#31.9 sculpture nov 2012.pdf

November 2012Vol. 31 No. 9

A publication of theInternational Sculpture Centerwww.sculpture.org

Do Ho Suh

Tony CraggKen LumLiz Magor

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sculptureNovem

ber 2012

Vol. 31 No.9

A pub

lication of the International Sculpture C

enter

http://www.sculpture.org


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E.V. DAYPollinator (Water Lily)36” x 36” Polished Aluminum 2012Photo by Jacob Sterenberg


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mailto:[email protected]

This is a great time to look back and reflect on the many accomplish-

ments of the International Sculpture Center over the past year. Year

three of our five-year strategic plan was full of new programs and

events that further enriched the lives of our membership.

Most recently, we successfully held our International Sculpture

Conference, one of the most exciting events of the year. This year’s

conference featured great panels, presentations, workshops, demon-

strations, mentoring sessions, and ARTSlams. Evening parties rounded

off daytime events with opportunities to network and learn more

about sculpture. In all, more than 300 people from all over the world

attended, including sculptors and sculpture lovers from Australia,

Bangladesh, Canada, France, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria,

and the UK.

It was especially great that many students attended this year’s

conference. In 2012, the ISC increased its commitment to furthering

the development of young people interested in sculpture. This is

a good time to remind ISC members that we are currently accepting

nominations for the 2013 Outstanding Educator Award. Successful

candidates for this award are masters of sculptural history, theory,

processes, and techniques, who have devoted a major part of their

careers to the education of the next generation and to the advance-

ment of the sculpture field as a whole.

In this month’s ISC News (page 80), we recognize individuals who

are leaving and joining our Board of Trustees. I would like to recognize

David Handley, Mary Ellen Scherl, and Steinunn Thorarinsdottir for

their service to the Board. All three departing members have con-

tributed greatly to the success of the ISC, and we thank them for

their participation and ideas. I am also pleased to welcome two new

Board members. Deedee Morrison joined the Board in March and has

allowed us to leverage her years of experience as a magazine publisher

to strengthen the communication activities of the ISC. Carla Hanzal,

the Chief Curator of Contemporary and Modern Art at the Mint

Museum, is our second new Board member. Her understanding of

sculpture and devotion to the field make her a valuable addition to

our Board.

Please join me in welcoming our new Board members and thanking

those members who are departing for their service to the ISC..

—Marc LeBaron

Chairman, ISC Board of Trustees

From the Chairman

4 Sculpture 31.9

ISC Board of TrusteesChairman:Marc LeBaron, Lincoln, NE

Chakaia Booker, New York, NY

Robert Edwards, Naples, FL

Bill FitzGibbons, San Antonio, TX

Ralfonso Gschwend, Switzerland

Carla Hanzal, Charlotte, NC

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, NEJohn Henry, Chattanooga, TN

Peter Hobart, Italy

Josh Kanter, Salt Lake City, UT

Robert Vogele, Hinsdale, IL

Founder: Elden Tefft, Lawrence, KS

Lifetime Achievement inContemporary Sculpture RecipientsMagdalena Abakanowicz

Fletcher Benton

Fernando Botero

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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Departments14 Itinerary

20 Commissions

80 ISC News

Reviews68 Olympics: London 2012 Festival

70 Santa Monica: Masayuki Oda

71 Miami: Ruben Ochoa

72 Boston: Swoon

72 Mountainville, New York: “Light & Landscape”

73 New York: Frieze Art Fair Sculpture Park

74 New York: Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse

75 New York: Jesús Soto

76 Columbus, Ohio: “Carved and Whittled Sculpture”

76 Newport, Rhode Island: China Blue

77 Ottawa, Canada: David Askevold

77 San Gimignano, Italy: Antony Gormley

78 Zurich: Koenraad Dedobbeleer

79 Tokyo: Motohiko Odani

On the Cover: Do Ho Suh, Grass Roots Square,

2012. View of work installed at Government

Building Complex Part 6, KORO, Oslo. Photo: ©

Do Ho Suh, Courtesy Public Art Norway—KORO.

Features22 Personal Histories: A Conversation with Do Ho Suh by Sandra Wagner

30 Foon Sham: Crafting Dialogues by Aneta Georgievska-Shine

36 The Potency of Ordinary Objects: A Conversation with Liz Magor by Rachel Rosenfield Lafo

42 Ken Lum: It Takes Me Back Somewhere by Gary Pearson

46 The Meditative Eye: The Sculpture of Ron Mehlman by Virginia Maksymowicz

50 Thinking About Things We Can’t See: A Conversation with Tony Cragg by Jan Garden Castro

30

sculptureNovember 2012Vol. 31 No. 9A publication of theInternational Sculpture Center

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Sculpture November 2012 5

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SCU LP TURE MAGAZ INEEditor Glenn HarperManaging Editor Twylene MoyerEditorial Assistants Elena Goukassian, Amanda HickokDesign Eileen Schramm visual communicationAdvertising Sales Manager Brenden O’HanlonContributing Editors Maria Carolina Baulo (BuenosAires), Roger Boyce (Christchurch), Susan Canning (NewYork), Marty Carlock (Boston), Jan Garden Castro (NewYork), 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), BrianMcAvera (Belfast), Robert C. Morgan (New York), RobertPreece (Rotterdam), Brooke Kamin Rapaport (NewYork), Ken Scarlett (Melbourne), Peter Selz (Berkeley),Sarah Tanguy (Washington), Laura Tansini (Rome)

Each issue of Sculpture is indexed in The Art Index andthe Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA).

isc

Benefactor’s Circle ($100,000+)

Atlantic FoundationFletcher BentonKaren & Robert DuncanJohn HenryJ. Seward Johnson, Jr.Johnson Art & Education FoundationRee & Jun KanekoJoshua S. KanterKanter Family FoundationGertrud & Heinz Kohler-AeschlimannMarc LeBaronLincoln IndustriesNational Endowment for the ArtsMary O’ShaughnessyI.A. O’Shaughnessy FoundationEstate of John A. RennaJon & Mary Shirley FoundationDr. & Mrs. Robert SlotkinBernar Venet

Chairman’s Circle ($10,000–49,999)Magdalena AbakanowiczAnonymous FoundationJanet BlockerBlue Star Contemporary Art CenterDebra Cafaro & Terrance LivingstonSir Anthony CaroChelsea College of Art & DesignChicago Arts District/Podmajersky, Inc.Clinton Family FundRichard CohenDon CoopermanDavid DiamondJarvis & Constance Doctorow Family FoundationGeraldine R. Dodge FoundationLin EmeryFred EychanerCarole FeuermanDoris & Donald FisherBill FitzGibbonsAlan GibbsDavid HandleyRichard HeinrichDaniel A. HendersonMichelle HobartPeter C. HobartJoyce & Seward Johnson FoundationKANEKOMary Ann KeelerKeeler FoundationPhillip KingWilliam KingAnne Kohs AssociatesCynthia Madden Leitner/Museum of Outdoor ArtsToby D. Lewis Philanthropic Fund

Marlene & Sandy LouchheimMarlborough GalleryPatricia MeadowsCreighton MichaelBarrie MowattManuel NeriNew Jersey Cultural TrustRalph O’ConnorFrances & Albert PaleyPatricia RenickPat Renick Gift FundHenry RichardsonMelody Sawyer RichardsonRuss RubertSalt Lake Art CenterCarol L. Sarosik & Shelley PadnosJune & Paul Schorr, IIIJudith SheaArmando SilvaKenneth & Katherine SnelsonSTRETCHMark di SuveroTakahisa SuzukiAylin TahinciogluSteinunn ThorarinsdottirTishman SpeyerBrian TuneUniversity of Nebraska Medical CenterUniversity of the Arts LondonBoaz VaadiaRobert E. VogeleGeorgia WellesElizabeth Erdreich White

Address all editorial correspondence to:Sculpture1633 Connecticut Avenue NW, 4th FloorWashington, DC 20009Phone: 202.234.0555, fax 202.234.2663E-mail: [email protected] On-Line on the InternationalSculpture Center Web site:www.sculpture.org

Advertising informationE-mail <[email protected]>

I N T ERNAT IONAL SCULPTURE CENTER CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE C IRC L EThe 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 N T ERNAT IONAL SCULP TURE C ENT ERExecutive Director Johannah HutchisonOffice Manager Denise JesterExecutive Assistant Alyssa BrubakerMembership Manager Julie HainMembership Associate Manju PhilipDevelopment Manager Candice LombardiWeb Manager Karin JervertConference and Events Manager Erin GautscheConference and Events Coordinator Samantha RauscherAdvertising Services Associate Jeannette Darr

ISC Headquarters19 Fairgrounds Road, Suite BHamilton, New Jersey 08619Phone: 609.689.1051, fax 609.689.1061E-mail: [email protected]

Major Donors ($50,000–99,999)

Chakaia BookerErik & Michele ChristiansenTerry & Robert EdwardsRob FisherRichard HuntRobert MangoldFred & Lena MeijerFrederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture ParkNew Jersey State Council on the ArtsPew Charitable TrustArnaldo PomodoroWalter SchatzWilliam TuckerNadine Witkin, Estate of Isaac WitkinMary & John Young


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About the ISCThe International Sculpture Center is a member-supported, nonprofit organizationfounded in 1960 to champion the creation and understanding of sculpture andits unique and vital contribution to society. The mission of the ISC is to expandpublic understanding and appreciation of sculpture internationally, demonstratethe power of sculpture to educate and effect social change, engage artists andarts 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; dialogue—as the catalyst to innovation andunderstanding; education—as fundamental to personal, professional, and soci-etal growth; and community—as a place for encouragement and opportunity.

MembershipISC membership includes subscriptions to Sculpture and Insider; access toInternational Sculpture Conferences; free registration in Portfolio, the ISC’son-line sculpture registry; and discounts on publications, supplies, and services.

International Sculpture ConferencesThe ISC’s International Sculpture Conferences gather sculpture enthusiastsfrom all over the world to network and dialogue about technical, aesthetic,and professional issues.

Sculpture MagazinePublished 10 times per year, Sculpture is dedicated to all forms of contemporarysculpture. The members’ edition includes the Insider newsletter, which containstimely information on professional opportunities for sculptors, as well as a listof recent public art commissions and announcements of members’ accomplish-ments.

www.sculpture.orgThe ISC’s award-winning Web site <www.sculpture.org> is the most comprehensiveresource for information on sculpture. It features Portfolio, an on-line slideregistry and referral system providing detailed information about artists and theirwork to buyers and exhibitors; the Sculpture Parks and Gardens Directory, withlistings of over 250 outdoor sculpture destinations; Opportunities, a membershipservice with commissions, jobs, and other professional listings; plus the ISCnewsletter and extensive information about the world of sculpture.

Education Programs and Special EventsISC programs include the Outstanding Sculpture Educator Award, the OutstandingStudent Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards, and the LifetimeAchievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture and gala. Other special eventsinclude opportunities for viewing art and for meeting colleagues in the field.

Director’s Circle ($5,000–9,999)

The ISC’s publicationsare supported in partby a grant from theNational Endowmentfor the Arts.

