
ISC Board Members Marc LeBaron and Robert Edwards pre-
sented the award to a grateful Ms. Hirshhorn. Guests were cap-
tivated as Ms. Hirshhorn recalled the time she and her husband
spent with legendary artists and her first time visiting Mr.
Hirshhorns art-filled home: I was overwhelmed with what I
saw and said, Youve got a lot of statues. He shook his finger at
me and said, I dont have statues. I have sculpture. From then
on, Ms. Hirshhorn became an active member of the art community
and still is today.
The reception closed with congratulations and lingering guests
sharing stories about the Hirshhorns. Many attendees took
advantage of the museums extended hours for the occasion
Ms. Hirshhorn recently donated more than 200 artworks to what
is now a replica of her art-packed house known as The Mouse
House. The space features intimate-sized works by Picasso,
Calder, Giacometti, de Kooning, and many others. Visit <www.
sculpture.org/patronaward/2012/> for more 2012 Patron Award
event photos and information about upcoming events.
2012 ISC PATRON AWARD HONORING OLGA HIRSHHORN
1
Olga Hirshhorn and Myra Janco Daniels.
2
John and Fran Fenning, Olga
Hirshhorn.
3
Marsha Murphy, Bob Morantz, Olga Hirshhorn, Jane Berger.
1
3
2
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____________________ _____________________________
artist: Carole A. Feuerman, Next Summer, life-size bronze
a.r.t. research enterpri ses
T HE F I NE AR T F OUNDRY
717.290.1303
www. t hi nks cul pt ur e. com
For estimates and project inquiries
contact Becky at beckyault@thinksculpture.com
or Tracy at execassist@thinksculpture.com
Tradi ng hours: 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
wes ensci si o couxs, zesni scs i s zvsnvxei c
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