This program is made possible inpart by funds from the New JerseyState Council on the Arts/Departmentof State, a Partner Agency of theNational Endowment for the Arts. New Jersey Cultural Trust

555 International Inc.•Ruth Abernethy•Linda Ackley-Eaker•D. James Adams•John Adduci•Osman Akan•Khulod Albugami•El Anatsui•Art Valley•GordonB. Auchincloss•Michael Aurbach•Helena Bacardi-Kiely•Ronald Balser•Sarah Barnhart-Fields•Brooke Barrie•Jerry Ross Barrish•Carlos Basanta•Fatma Basoglu-Takiiil•Bruce Beasley•Joseph Becherer•Edward Benavente•Joseph Benevenia•Ronald Berman•Henri Bertrand•Denice Bizot•Rita Blitt•Christian Bolt•Gilbert V. Boro•Louise Bourgeois•Judith Britain•WalterBruszewski•Gil Bruvel•Hal Buckner•H. Edward Burke•Keith Bush•MaryPat Byrne•Pattie Byron•Imel Sierra Cabrera•Kati Casida•Jodie Cavinder•Asherah Cinnamon•John Clement•Jonathan Clowes•Tara Conley•FullerCowles & Constance Mayeron•Amir Daghigh•Sukhdev Dail•Arianne Dar•Paul A. Deans•Angel Delgado•G.S. Demirok•Bruce Dempsey•AlbertDicruttalo•Konstantin Dimopoulos•Marylyn Dintenfass•Kenneth Dipaola•Linda Donelson•Dorit Dornier•Philip S. Drill•Laura Evans Durant•LouiseDurocher•Herb Eaton•Charles Eisemann•Jorge Elizondo•Rand Elliott/Elliott& Associates Architects•Elaine Ellis•Bob Emser•John W. Evans•Philip JohnEvett•Johann Feilacher•Helaman Ferguson•Pattie Porter Firestone•TalleyFisher•True Fisher•Dustine Folwarczny•Basil C. Frank•Mary Annella Frank•Dan Freeman•Jason Frizzell•James Gallucci•Ron Gard•Gill Gatfield•BeatrizGerenstein•James S. Gibson•Helgi Gislason•Edmund Glass•Glenn Green

Galleries & Sculpture Garden•DeWitt Godfrey•Yuebin Gong•GordonHuether Studio•Francis Greenburger•Sarah Greiche•Gabriele PoehlmannGrundig•Barbara Grygutis•Simon Gudgeon•Thomas Guss•Roger Halligan•Wataru Hamasaka•Phyllis B. Hammond•Jens Ingvard Hansen•BarbaraHashimoto•Sally Hepler•Joyce Hilliou•Bernard Hosey•Jack Howard-Potter•Brad Howe•Robert Huff•Ken Huston•Yoshitada Ihara•Eve Ingalls•LucyIrvine•James Madison University•Dr. Stephen Joffe•J. Johnson Gallery•Julia Jitkoff•Andrew Jordan•Sasa Jovic•Wolfram Kalt•Ray Katz•CorneliaKavanagh•Robert E. Kelly•Lita Kelmenson•Orest Keywan•Gloria Kisch•Stephen Kishel•Bernard Klevickas•Adriana Korkos•Krasl Art Center•Dave& Vicki Krecek•KUBO•Lynn E. La Count•Won Lee•Michael Le Grand•EvanLewis•John R. Light•Ken Light•Marvin Lipofsky•Robert Longhurst•SharonLoper•Charles Loving•Lynden Sculpture Garden•Roger Machin•NoriakiMaeda•Andrea Malaer•Edward Mayer•William McBride•Isabel McCall•Tom McCormick•Joseph McDonnell•Sam McKinney•Darcy Meeker•RonMehlman•Saul Melman•Gina Michaels•Carol Mickett & RobertStackhouse•Ruth Aizuss Migdal•Brian Monaghan•Richard Moore, III•KeldMoseholm•W.W. Mueller•Anna Murch•Morley Myers•Arnold Nadler•Marina Nash•Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park•Nature’s Circles•JamesNickel•Donald Noon•Joseph O’Connell•Palmyra Sculpture Centre•Ralph

H. Paquin•Ronald Parks•Mark Patterson•Carol Peligian•Beverly Pepper•Cathy & Troy Perry•Anne & Doug Peterson•Dirk Peterson•Daniel Postellon•Bev Precious•Laura Priebe•Jonathan Quick•Morton Rachofsky•KimberlyRadochia•Marcia Raff•Vicky Randall•Maureen Reardon•Jeannette Rein•Roger Reutimann•Robert Webb Sculpture Garden/Creative Arts Guild•KevinRobb•Andrew Rogers•Salvatore Romano•Tom Scarff•Peter Schifrin•Sculpture Space, Inc.•Joseph H. Seipel•Patrick Shannon•Kambiz Sharif•Jerry Shore•Debra Silver•Vanessa L. Smith•Yvette Kaiser Smith•SusanSmith-Trees•Stan Smokler•Sam Spiczka•Marlise Spielmann•HowardSpringer•Robert St. Croix•Eric Stein•Eric Stephenson•Elizabeth Strong-Cuevas•Jozef Sumichrast•David Sywalski•Marijana Tadic•Tash Taskale•Cordell Taylor•Richard Taylor•Ana Thiel•Peter Tilley•Rein Triefeldt•JohnValpocelli•Vasko Vassilev•Kathy Venter•Ales Vesely•Jill Viney•BruceVoyce•Ed Walker•Martha Walker•Sydney Waller•Mark Warwick•JamesWatts•Jim Wheeler•Lynn Fawcett Whiting•Michael Whiting•JohnWiederspan•Madeline Wiener•W.K. Kellogg Foundation•Wesley Wofford•Jean Wolff•Dr. Barnaby Wright•Joan Wynn•Cigdem Yapanar•Riva Yares•Albert Young•Larry Young•Genrich Zafir•Gavin Zeigler

Dean ArkfeldDoris H. ArkinVerina BaxterBollinger AtelierMelva Bucksbaum & Raymond LearsyGiancarlo CalicchiaCause Contemporary GalleryChicago Gallery NewsThe Columbus MuseumHenry DavisGuerra de la PazDigital Atelier

Terry Dintenfass, Inc.James GeierAgnes GundDr. LaRue HardingEd Hardy Habit/Hardy LLCOlga HirshhornPaul HubbardPaul KleinPhlyssa KoshlandGary KulakChuck LevyJim & Karen Linder

Steve MaloneyRobert E. Meyerhoff & Rheda BeckerMillennium Park, Inc.Lowell MillerDavid MirvishMuseum of Contemporary Art,ChicagoNaples IllustratedJohn P. & Anne NelsonGeorge NeubertSassona NortonRalph O’Connor

Steven OliverTom OtternessEnid J. PackardRaul PerezPolich Tallix Art FoundryRoger Smith HotelKy & Jane RohmanGreg & Laura SchnackelSculpt NouveauStorm King Art CenterThai Metal CraftersThe Todd & Betiana Simon Foundation

TmimaGeorge TobolowskyTootsie Roll IndustriesUBS Financial ServicesEdward UlhirSteve Vail Fine ArtsHans Van De Bovenkamp LTDVector Custom Fabricating, Inc.Ursula von RydingsvardAlex Wagman

Professional Circle ($350–999)

Patron’s Circle ($2,500–4,999)Elizabeth CatlettChateau Ste. Michelle WineryLostn FoundationMoore College of Art & Design

Prescott MuirMuseum of Arts & DesignNational Academy MuseumNicola J. & Nanci J. Lanni Fund

William R. PadnosPrinceton University Art MuseumKiki SmithElisabeth Swanson

Doris & Peter TillesPhilipp von Matt

Friend’s Circle ($1,000–2,499)

Ana & Gui AffonsoPatty & Jay Baker Naples Museumof Art

Sydney & Walda BesthoffOtto M. Budig Family FoundationLisa ColburnRic CollierFreedmanArtGrounds For Sculpture

Ralf GschwendHaunch of VenisonMichael JohnsonTony KarmanGallery KasaharaSusan LloydMartin MarguliesMerchandise Mart PropertiesJill & Paul Meister

Gerard MeulensteenDeedee MorrisonNational Gallery, LondonKristen NordahlBrian OhnoClaes Oldenburg &Coosje van Bruggen

Dennis OppenheimBill Roy

Doug SchatzMary Ellen ScherlSculpture Community/sculpture.net

SebastiánEve & Fred SimonLisa & Tom SmithDuane Stranahan, Jr.Roselyn Swig

TateJulian TaubLaura ThorneUniversity of CincinnatiHarry T. WilksIsaac WitkinRiva Yares Gallery


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14 Sculpture 31.9

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Austin Museum of Art—LagunaGloriaAustin, TexasApril WoodThrough December 2, 2012Wood’s beautifully crafted worksfocus on consumption and its psy-chological extremes—from pleasur-able to masochistic, over-indulgentto withholding, alluring to repulsive.Her “Feeding the Hunger” sculp-tures, which resemble abstractedflowers, become almost painfullydisturbing when activated andplaced inside the mouth. Surrealand perverse, these “cyborgian”feeding tubes underscore the fine

line between choice and compulsion,sustenance and indoctrination. Themouth can receive or reject, but suchprosthetics seem to enable, evenenforce, the gaping maw of super-sized force-feeding.Tel: 512.458.8191Web site<http://amoa-arthouse.org>

Brooklyn MuseumBrooklynJean-Michel OthonielThrough December 2, 2012Othoniel began his career with enig-matic, intimate sculptures in sulfur,lead, wax, and phosphorus, but he isbest known for his large-scale work

in glass, a medium that he infuseswith delicacy, light, and fantasy. Thisretrospective traces his idiosyncraticpath through some of the 20th cen-tury’s most important art move-ments, from Surrealism to Minimal-ism, Arte Povera, and conceptualism,though “My Way” also refers to hisinterest in movement—travel, trans-formation, transmutation, and ritesof passage. Featured works includeembellished heraldic banners, magi-cal environments sparkling withMurano glass and precious stones,and magnified necklaces and knotsthat conjure a personal mythologywhile evoking a fairy-tale universe.Aiming to transcend the realm of themundane, Othoniel likes “to givevisitors the impression that they arealone with the work in an enclosedGarden of Eden, an exotic seragliosomewhere outside of this world.”Tel: 718.638.5000Web site<www.brooklynmuseum.org>

City Hall ParkNew YorkCommon GroundThrough November 30, 2012“Common Ground” brings togetherworks by 10 international artistswho approach the public realm withoriginality, critical vision, and a

sense of artistic responsibility. Evensuch worn-out traditional formsas the classical statue, stone-carvedtext, and the heroic monument findnew relevance once they’ve beenco-opted into functioning as tools ofthe commons or reinvented througha dose of irony and satire. Whetherovertly politicized or not, these par-ticipatory and frequently performa-tive anti-monuments can’t helpbut raise a new civic consciousness,questioning the dynamics of powerand servitude, permanence andtransience, us and them. To whomdoes public space belong? Whatis its legimate use? Elmgreen &Dragset, Ian Hamilton Finlay, RogerHiorns, Jenny Holzer, Matthew DayJackson, Christian Jankowski, JustinMatherly, Paul McCarthy, AmaliaPica, and Thomas Schütte all offeroutlets for individual reflection andcollective moments of expressionthat escape prescribed social control.Tel: 212.980.4575Web site<www.publicartfund.org>

Contemporary Arts CenterCincinnatiGreen AcresThrough January 20, 2013Building on “Ecovention,” and“Beyond Green,” the CAC’s new eco-conscious exhibition, “Green Acres,”celebrates the revolutionary historyof farming as art. For 40 years,artists from around the world havetransformed fields, abandoned lots,city streets, and gallery spaces into

itinerary

Left: April Wood, Feeding the Hun-

ger 10. Bottom left: Jean-Michel

Othoniel, The Secret Happy End.

Above: Amalia Pica, Now, Speak!,

from “Common Ground.”


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fertile sites of creative and vegetalproductivity. Agnes Denes, theHarrisons, Patricia Johanson, MaraAdamitz Scrupe, Bonnie Ora Sherk,Futurefarmers, Anya Gallaccio, J.J.McCracken, N55, Permaganic EcoGarden, and Tattfoo Tan, among oth-ers featured here, continue to inspireactivism by example. With a work-ing farm inside the gallery, a farmstand in the lobby, sculptures usedfor farming, videos, installations,and satellite projects throughoutthe city, “Green Acres” covers everyapproach to this growing field.Tel: 513.345.8400Web site<www.contemporaryartscenter.org>

Dia:BeaconBeacon, New YorkJean-Luc MoulèneThrough December 31, 2012Moulène, who moves fluidlybetween sculpture, photography,drawing, and printed matter, thinksof his work as “one continuous per-formance” in which he collects, re-arranges, and reframes the realityof his surroundings. For 30 years, hehas struggled to liberate the lan-guage of art from consensus and lit-eralness, to create something thatgoes beyond static categorization.“Opus + One,” a title that blendsmathematical recurrence with theidiom of advertising, features morethan 35 works from the “Opus”series—bronze, cardboard, cement,

fiberglass, and wood constructions(some handmade and some indus-trially manufactured) that togetherundo predictable classificationsof figuration and abstraction whilecomplicating the impulse to imposerepresentational or metaphoricalidentity on objects. In addition tothe “+ One” at Beacon—the monu-mental La Vigie (a series of 299 pho-tographs documenting changes ina Paris neighborhood through thepersistent growth of Paulowniatomentosa volunteers)—the showincludes a group of newly commis-sioned wall objects at the Dan FlavinArt Institute.Tel: 845.440.0100Web site <www.diaart.org>

Faurschou FoundationCopenhagenCai Guo-QiangThrough December 7, 2012Cai’s explosion events, gunpowderdrawings, and installations unfoldspatially and temporally in exquisitepartnerings of intention and chancethat allow nature to take its courseand the artist to make the mostof any given situation. Frequentlyephemeral and illusory in nature(even when constructed of solid

materials), these works conjure acomplex web of conceptual andmaterial allusions, from astrophysics,natural processes, and super-natural fantasy to cultural exchange,trade, and pilgrimage. Runningthrough all of these diverse formsand interests is the desire to under-stand transformation—how the vis-ible world communicates withunseen energies. This show featuresa new series of gunpowder draw-ings inspired by the landscape,culture, and history of Denmark, aswell as Reflection, the remains ofa wrecked Japanese fishing boat runaground on seven tons of Chineseporcelain shards. As in all of Cai’swork, the impact here is immediate,the meaning lingering.Tel: + 45 33 91 41 31Web site <http://faurschou.com>

Indianapolis Museum of ArtIndianapolisAlyson ShotzThrough January 6, 2012For Shotz, the job of sculpture is toexplore the invisible forces of nature.Commonplace materials such aspiano wire, glass beads, straight pins,mirrors, and plastic lenses revealthe basic workings of the physicalworld—through light, gravity, andspace—and hint at their mysteries.Geometry of Light, her newly adaptedinstallation, considers the dualnature of light as both particle andwave. Cascades of glass beads andhand-cut Fresnel lenses (magnifyinglenses ridged with concentric circlesto focus light) capture natural lightat varying angles and intensitiesthroughout the day. These concen-trated moments allow just a glimpseinto the nature of light stoppedin time, while revealing how our

Above: Futurefarmers, Slow Food

Nation Victory Garden, from “Green

Acres.” Top right: Jean-Luc Moulène,

Body. Right: Cai Guo-Qiang, ignition

of gunpowder drawing from “A Clan

of Boats.”

FUTU

REFARMER

S:COURTESY

THEARTISTS/MOULENE:

BILLJACOBSO

N,NY/CAI:WEN

-YOUCAI,COURTESY

CAISTUDIO


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itinerary

16 Sculpture 31.9

perception of light and motionshapes the experience of space. Anew digital animation winds timeback up again, visualizing a strangeand beautiful, dawn-to-dusk cycleof the elemental phenomena behindcreation.Tel: 317.920.2660Web site <www.imamuseum.org>

Kunsthaus GrazGraz, AustriaCittadellarteThrough January 20, 2013From the beginning of his career,Pistoletto has considered parti-cipation as the starting point for allartistic creation. Frustrated by aworld in crisis, sold out by capital-ism and betrayed by democracy,he founded the open networkCittadellarte in 1998 to demonstratea more involved role for the artist—making art in direct interactionwith other areas of human activity.While acknowledging distinctionsbetween work, education, environ-ment, communication, art, food,politics, spirituality, and the econo-my, Cittadellarte finds a commonarea of activism and inspirationacross these spheres. Seeking tocreate new models of participatorycivil society, Pistoletto and hiscollaborators hope to give a positiveanswer to the question: What canart really achieve? This show fea-tures current work from the inter-

disciplinary laboratory and its satel-lites, all fostering intellectual,political, and social dialogues thatput subversion to positive use.Tel: + 43 316 8017 9200Web site<www.museum-joanneum.at/de/kunsthaus>

Mass MoCANorth Adams, MassachusettsAnna BetbezeThrough November 2012Cutting, tearing, and burning GreekFlokati carpets with acid dyes, Bet-beze creates “paintings” that vergeon the sculptural. Sagging underthe force of gravity, her transformedobjects enter into a dynamic rela-tionship with negative and sur-rounding space as they spill off thewall and onto the floor. Referencingeverything from magic carpets tothe felt sculptures of Robert Morrisand 1970s woven wall hangings,

these seductive, layered works expandabstraction into the intersticesbetween dimensional boundarieswhile exploring the intersection ofinterior and exterior—in relation toarchitecture as well as the body. Inan echo of natural cycles of decayand regeneration, Betbeze’s processfollows the death of an object withits rebirth as something new. At thispoint of overlap, form and formless-ness, the beautiful and the abject,come together in sometimes jarring“sites for color and material trans-gressions.”Tel: 413.662.2111Web site <www.massmoca.org>

MAXXIRomeRegarding Marisa MerzThrough January 6, 2013Marisa Merz once said, “There hasnever been any division betweenmy life and my work.” The sole

Above: Alyson Shotz, Geometry of

Light. Left: Anna Betbeze, Veil. Top

right: Michelangelo Pistoletto and

Cittadellarte, Tavolo Mediterraneo

Love Difference. Right: Marisa Merz,

Untitled.

SHOTZ:COURTESY

INDIANAPO

LISMUSE

UM

OFART/BETBEZ

E:ARTEV

ANS/MER

Z:CLAUDIO

ABATE


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http://www.museum-joanneum.at/de/kunsthaus

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FAVINI:CLAUDIO

CRAV

ERO,PAV20

12/HEH

E:COURTESY

THEARTISTS/WINTERLING:COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDJESS

ICASILVER

MANGALLER

Y,SA

NFR

ANCISCO

woman among the men of ArtePovera, she has given its philosophya decidedly personal, feminist twist,focusing on practices traditionallyassociated with home and hearth.The knitted copper, aluminum foil,wax paper, and paraffin wax of hersculptures (some intended for dis-play in her house) inject a powerfuldose of everyday intimacies into theglossy sterilities of fine art. This showfocuses on a recent untitled instal-lation (2009–10) that draws togetherall of her gestures and materials;from there, it follows the variouspaths of Merz’s influence. Works byRosa Barba, Elisabetta Benassi,Alighiero Boetti, Claudia Losi, PaolaPivi, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker,and Franz West, among others,trace the reach of an approach thatcreates resonance from little morethan elementary action, ordinarymaterials, and the will to navigatea changing and unpredictable cre-ative universe.Tel: + 39 (0) 6 39967350Web site<www.fondazionemaxxi.it>

Parco Arte ViventeTurinThe Sun Behind the Clouds:Ettore Favini and HeHeThrough January 13, 2013Manipulators of ideas and objects,Favini and HeHe interpret environ-mental hazards through their socialand ethical consequences. Designedto react in concert with natural phe-nomena and manmade conditions,their charged interventions, installa-tions, and public actions give visualform to intangible factors influencingthe quality of life on earth. Here, theItalian artist and the French-basedduo both start with a creative explo-ration of the sun and clouds andrapidly progress into critical reflec-tions on human behavior. Favinipresents the results of his year-longsurvey of the “mother star,” which

began at PAV in 2011; his interroga-tion of time and memory ends withthe possibility of transforming theart center’s facilities into a self-suffi-cient, solar-powered system. HeHe’stoxically beautiful Man Made Cloudstakes a bleaker view, leaving thenagging sensation that humanity’sattempts to produce energy by what-ever means necessary are becomingincreasingly destructive, and unlikelyto change.Tel: + 39 011 3182235Web site<www.parcoartevivente.it>

SculptureCenterLong Island City, New YorkA Disagreeable ObjectThrough November 26, 2012Taking its title from Giacometti’ssculptures, “A Disagreeable Object”explores desire and repulsion, thefamiliar and the unfamiliar. Like theSurrealist object, which operatedbeyond its status as an artwork andresponded directly to social and cul-tural attitudes, these recent worksmove into the spheres of capitalistculture and technology, as well asthe gendered zones between interior

Above: Ettore Favini, I 48 soli (The

48 suns). Top right: HeHe, Air de

Londres. Both from “The Sun Behind

the Clouds.” Right: Susanne M.

Winterling, The Dip of Generosity,

from “A Disagreeable Object.”


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http://www.fondazionemaxxi.it

http://www.parcoartevivente.it

and exterior space. Participatingartists Alisa Baremboym, AlexandraBircken, Ian Cheng, Talia Chetrit,Martin Soto Climent, FOS, AnetaGrzeszykowska, Camille Henrot,Alicja Kwade, Charles Long, Sarah

Lucas, Ann Cathrin NovemberHøibo, Laura Riboli, Matthew Ronay,Pamela Rosenkranz, Michael E.Smith, Johannes VanDerBeek, AndroWekua, Susanne M. Winterling, and

Anicka Yi give new life to old strate-gies like the uncanny and theinforme, examining present-day rela-tions of the economy, the body,domesticity, technology, and erosthrough the lens of visceral paradoxand obscene disorder.Tel: 718.361.1750Web site<www.sculpture-center.org>

Suyama SpaceSeattleGail GrinnellThrough December 7, 2012Grinnell’s densely constructed, gos-samer installations conjoin earthlycorporeality and ethereal spirit.Using dressmaking patterns inher-ited from her mother, she structuresspatial bodies out of stiffened,translucent fabric that accepts color,

stain (from coffee and tea), andsumi ink lines. Fragile and transitory,her web-like environments spinremnants of ordinary human activ-ity into otherworldly landscapesimprinted with the inner workingsof the body (intestinal coils, bones,tendons, blood vessels) and thestructural elements of clothing (neck-lines, zippers, pleats). Metaphorsfor the mismatched, continuallyaltered plans and desires that makeup life, these works grow fromdesign subject to contingency. RUF-FLE continues her investigationinto the creative body, combiningtheatrical experience with absorb-ing meditation on the archaeologyof human nature.Tel: 206.256.0809Web site<www.suyamaspace.org>

itinerary

Gail Grinnell, RUFFLE.

COURTESY

THEARTIST


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http://www.sculpture-center.org

http://www.suyamaspace.org

http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=http://britishart.yale.edu&id=17532&adid=P18A1


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http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.contextartmiami.com&id=17532&adid=P19A1

http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.art-miami.com&id=17532&adid=P19A2

UP ProjectsLondon

In downtown London, a life-size ballerina with a globe for a head

and wearing a Dutch wax tutu twirls sideways in a glass bubble on

the façade of the Royal Opera House. Meanwhile, at the Duncan

Terrace Gardens only a couple of miles away, birdhouse condos

reminiscent of neighboring human dwellings envelop tree trunks

and branches. Yinka Shonibare’s Globe Head Ballerina and London

Fieldworks’ Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven are only two

of the most recent projects curated and produced by UP Projects

since the organization’s founding 10 years ago.

UP Projects’ first artistic intervention took place in 2002 at the

then-abandoned St Pancras Chambers, formerly the Midland Grand

Hotel, the most lavish hotel in Victorian London. The organiza-

tion invited emerging and established artists—including a number

of YBAs—to transform the long-forgotten and dilapidated space.

The exhibition gained immediate popularity, inspiring UP

Projects founder and curator Emma Underhill to continue bringing

public art to a wider audience.

Over the years, UP Projects has aspired to facilitate not only

public, but also easily accessible endeavors. Its most successful

projects have been participatory, mobile, or both. For the particu-

larly memorable Laid to Rest, Serena Korda made 500 commem-

orative bricks out of dust that she collected from local houses

and businesses. Inspired by Victorian London’s commercialization

of waste—profiteers started making bricks out of dust heaps—the

year-long project also included choral and dance performances

and “dustercise” workshops before culminating in a horse-drawn

procession and “burial of the bricks, returning them to the earth

from where they came.”

UP Projects launched its longest-lasting and most popular project

series, “Portavilion,” in 2008. The portable pavilions, designed by

Dan Graham, Toby Patterson, Annika Eriksson, Monika Sosnowska,

and raumlaborberlin, among others, also incorporate free public

events, notably dance performances and workshops, within their

spaces. Most recently, Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie (known collec-

tively as Somewhere) teamed up with architects Studio Weave

to create The Floating Cinema, a small portavilion that navigated

London’s waterways while projecting films in its cozy movie house

interior. The project was so popular that it is scheduled to return

next year with a newly designed floating cinema space.

20 Sculpture 31.9

commissionscommissions

Left: London Fieldworks, Spontaneous City in the Tree of Heaven, 2010. From UP

Projects’ “The Secret Garden Project.” Above: Dan Graham, Triangular Pavilion

with Circular Cut-Out Variation H, 2008. From UP Projects’ “Portavilion” series.

Serena Korda, Laid to Rest, 2011. Palette of engraved bricks, video installation,

and vinyl text catalogue board. KORDA:WELLCOMEIM

AGES

/ALL:COURTESY

UPPR

OJECTS


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This past summer, UP Projects, like other London art groups,

arranged a number of artworks in conjunction with the Olympics.

(The Floating Cinema and Shonibare’s ballerina played a role

in the celebrations.) UP Projects’ more subtle undertakings, though,

are often the most compelling. The “Secret Garden Project,” for

instance, celebrates London’s lesser-known green spaces with a

floating island garden by Tania Kovats in Regents Canal, a mobile

picnic pavilion, and literary nature walks, in addition to London

Fieldworks’ birdhouse condos. With a variety of interactive, local-

ized projects catering to a wide array of people, UP Projects contin-

ues to make public art ever more accessible to the general public.

In Certain PlacesPreston, U.K.

Far from the hubbub of London, Preston is small city of fewer than

150,000 people on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire.

Although the area has a settlement history dating back to the

Romans, Preston did not obtain city status until 2002, when it

became England’s 50th city for the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II’s

reign. A year later, the University of Central Lancashire and the

Harris Museum and Art Gallery joined together to create In Certain

Places. Dedicated to the programming of temporary public artworks

and events, In Certain Places commissions projects from local and

international artists, hosts residencies, and organizes programs for

city residents.

Jeppe Hein’s Appearing Rooms (2006), one of In Certain Places’

most successful projects, transformed Preston’s central square from

a “short-cut to other destinations” into a true public gathering

space. Hein describes his work as a “programmed water pavilion,”

where the participating public suddenly becomes trapped in a

labyrinth of water walls, rising and falling and randomly dividing

the space into “rooms.” Originally created in 2004 for Passariano,

Italy, Appearing Rooms followed its stay in Preston with appear-

ances in London, Basel, Switzerland, and Zaragoza, Spain.

In 2009, In Certain Places sponsored In The Shops Now!, a resi-

dency that provided visiting artists with the opportunity to trans-

form empty shops in Preston’s city center. While most participating

artists constructed installations and decorated storefronts, Teresa

and Dominique Hodgson-Holt transformed their space into a

strange thrift store, where all of the clothing was red. They then

invited residents to temporarily exchange their own clothes for the

red outfits and walk together through the streets of Preston in an

impromptu red flash mob. Pleased by the project’s outcome, the

artists took Red on tour to other cities in the region at the end of

their residency.

The city of Preston had a rare 15 minutes of fame last September,

when it hosted its Preston Guild festival. Held once every 20 years

since 1179, the festival celebrates the town’s first royal charter and

the founding of the merchant guild that so greatly contributed

to the area’s economic development. For the weeklong festival, In

Certain Places organized projects ranging from stories at the train

station and a subculture parade to a science fiction film and a new

kind of beer made especially for Preston. With In Certain Places

holding the reins, public art in England’s newest city continues to

flourish.

—Elena Goukassian


Above: Jeppe Hein, Appearing Rooms, 2006. Water, wood, iron grating, jets,

electrical pumps, and computer controller, 230 x 700 x 700 cm. Below: Teresa

and Dominique Hodgson-Holt, Red, 2009. Performance in Preston, U.K.

Juries are convened each month to select works for Commissions. Information on recently completed commissions, along with high-resolutiondigital 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 <[email protected]>.

COURTESY

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PersonalHistories

BY SANDRA WAGNER

A Conversation with


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Fallen Star, 2012. Steel-frame

house, concrete foundation,

brick chimney, garden, lawn

chairs and table, hibachi-style

grill, bird bath, and bird house,

approx. 15 x 18 ft. View of work

at the Stuart Collection, San

Diego. PHILIPPSC

HOLZ

RITTERMANN


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Do Ho Suh’s Fallen Star is a 70-ton house

teetering off the roof of the Engineering

School at the University of California San

Diego (UCSD). Living and working in New

York, London, and Seoul, Suh has created

a body of work that consistently addresses

tension—between home and migration,

individual and collective, reality and illusion.

Fallen Star, which is the most recent addi-

tion to UCSD’s Stuart Collection, expresses

all of these dichotomies. From its seventh-

floor access, a brick path curves through

a garden to the front door. Suh torqued the

charmingly furnished, 270-square-foot,

single-room house, leaving visitors to nego-

tiate and renegotiate their balance across

the skewed space. His other recent public

projects include Grass Roots Square, com-

missioned by the Norwegian government

for the city of Oslo, and Cause and Effect

at Western Washington University in Bel-

lingham, Washington, which also awarded

him an honorary doctorate. “Perfect

Home,” a solo exhibition of architectural

pieces at the 21st Century Museum of Con-

temporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan, opens

on November 4 and runs through March

17, 2013.

Sandra Wagner: You’ve explored the notion of home for some time, since your

move from Seoul to the United States for school. How have your notions of

home, longing, and memory progressed from early works, such as Seoul

Home/LA Home/New York Home (1999), to Fallen Star (2012)?

Do Ho Suh: Moving to the U.S. was one of the most difficult, and important,

experiences in my life. The idea of displacement, however, had been with

me since my childhood. The traditional Korean-style house in which I grew

up has always been a starting point and motif for my projects. It was built

in the ’70s, when everything in Korea was moving toward Westernization

and new construction was very modern. My parents revisited the past when

they constructed a traditional house. Every day when I left for school, I entered

a completely different world. My parents’ home is a very special place, almost

like a secret garden. It feels as though it exists in a different time. So, from

a young age, I had a sense of cultural displacement from within Korean cul-

ture. This feeling stayed with me, and I think that it became accentuated

when I went to the U.S.

I’ve obviously been dealing with personal experiences in my work, and I

use materials with which I am familiar, but my aim is always for viewers to

reflect their own lives in my piece and not for it to be about my life. I think

that’s why I felt very comfortable using an East Coast-style cottage for this

version of Fallen Star. It’s the first time that I haven’t used my own home, but,

for me, the notion of home is broad and general. Fallen Star doesn’t feel dif-

ferent from my other projects—I’ve been working very slowly and steadily

with the same idea.

SW: At first you used transparent and transportable fabric with the idea of

“walking the house”—disassembling a traditional Korean house and rebuilding

it in a different location. Has anything changed with the solid, site-specific

structures, such as Fallen Star?

DHS: I always wanted to deal with solid materials and make a real house. The

fabric pieces came down, at least in part, to practical concerns of creating

something transportable. Also, I could not afford to make a house in real

materials when I was at school, so I identified fabric that I could use on a

1:1 scale. For an art student or somebody just out of art school, the cost of

making and shipping a house piece is prohibitive, so fabric was the perfect

material to pack in my suitcase and carry with me. It was all related to my

situation when I was making the pieces, and that has changed over the years.

24 Sculpture 31.9

PHILIPPSC

HOLZ

RITTERMANN

Fallen Star, 2012. View of work at the Stuart Collection, University of California, San

Diego.


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When the Stuart Collection project came about, their amazing program helped me to

finally realize a much earlier idea in different materials.

SW: Your fabric works began as independent structures, such as Staircase (2003) and

Reflection (2005–11). Why did you start making works that became part of other archi-

tectural structures?

DHS: All my work is site-specific, so I never see my pieces as independent structures. One

way or another, you have to deal with the site, both physically and psychologically. I

think that the fabric pieces and Fallen Star at UCSD have the same intention. In Fallen

Star, for example, two buildings are literally connected. Two different spaces are blended

into each other. I have been focused on blurring boundaries in my work. When you use

fabric, especially translucent fabric, a similar thing happens because of the boundary

between my piece and the space around it. The piece is surrounded, encapsulated, by

architecture—whether it’s a museum, gallery, or other space. The boundary between

the two becomes more blurred because you can see the surrounding architecture through

the fabric; it’s hard to define where the piece belongs.

SW: You mentioned how your work inter-

acts with viewers, how they can take what

they want from it. What was the reaction

to Fallen Star? Did international students

on campus respond differently?

DHS: I received a lot of comments from

UCSD students and the university commu-

nity, especially the foreign students. They

responded immediately with, “Oh, I com-

pletely get it.” I think the strength and inten-

sity of the responses differed depending on

where people were from.

SW: You live in London now. Does that city

have a different influence on your work

than New York or Seoul?

DHS: I don’t think living in London has

changed anything in terms of my work yet,

though it has made the notion of home

more complicated. London is a completely

different type of home, and I never

had anything like it. Seoul is my childhood

home, but it’s my parents’ place. My New

York home signified work; I spent most

of my time there struggling to become

an independent artist. My London home

is different again, because it’s about having

my own family and becoming a parent.

Each home has served a difference purpose.

It will take some time for the experience

of these three homes, and having my own

family in London, to influence how I think

about life itself. One way or another, it will

appear in my work, but it’s too soon to see it.

SW: Net-Work (2010), a fishing net formed

of gold and silver human figures stretched

over a large metal frame, was installed on

the shore in Japan, with waves washing

some of the figures away. What ideas were

you exploring, and where is Net-Work now?

DHS: That piece was made for the

Setouchi International Art Festival, which

is set around a series of islands. I wanted

to make something inspired by a typical

Japanese fishing village, something that

blended into the landscape and seascape.

If the fishermen aren’t out at sea, they’re

mending their nets. That image inspired

me. From a distance, Net-Work looks like

any fishing net, but when you get closer,

you realize that it is not an ordinary net.

The most important aspects of this pro-

ject were about collaboration and how the

piece interacted with nature. It was par-

tially assembled in my studio and then


©DOHOSU

H,COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDLEHMANNMAU

PINGALLER

Y,NY

Net-Work, 2010. Gold and chrome-plated plastic figures on fishing net. View of installation at Setouchi

International Art Festival.


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brought to Japan. For the festival, the local

villagers formed a task force called Small

Shrimps. About 20 older women and stu-

dents volunteered to help to make this site-

specific piece. We spent about a week assem-

bling and installing it. I have a great picture

of some of them sitting on the net and

putting the panels together. It looks like a

very ordinary scene from a fishing village,

but when you see the figures, the people

naturally became a part of the piece.

Another important part was working with

the raw elements, with nature. The show

was installed from July through November,

and during that period, the region experi-

enced 30 typhoons. I had never dealt with

the tide before—the waves and the wind

animated the piece. I would have been

quite happy if the typhoon had taken my

piece away. That would have been a very

beautiful gesture. But the organizer wanted

to secure the piece, so there was a constant

battle between us during the installation.

The piece remained through the end of the

festival, but some of the figures were lost

when the waves hit it. It was quite chal-

lenging in that sense, because it was not

like anything I had ever made. The piece went back to my studio. Seaweed and debris

had collected at the bottom, and the chrome plating on the plastic figures had worn

down, so it has a nice aged look. It was featured in my solo show at the Hiroshima City

Museum of Contemporary Art, which just closed in October.

SW: Gate—Seattle Version (2011), commissioned for the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), is

quite different since it incorporates sound and visual projections on fabric, but it still

reproduces the gate of your childhood home.

DHS: Yes, that’s the gate I had to pass through every day to go outside the house.

SW: Viewers can walk through this small fabric gate, which hangs from the ceiling. A

scrim extending from its outer edges creates a wall for the projections, which include

images of branches being painted, birds flying, and an illusionistic re-creation of a tradi-

tional Korean gate and house. What did you want to achieve with this multimedia

approach?

26 Sculpture 31.9

NATHANIELWILLSON,©

DOHOSU

H,COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDLEHMANNMAU

PINGALLER

Y,NY

Above and detail: Gate—Seattle Version, 2011.

Fabric, stainless steel, and projections, 156 x 298

x 42 in. View of work at the Seattle Art Museum.


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DHS: Even though people came to know my

work through the fabric sculptures, my first

solo show after graduate school in 1998 was

a video installation at the NTT Intercommu-

nication Center in Tokyo. So, working with

multimedia was not completely new for me.

I just didn’t have a chance to do more of

it before.

When SAM commissioned Gate, it gave

me a great opportunity to deal with the

museum as a context, a background, for

my work. I looked through all of the pieces

in SAM’s Asian art collection and had a

really long discussion with the curator,

Catherine Roche. The piece came out of

that ongoing dialogue. Back in Korea, I

was trained as a traditional painter, so I

have a little knowledge of Asian art history

and theories. Using images from the col-

lection, I made an animation and projected

it onto Gate. It may look quite different

from what I have done before, but it was

something I had always wanted to do.

SW: Can you describe how Cause and Effect

(2012), the work at Western Washington

University, addresses the idea of destiny

and fate? Why did you think it would work

well in the Academic Instructional Center?

DHS: I realized that when it comes to pub-

lic art, artists sometimes forget about who

is going to look at a work and who is going

to use the space. I’m always interested in

making something that reflects the people

who use the space. Cause and Effect was

not a new piece—I’ve made different vari-

ations—but I felt that it was appropriate

for the space and in the context of a

university where students come from lots

of different places to study.

A university is a place for learning, and

the piece is about what is inherited from

your ancestors. Biology, genetics, history,

and knowledge can all be passed on to you

from previous generations. These things

could be heritage or a huge burden; even

if we’re not aware of them, we’re not com-

pletely free from them. They are something

already written. Cause and Effect and Net-

Work deal with similar issues. There’s a

tension between you being an individual


Cause and Effect, 2012. Aluminum and acrylic,

approx. 19 ft. high. Work at Western Washington

University.MATTH

EWANDER

SON,©

DOHOSU

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and being caught in a web of relationships or histories.

These are things that you cannot see and are unable

to escape from.

SW: You’ve just returned from Norway, where your work,

Grass Roots Square, was installed in the middle of Oslo’s

Government Complex. In addition to a tree, thousands

of small human figures in green-patinated bronze

create a geometric pattern across the square. Can you

discuss the project’s approach to issues of power and

the idea of the collective versus the individual?

DHS: It’s a very good example of my interest in public

space and what public art should be about. Some pieces,

like Fallen Star and Cause and Effect, are more obvious

than others, but they all challenge the notion of conven-

tional public art through their orientation or materials.

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Above and left: Grass Roots Square, 2012. 2 details of instal-

lation at Government Building Complex Part 6, KORO, Oslo.


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Pretty much every public art piece I’ve made is an anti-monument. Grass Roots

Square is not on a pedestal, not at eye level. You can step on it and walk on

it. That relationship between viewer and artwork is quite different from

what usually happens in public art. Viewers have to have a completely dif-

ferent relationship with the piece, so their way of looking at art has to change.

The Grass Roots Square tiles say that it’s not really about one individual, but

about the people. It’s quite modest and humble. It’s low, with no center of

focus, and I think that’s more democratic. The only component of the plaza

that stands out is a tree that I planted; the sculptural elements are all very

peripheral. They disappear into the rest of the plaza, and from a distance you

don’t know what they are. The figures look like grass growing out of the flag-

stones, until you get closer and the work reveals itself. I got the idea when I

was walking in a little village in Italy and saw grass between the pavement

cobbles. I replaced the grass with little figures, some of whom support the

flagstones. Some of the stones look like they are broken off where the figures

appear in a packed formation. All of the figures are in different scales. I used

500 different types of people, and the entire piece took 40,000 figures. All are

cast individually and welded together. Grass Roots Squarewas possible in Norway

because they have a strong public art program with

a long history. My piece was quite impractical because of

its fragility. If you start off worried about maintenance or

vandalism, you can’t have a work like this. They were

really open and brave to accept my proposal.

SW:What are you doing for the 2012 Gwangju Biennale?

DHS: I have two major new pieces for Gwangju. The

city has an interesting public art event called Follies

Project, which is about non-functional structures. They

have invited architects from all over the world and

artists like Ai Weiwei, and I was invited to do some-

thing this year. My project is a transportable hotel that

parks between buildings. It’s a very small, one-room,

fully functional hotel that requires a lot of generosity

and volunteer support. It travels around the city, so

guests can explore Gwangju from the inside. It’s a huge

project, almost like a social sculpture that’s also public

art. Again, it changes the notion of architecture, which

is meant to be stationary—this is a building that moves.

The site is the entire city,not any specific location.

I’ve been collaborating with different teams of archi-

tects. One team is researching all of the alleyways and

in-between buildings and creating a map of potential

sites for the hotel. You also have to have permission

from the people who use the neighboring buildings.

The designs for the hotel were completed a couple

of days ago, and we’re working with Kia Motors on the

construction. We’re trying to bring a lot of people into

this project. For example, if the hotel parks in a neigh-

borhood where there’s a bakery, maybe the owners

could donate breakfast for the person using the hotel.

Perhaps someone could offer a traditional Korean meal,

or maybe a nearby major hotel could provide house-

keeping service. It’s going to be a challenge. I don’t

know how this project is going to evolve, or if local citi-

zens will be interested in it. Once it gets going, I imag-

ine that it will have a life of its own.

The other piece is called Rubbing Project. Sheets of

paper will cover an entire room, and the paper will be

rubbed with colored pencil or graphite to reveal what’s

underneath. I’m undertaking this process inside three

different rooms in three different buildings in the old

part of Gwangju. Rubbing entire rooms will get the tex-

ture of the space before the paper is transferred into

the biennale exhibition space. New development in

Gwangju is changing the center of the city. The derelict

buildings that I have chosen possess untold stories. I

am interested in how we remember, the process of his-

toricizing and how a personal story becomes history.

My hope is to reveal hidden histories with the gentle

caressing gesture of rubbing before these spaces and

their stories disappear.

Sandra Wagner is a writer living in Los Angeles.


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COURTESY

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CraftingDialogues

Foon Sham

BY ANETA GEORGIEVSKA-SHINE

Above and detail: Canyon of Salt, 2012. Hickory and salt, 35 x 88 x 72 in.


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One of the hallmarks of Foon Sham’s

sculptural language is his ability to culti-

vate a fine line between the dictates of his

materials and methods and the specific

context of his work. Another, which has

shaped his career both as a practicing

artist and as a teacher, is his dual perspec-

tive on the importance of history in his

work: fully informed by tradition, he is,

nonetheless, remarkably unburdened by

its ballast. Though this Chinese-born and

Washington, DC-based sculptor has always

shown great sensitivity to dominant modes

of sculpture, he has been consistently

able to step aside from the mainstream in

order to address his interests in a deeply

individual manner, regardless of the cur-

rency of the moment.

His favorite medium is humble, yet ver-

satile wood. Throughout his career, he has

explored the formal properties of this ele-

mental material in sculptural composi-

tions that invariably highlight the process

of their own becoming. The structures

that he develops often suggest a search

for the geometric underpinnings of nature

or for the origins of the human desire to

rationalize its morphology. Typically, this

inner geometry is brought out through a methodical application of controlled gestures,

from cutting and sawing to stacking, laminating, and assembling a myriad of small pieces

together into seemingly self-generated forms. His most recognizable works in this man-

ner are the various large- and small-scale “vessels” or “vascular” compositions fashioned

either for specific sites or as freestanding indoor or outdoor sculptures.

Curve (2010), a 10-foot construction of cedar blocks stacked on top of one another in

a disarmingly simple, yet subtly intricate fashion, exemplifies this approach. Like many

of Sham’s larger works, Curve invites viewers to experience the dynamic relationship

between its exterior and interior facets by walking around and into the form itself. This

process encourages contemplation of how the manmade and the industrial can approx-

imate the unmediated agency of nature—calling to mind the central idea of Tao about

interconnectedness in the phenomenal world. Curve took on a particular resonance during

its most recent presentation. Prominently placed in front of the entrance to the River Inn

Hotel for the Washington, DC, group show “Sculpting Outside the Line” (2012), this

fragile, organic structure composed of almost a thousand thin cedar blocks became

a potent metaphor for the illusion of permanence associated with the notion of “home”

or “shelter.”

The same internal dialogue between an urge to order the irregular and an equally

strong desire to follow the “accidental” qualities of nature and its unpredictable energies

is just as meaningfully conveyed in smaller works such as Drift of Life (2006). Here, what

begins as a statement of mastery over nature, expressed through a skillful stacking of

curved walnut and mahogany blocks into a tower-like shape, gives way to a counter-claim

about the disorderly forces of life. A single, ostensibly “dead” piece of driftwood protrudes,

flame-like, from the hollow core of the column, causing it to “split” under the pressure

of its surprising vitality.

32 Sculpture 31.9

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Left: Curve, 2010. Cedar, 120 x 48 x 58 in. Above: The House of Identity, 2006. Wood, phone books, rice

paper, and ink, 7.5 x 7.5 x 11 ft.


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Though Sham is continually drawn to

intersections between the natural and the

manmade, a closer look at his recent work

reveals several interrelated, yet varied

approaches to this theme. In a recent series

of cube-like structures that he calls “phone

books,” evocative forms are composed

by layering of evenly cut pieces of wood in

different tones, textures, and sizes, inter-

spersed with sections of phone books whose

individual pages have been laminated

together to form impermeable blocks.

The results of this process fall somewhere

between finely crafted intarsia and Dada

collage. They seem to grown in complexity

as one explores their surfaces and dis-

covers unexpected affinities between the

wood-grain patterns and the cross-sections

of the phone books, those near-obsolete

repositories of personal data, recovered for

a different purpose and merged again with

their source material.

Another, equally imaginative exploration

of the meeting points between the currents

of nature and the paths of man has led to

a series titled “life-prints,” in which Sham

zooms in on the irregular shapes of growth

lines present in wood panels (tablets) and

uses them as points of departure for pencil

drawings that overflow onto a surrounding

paper surface. Once again, we see his

interest in the wood/paper dialectic and

the constant transformation of substances,

either through natural processes or willed

by artistic gesture. The real growth lines

are juxtaposed with those that might have

occurred or that were likely present before

the felling of the tree. Part archaeological

reconstruction and part poetic musing on

the cycles of life, these assemblages invoke

additional imagery, from microcosmic struc-

tures observable only with the aid of mag-

nifying lenses to maps that compress and

rationalize expanses whose patterns can

only be seen from impossible distances.

Sham’s recent exhibition at Project 4

Art+Space dramatically highlighted all

of these concerns. Its focal point was the


View of exhibition at Project 4 Art+Space, Washing-

ton, DC, 2012.

Aim High, 2012. Plexiglas, sawdust, and hardware,

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site-specific installation Aim High (2012), a circular mound of grad-

uated disks that seemed to grow ever so gently from the gallery

floor as visitors standing on the balcony above tossed handfuls of

colored sawdust down over its gently cascading walls. While the

gossamer-like layers of sawdust may invoke the traditional Asian

use of this material for dry lacquer, the ephemeral quality is even

more reminiscent of sand mandalas—those painstakingly crafted

forms brought into being only to be destroyed in an affirmation of

the passing of all things. The most compelling aspect of this subtly

changing piece was its unpredictability—neither the artist, nor

the audience knew how the handfuls of sawdust would affect

texture and hue. As Sham has observed regarding the work’s alle-

gorical content, no matter how high one may aim, there is very

little one can control.

The same duality of deliberate gesture and chance governs Vessel

of Green (2012), which gives a new twist to a signature element

in Sham’s vocabulary. Here, the characteristic “vessel” of wood

tiles stacked at regular intervals is transformed on the inside by

spiraling layers of metal flashing that create an enclosed terrace-

garden for grass. While clearly alluding to the labor-intensive

practice of rice cultivation on terraced lots carved into mountains,

the beauty of this composition lies in that all-important balance

between the conceptual and the formal, the idea and the mater-

ial, the planned and the accidental.

Though Sham’s interest in the conjunction of opposites has been

present ever since the beginning of his career, its fullest expression

to date may be the installation Sea of Hope (2003–11), whose ori-

gins can be traced to 2002, when his mother died from cancer. It

took several months before Sham felt that he could speak of his

grief through a work of art, which he made during a residency in

Victoria, Australia. The personal memorial that grew from this

process took the form of a gracefully curving vessel crafted of small

stacked and laminated pine blocks suspended, somewhat improba-

bly, by unobtrusive metal bars. Harking back to one of the most

recognizable motifs of his Chinese heritage—the spirit boats for

the dead—this vessel was envisioned as an homage that could

encapsulate both personal and artistic identity. What Sham did not

see as he gave shape to this boat, so similar to many of his earlier

works, yet so unlike anything else in terms of its intensely private

message, was how this installation would become a locus for the

memories and wishes of others, people who would, eventually,

become his collaborators.

Even as he was making sketches for the boat’s first showing at

the Manningham Gallery in Australia, one of his sisters expressed

her wish to also honor their mother. Unable to contribute an

artwork herself, she made a small, white paper boat reminiscent

of the hand-crafted vessels from their childhood and added it to

his piece. Through this gesture, she brought to her brother’s work

an allusion to the small paper boats sent afloat in Chinese funerary

rites, each adorned with a votive candle to symbolize the journey

of the dead to their final resting spot. Sham’s sister then invited

other cancer patients and survivors to contribute their own spirit-

boats. By the time that Sea of Hope left its first exhibition venue

in 2003, it had grown into a much more complex installation.

Sham’s spirit-vessel had become a centerpiece surrounded by

more than a hundred paper boats, each one made by a different

person and inscribed with an individual message.

In 2006, the installation was shown in Hong Kong. This time,

instead of a commercial art gallery, it was displayed at the Uni-

versity of Science and Technology, where it was seen by hundreds

of students. In this show, it was complemented by the largest

of the “phone book” sculptures, The House of Identity (2006). The

two objects related to one another in manifold ways: both com-

bined wood and paper, and both were envisioned as habitats. Yet,

whereas Sea of Hope spoke of ceaseless change, The House of

Identity gave expression to a desire for permanence, however

illusory. Once again, neither the sculptor nor the organizers of

the show could anticipate the eagerness with which passersby

became participants: within days, there were several hundred

more paper boats “floating” around the original. Many carried

inscriptions commemorating ancestors, in line with the funerary

34 Sculpture 31.9

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Top and detail: Vessel of Green, 2012. Pine, aluminum flashing, grass, and

soil, 41 x 86 x 84 in.


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spirit-boats, but many others were anno-

tated with wishes, turning what began as

a tribute to the dead into an expression of

hope for the living.

This subtle transformation continued in

Sea of Hope’s subsequent Hong Kong

appearances: at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall

in the New Territories (August 31–Septem-

ber 14, 2011) and at the Queen Elizabeth

Hospital of Kowloon (September 17–October

10, 2011). By this time, the spirit-boat dedi-

cated to Sham’s mother had generated more

than a thousand little companions. The

ethereal mass of white paper boats covered

the floor in a gently curving shape that

alluded to an imaginary stream of water. In

addition to messages written in various lan-

guages, each of these tiny vessels carried a

small “load” placed by the sculptor—a cone

of black tea leaves representing the votive

candles of the funerary ghost-boats. The

symbolism of these offerings was heightened

by their allusion to the tea’s healing proper-

ties, the hope, as Sham has noted, that its

anti-oxidants may bring miraculous healing

even from the gravest of diseases. In a more

general sense, the “cha” of spirit in these

boats calls to mind the goal of the tea cere-

mony as a ritual—to bring the drinker’s

body back into balance with nature.

Sea of Hope is Sham’s most personal

sculptural installation. And yet, he has

paradoxically opened it to co-creators who

range from close relatives to complete

strangers, whom he knows only through

the messages that they leave in their ghost-

vessels. Each of these boats will continue to

change the original homage to his mother,

inflecting it with a somewhat different

meaning. But then, this acceptance of

impermanence is inherent in the meaning

of the spirit-boat as an object: the funerary

paper vessels disappear, either burned by

the votive candles they carry or slowly

dragged beneath the surface of the water.

In many ways, the dialectic between

presence and absence accords Sea of Hope

authority as an artistic statement about

the ruptures and continuities of being. At the same time, this dialectic sheds additional

light on Sham’s interest in the workings of memory—an idea central to the “phone books”

and the “life-prints” with which Sea of Hope was shown in Hong Kong in 2011.

Like the seeming paradoxes of Tao or Buddhist thought, this “unfinished” installation

provokes feelings whose mutual relationships promote further reflection rather than offer

definitive answers. These reflections address such perennial questions as the relationship

between artist and audience, individual and collective identities, and the meaning or

meanings of a work of art as it travels through different sites (gallery, university, hospital)

and geographic locations (Australia, Hong Kong, and ultimately, the United States). As Sea

of Hope continues to trace Sham’s psycho-geography, it also reminds us of the power of

the archetypal form at its center: the vessel that can carry a myriad of messages. It is not

an accident that the first record of paper-folding craft in the European tradition is a

drawing of a small paper boat in a treatise on astronomy (De sphaera mundi, 1490). East

and West may never have been that far from one another. The messages on the paper

fleet around Foon Sham’s spirit-boat continue to affirm the shared concerns and hopes of

many different individuals, despite the different languages in which they are inscribed.

Aneta Georgievska-Shine is an art historian based in Washington, DC.


COURTESY

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Pages, 2009. Phone book and pencil on paper, .25

x 16.5 x 23.38 in.

Sea of Hope, 2003–11. Wood, paper, ink, and tea

leaves, dimensions variable.


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Installation view of “Liz Magor: Storage Facilities,” 2009,

at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto.

The Potency ofOrdinary Objects

A Conversation with

Liz Magor


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BY RACHEL ROSENFIELD LAFO

Vancouver-based Liz Magor uses found

materials, often from the domestic

sphere, as a springboard for investigating

the social and emotional life of objects.

In mining their history, use, and relation-

ship to the body, she molds, casts, and

alters them to explore issues of authen-

ticity, replication, consumption, waste,

value, and status. Magor continues this

debate between the real and the simu-

lated in her public artworks. She has

exhibited at Documenta and in the

Sydney and Venice Biennales, and has

had solo exhibitions across Canada. Her

recent solo show, “The Mouth and other

storage facilities,” premiered at the

Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and traveled

to the Simon Fraser University Gallery in

Burnaby, British Columbia. In 2009, she

received the Audain Prize for Lifetime

Achievement in the Visual Arts. This

month, Magor is exhibiting new work

at Vancouver’s Catriona Jeffries Gallery

(November 15–December 22).

Rachel Rosenfield Lafo: Many artists today have cross-disciplinary practices,

working across media boundaries. You’ve worked in sculpture, installation, public

art, and photography. Do you consider yourself a sculptor?

Liz Magor: Yes, absolutely. Though I work in different mediums, I approach every-

thing from an object-hood point of view. I like the indistinct boundary between

the art object and ordinary objects, things that aren’t intended to be art. With

painting and photography, the boundary is more obvious, so the role of the viewer

follows conventional trajectories, concerned with visual or intellectual processes.

With sculpture, there’s an address to the body that triggers a general consider-

ation of the physical world.

RRL: Much of your work has been about house, home, and shelter, creating fac-

similes and reproductions of cabins, apartments, shacks, places of refuge, dis-

carded food and drink, clothing, and everyday objects. These objects are fraught

with the aftermath of human use and intervention, yet you never depict

the occupants of these places. Is that because you want the viewer to become

the potential subject?

LM: The point is that these places don’t have occupants. They are empty and

abandoned.

RRL: You’re interested in opposing tendencies—authentic and artificial, real and

fabricated, safety and fear, comfort and discomfort, toughness and vulnerability.

Why is it important to investigate both sides of every possibility?

LM: In the process of entertaining contradiction, new insights emerge, insights

that were obscured by the tension of opposing ideas. The other process that will

shake things out is a manipulation of narrative. Narrative enables a belief. If an

account flows without interruption, it’s easy for a premise to become an assump-

tion, like a truth. If the story is confusing or inconclusive, you can’t relax into

the obvious sequence of events.

RRL: Is that why you mix real found objects with the fabricated?

LM: Yes, it helps me explore the range of possible confusions. If a cigarette is

smoked and butted out, and you’ve got the real butt in your hand, it’s pretty

disgusting, it’s garbage. But if I make a mold of that cigarette butt and cast it,

then it’s different. It’s sculpture, and it makes a demand on your attention. Same

image, different status. Many of the cast objects in the “Mouth and other stor-

age facilities” are taken from dead or finished things that mark the end of one

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Left: Stack (Racoon), 2009. Polymerized gypsum, ash, and wood, 58 x 68 x 68 cm. Right: Squirrel (cake), 2008. Pigmented, polymerized gypsum, 7 x 61 x 48 cm.


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identity and the beginning of another. For

a cigarette, it’s the end of its allure and the

beginning of its garbage life. For a dead

animal, it’s the end of quickness and the

beginning of rotting.

In a work like Stack of Trays (2008), I take

things from disparate categories and erase

their differences. Cigarettes, candy, little

dead animals, leftover food—they’re all

thrown onto the trays and turned into one

thing through the process of casting. They

assume the same identity or status by being

presented as a thing to look at. They go

down to nothing and then come up again

as a design.

I think of the trays as servant objects,

usually overlooked in favor of what they

are carrying. I like things that have com-

plicated lives, like trays, ashtrays, empty

glasses, and discarded wrappers. They are

spent, exhausted, or discarded; somehow

they have lost their status or maybe that

status was never secure. They start out with

a veneer of glamour, but it’s thin and gets

worn away by hard use. When it’s over, it’s

hard to remember that they once had allure.

Ashtrays are especially amazing. They’re

really just garbage bins for dead cigarettes,

but we make them beautiful, in silver and

crystal, and then we grind dirt into them.

In Leather (ashtray) (2008), the cast leather

jacket is used as an ashtray. In this case,

the cigarette is real, but it’s been smoked

already, so it’s dead. Is an object like the

leather jacket more valuable because it has

gone through the long, difficult process of

casting? Or is it more extraordinary because

it’s such a unique ashtray? Or is the sculp-

ture the big deal? I respond to leather jackets

as luxurious, sensuous garments, so at some

point, I might think of the original jacket

as more wonderful than the cast jacket,

or the cast jacket working as an ashtray,

or the cast jacket/ashtray regarded as art.

RRL: Can you talk about your recent studio

work using found and altered blankets?

LM: Last spring, I wanted to start from

scratch with something that I didn’t know


Leather Ashtray on Table, 2009. Polymerized gyp-

sum, cigarettes, and wood, 57 x 121 x 63.5 cm.

Eatonia, 2011. Wool, fabric, metal, and thread,

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how to do. I wanted to give mold-making and casting a break, so

I started to buy wool blankets at thrift stores. Not the collectible

ones, but the dirtiest and most moth-eaten. I valued the ones that

had some evidence of repair. The repairs were like little notes,

reminders of the early life of the blanket when it was still needed.

Most of the blankets that I found were quite small, and that may

be one reason why they were thrown out. Contemporary beds are

much bigger. My first thought was: Can the blankets stay alive if

they get bigger, if their holes are repaired, if they get cleaner, if

they try a little harder? What kind of debris is left in a blanket? Dog

hair, cat hair, human hair—what if I think of these as decorative?

I cut little flakes of silver ribbon and threw them on the blankets

and sewed them where they fell. I valorized all the negatives, like

skin flakes and holes. If there was a stain, I stained it more. I put

all the labels backwards, erasing the marketing, the shops. I accen-

tuated moth holes. I made the blankets bigger by adding pieces

in a very unstrategic way.

RRL: In your recent exhibition at Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto,

you showed the blankets on hangers, some still in dry-cleaning

bags. How did you decide on this method of presentation?

LM: With sculpture, there’s always the problem of how to show

things. Do you put them on plinths? I’ll never do that, never. Do

you put them on the floor? Those two choices, the floor and the

plinth, are so worn out that it forces me to look for other ways.

I didn’t have any ideas, so I worked on the blankets as though they

would never have a presentation, as though they would just come

to a home and find a place like any other household object. Until I

could figure it out, I made them as blankets to be used on a bed.

RRL: When you first made them, did you think that you would

display them on beds?

LM: I didn’t know. It didn’t make sense to say I will “display” them

on a bed. I had to back up, before the bed. As I worked on them,

I was running them back and forth to the dry-cleaners. The cleaners

were concerned that they might “ruin” them, that the dye would

run or more holes would appear. So, when I picked them up, I would

scrutinize them, look them over inch by inch. Looking, with con-

cern and interest, is what we do with art—and voila, the bags

became markers of that special condition.

RRL: In addition to earlier public works in Vancouver, including The

Game (1995) and LightShed (2004), you’ve completed two new

commissions since 2009. Soft Spot, a collaboration with Toronto

artist Wendy Coburn, is installed at the Lois Hole Hospital for

Women in Edmonton, Alberta. Marks was created for the new

Surrey City Centre Library in British Columbia. How does your

approach to public art differ from your studio practice?

LM: Public work is permanently installed; it will be there much

longer than work in a gallery, which might be out for a few weeks,

put away for some years, and then brought out again in a different

context. With public art, I have to do more thinking about the con-

sequences or the outcome before I start. I do the opposite in the

studio, where I’m adamant about not starting with a concept. I have

thoughts and ideas, but I don’t have a controlling impetus for the

work. I’m much more material and process-oriented. In the studio,

I’m following my nose or using my intuition. I try to see what’s

happening right now, not be planning ahead. It’s slow and rumina-

tive. There are failures, but I bear those losses, and I’m not account-

able to anyone. With public work, there’s a team—the architect, the

fabricator, the public. I want to respond to the team, I need to hear

what they’re saying. I like the energy and power of collaboration,

but I love the self-reliance and risk of studio work more.

RRL: Soft Spot is a giant nest made from stainless steel ribbon,

installed high up on a projecting I-beam. Inside the nest are three

speckled eggs. How did you and Wendy arrive at this concept?

LM: Initially, Wendy’s image of the nest with eggs was difficult

for me. I tend not to work metaphorically, and I don’t like to work

with references or to approach things as symbols. I want to reduce

the number of intellectual steps that you have to take before

40 Sculpture 31.9

TONIHAFK

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Installation view with Racoon, 2008; Tray (stacked lotus), 2007; andMolly’s

Reach (detail), 2005.


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you’re in the artwork. I’m trying to say that I prefer the phenome-

nological to the referential. I want the first and most abiding

encounter with art to be through the body. I don’t want to talk

about meaning. If I were to elaborate a huge meaning package at

the beginning, it would preempt what the viewer is willing or able

to do.

With Soft Spot, Wendy and I gradually built up the formal and

physical aspects of the work to the extent that the experience of

looking rivaled or eclipsed the literal notion of the nest and egg.

It’s way above the road. You have to crane your neck to see this

tangle of steel so precariously perched out there. There are no

branches or twigs or birds or feathers. Maybe it’s not even a nest.

It’s only from the upper floors inside the building that you can

look down and see the eggs. Anyone seeing the work from above

is probably at the business end of the hospital, as patients or medical

staff. Given the inherent stress of their situation, we thought

that the surprise of these beautiful eggs was a deserved reward.

RRL: InMarks, sculptural forms function as seats inside the library.

Did that develop from conversations with the architect, Bing Thom?

LM: Yes, Bing talked about how libraries have evolved from being

strict research and reading rooms. Today, library design encourages

people to relax and feel contemplative in a public space. Since the

1970s, many of my pieces have dealt with the subject of beds, for

sleeping and hiding out, partly because I think that relaxing the

body is necessary for thinking, but also because I’m interested in

worry and anxiety and consider sleeping to be a form of escape.

So, I thought of making something that you could lie on in the

library, maybe sink into something soft and spongy.

Eventually, I determined that this sinking would happen before

the forms came to the library, as a record of relaxed bodies. I made

the patterns in the studio using extremely soft, wet clay. Then we

all lay down on them so that the fabric of our clothing, our but-

tons, zippers, hands, cups, pens, and books left impressions in the

clay. The forms are 60 inches in diameter and cast in matte black

silicone. They are dense-looking, mysterious, and mute. The public

doesn’t know what they are. They don’t consider them art because

they don’t look like anything, but they can’t be furniture because

they’re too ugly. People walk up to them and do their own work;

they poke them, kick them, and bounce up and down on them.

Eventually they accept that they’re good for sitting or lying down,

or they leave them and choose a regular seat. In any case, they

get busy with them because I’m not telling them anything.

Rachel Rosenfield Lafo is a writer and curator based in Vancouver.


Liz Magor and Wendy Coburn, Soft Spot, 2010. Stainless steel ribbon and

painted steel beam, nest: 12 ft. diameter; beam: 40 ft. long.

Marks, 2011. Silicone rubber, 4 elements, 22 x 60 in. diameter each.

COURTESY

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COURTESY

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It Takes MeBackSomewhere

KEN LUM

BY GARY PEARSON


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East Van Rules! Sound familiar? It’s a fair

bet that at some time in our lives, we’ve all

attached ourselves to a sporting club, orga-

nization, gang, or place and championed

our membership or affiliation. Vive la

Solidarité! Vive la Différence! Such decla-

mations might well be ascribed to the

groundswell of public opinion debating the

meanings and merits of Vancouver’s contro-

versial public art piece,Monument for East

Vancouver (2010), by Vancouver resident

Ken Lum (recently appointed Director of the

Undergraduate Fine Arts Program at

the University of Pennsylvania). The work

became a flashpoint of allegiance, as illus-

trated by a random sampling of postings on

the popular blog site VancityBuzz, for exam-

ple, with “East Van Cross” dissenters parley-

ing across cultural and ideological divides

with fans. That a public artwork might

engage audiences in such passionate

debate is an accomplishment in itself, and

Lum admits that it caught him by surprise.1

Commissioned by the City of Vancou-

ver, Monument for East Vancouver is an

imposing, 20-meter-high, aluminum and

concrete structure with LED lights that

spell out “East Van” in the form of a cross.

The piece is located on Clark Drive, near

the Great Northern Way intersection.

Facing west and best seen at night, the

“East Van Cross” could be likened to a

beacon that signals proximity to the east

side: whether you’re beckoned or alerted

by it depends on your opinion of East Van-

couver (and your take on the sanctity of

the cross as a symbol). One thing, however,

is clear—this monument does not embrace

the neutrality so esteemed in public art

today. This is not to imply that Lum, whose

storied career includes a considerable history

in sculpture but very few public commissions,

set out to create controversy; the polarized

response to the work suggests that these

circumstances were already in place.

The cultural origins of the “East Van

Cross” can be traced back to graffiti from

the 1940s, generally believed to have been

created by Italian and/or Greek immigrants.

The tag has been in continuous use since then, making periodic appearances on back-alley

walls, schools, the sides of shops and warehouses, even on tattoos and T-shirts; it often

includes the word “rules,” a semantic connotation of gang culture that only adds

to its lore. Offensive to some and venerated by others, this DIY logo has become, as Lum

describes, “[a] fugitive symbol of East Vancouver as a whole, a reference to the long-estab-

lished division of the city along class lines.”2 Considering the degree of local media and

public attention garnered byMonument for East Vancouver, it’s not surprising that the

Vancouver Art Gallery’s 2011 survey of Lum’s work occasioned overflow attendance at the

opening reception.3 As expected, artists and cultural cognoscenti were there en masse, but

a sizeable number of attendees weren’t typical gallery-goers. Indeed, in one of my opening

night conversations, a woman, who admitted to not knowing much about Lum or his

work, remarked that “it takes me back somewhere, I’m not sure where.”

That Lum’s work should resonate with both the general public and art insiders comes as

no surprise. It has always been deeply informed by popular culture, the contingencies

of everyday life and the social fabric, and avant-garde art traditions. As early as 1978, while

still an undergraduate, he staged two performances that prefaced his now signature style

of co-opting art and non-art frames of reference to produce a socially engaged and highly

individual variant of conceptual art.Walk Piece (1978, a short Super-8 film transferred and

looped to DVD) depicts the artist walking back and forth on a short path between the back

door of a house and a pathway demarcation line. His repetitive action invokes a ’60s anti-

aesthetic, as well as a psychological edge brought about by conditions of routine and

restrictions both redemptive and repressive. The other documented performance, Enter-

tainment for Surrey (1:45 minutes and looped), also employs repetition, but this time, Lum

stood motionless for four days during morning rush-hour traffic near an overpass con-

necting a street in the City of Surrey with the Trans-Canada highway commuter link to

Vancouver. On the fifth and final day of the performance, he replaced his physical self with

a cardboard silhouette. In Entertainment for Surrey, Lum positioned himself as a signifier

of the outsider, separate and seemingly disconnected from the onslaught of commuters

ushering in the routine and bedlam of another nine-to-five day. The cardboard sign, intend-

ed as the artist’s semiotic stand-in, also functioned as a mirror in which vehicular occu-

pants could examine themselves, however briefly, against or through the guise of an

“other.” Lum’s early videos, likely influenced by Bruce Nauman’s and Lawrence Weiner’s

early process-based performances, stand apart in their emphasis on the sociology of the


TREV

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Y

Opposite: Monument for East Vancouver, 2010.

Aluminum, concrete, and LED lights, 20 meters

high. Right: Red Circle, 1986. Fabric and wood,

300 cm. diameter.


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subject, represented through individual and

collective identity formations.

A second-generation Chinese-Canadian,

Lum grew up in East Vancouver, a side

of the city long populated by immigrants,

blue-collar workers, bohemians, outsiders,

and transients. As opposed to “official”

Vancouver, the affluent and predominately

Anglo West side, East Vancouver has borne

the brunt of urban neglect, discrimination,

and criticism. Though the cultural and eco-

nomic binaries of east-west have eroded in

recent years, a general perception of differ-

ence remains. That East Vancouver contin-

ues, for some, to be typologically encoded

in a collective social identity of the abject

and undesirable speaks less to social reali-

ties than to the objectification of popular

mythology. The institutionalization of col-

lective social identity may come from with-

in a community (the “East Van” logo) as

well as from without. This dialectic, which

occurs inMonument for East Vancouver,

can also be found in Lum’s “Portrait-Logo”

series, “Image-Repeated Text” series, and

“Shopkeeper Signs.” In each of these series,

public and private are structured as tandem

episodic narratives of the human drama.

The counterpoise of objectivity and subjectivity in these bilaterally symmetrical composi-

tions underscores their self-reflexivity and, in paradoxical turns, reveals how open to inter-

pretation one state might be when reading its counterpart at face value. In the “Shop-

keeper Sign” McGill & Son (2001), for example, McGill senior, of the paper and printing

company McGill & Son, has posted the phrase “To my valued customers / My son is no

longer my son” on the company’s moveable type sign board.

“The Shopkeeper Signs” appropriate the deadpan vernacular of down-market advertise-

ments common to suburban strip malls. They proffer little information beyond goods and

44 Sculpture 31.9

Left: A Woodcutter and His Wife, 1990. Chromogenic print, aluminum, enamel, and Sintra, 244 x 152 cm. Right: Hanoi Travel, 2000. Plexiglas, powder-

coated aluminum, enamel, glue, and plastic letters, 6 x 6 ft.

Mirror Maze with 12 Signs of Depression, 2002–11. Mirrors and text, installation view.


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services, appended by a modest touch of sentimentality for the simple and

trustworthy independent merchant. Within their limited means, they appear

to make a legitimate effort to reflect the desirability of their commodities and

to mirror consumer taste, but it all unravels in the impulsive posting of per-

sonal tirades and testimonials. In these seamlessly produced approximations of

commercial signage, Lum steps behind the banal objectivity of the advertising

façade to reveal, as a larger metaphor, that life is anything but simple.

Signifiers of public and private also collapse in the “Furniture Sculptures”

from the early to mid-1980s. Inspired by pictures in home-furnishing flyers and

informed by a critique of Minimalism’s proclivity for autonomous form and

phenomenological experience, the “Furniture Sculptures” put a delightfully dis-

turbing spin on high art seriousness, domestic decor, and social formalities.

The series includes standard-issue modular home furnishings such as sofas,

hide-a-beds, lamps, and end tables, which Lum reconfigures into closed-form

arrangements that restrict functionality. Possessed of a kind of Gothic humor,

these psychologically charged works give the appearance of being designed to

follow their own logic, as in Red Circle (1986). The raucous, anthropomorphized

misbehavior of the hide-a-beds inMy Arms are Ready to Embrace the Universe

with Love (1983) may be cheeky, but as in Monument for East Vancouver,

Lum’s uncanny ability to mediate the vicissitudes of our much codified exis-

tence makes a discursive joyride out of rebellious demeanor.

Mirror Maze with 12 Signs of Depression (2002–11), originally created for

Documenta 11, also takes viewers on a bit of a ride, this time as physically

and emotionally active participants. Here, Lum connects pop psychology tropes

to an environment resembling a house of mirrors. Etched into various mirrored

surfaces, phrases such as “I feel hopeless about the

future” and “I am sad most of the time” function like

indexical third-party witnesses to one’s disorienting

navigation of the reflective labyrinth. It is an unsettling

experience at best, and the presence of other partici-

pants, with their multiple reflections and humorous

banter, tinged by degrees of panic and fear, only com-

pounds the theater of confusion. Everyone is in it

together. When I exited the dematerializing confines,

I had the intriguing sense that we had all bonded in a

peculiar yet satisfying way,almost as if unanticipated,

inter-subjective experience collectively took us back

somewhere, I’m not sure where.

Notes

1 Marsha Lederman, “Vancouver is my source of inspiration,” interview with Ken Lum, Globe and

Mail, February 11, 2011.

2 Lum quoted in Monument for East Vancouver documentation at the exhibition “Ken Lum,”

Vancouver Art Gallery, 2011.

3 “Ken Lum” (February 12–September 25, 2011) was curated by Grant Arnold and accompanied

by a catalogue with essays by Okwui Enwezor and Roland Schöny.

Gary Pearson is an associate professor in the Depart-

ment of Creative Studies at the University of British

Columbia’s Okanagan campus.


Left: Photo-Mirror: Sunset, 1997. Maple wood, mirror, and photographs, 137 x 99 cm. Right: We’ll see who gets the last laugh, 2002. 2 mirrors mounted on

colored aluminum frame, 187.7 x 78.6 x 4.6 cm.


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The Sculpture ofRon Mehlman

THE MEDITATIVE EYE

BY VIRGINIA MAKSYMOWICZ


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If not enough has been written about the sculptures of Ron Mehl-

man, it might be because they absolutely insist on direct visual

engagement. These contemplative objects fashioned from resistant

elements (stone, steel, and glass) and combined with ephemeral

ones (water and light) are best approached in silence. They have lit-

tle to do with the highly verbalized discourse of contemporary art.

In the 1970s, Mehlman worked mostly in wood, carving organic

shapes that appeared to have been liberated from living trees. His

approach changed dramatically at the end of the decade, after

he participated in the exhibition “Artists Make Kites.” Geometric

forms began to capture his interest, along with the qualities of

transparency and light. He also began a relationship with Pietra-

santa, Italy, which eventually became his second home. As a profes-

sor at Brooklyn College in New York, he often brought students to

learn amid the quarries and stoneyards that supplied Michelangelo.

Although the town is named for its 13th-century founder, Guiscardo

Pietrasanta, in Italian pietra santameans “holy stone.” It is no won-

der that sculptors from around the world make pilgrimages there.

Once Mehlman began working in stone, he quickly discovered

that it was more expedient to create his sculptures in Pietrasanta

and have them shipped back to the United States than to negotiate

the logistics of fabrication in New York. Plus the beauty of the

Tuscan landscape had captured his soul. In 1986, he and his wife,

photographer Janice Yablon Mehlman, bought a ramshackle farm-

house on the edge of town. Over the years, they have transformed

it into a studio/showroom/residence/guest facility, complete

with vegetable garden, olive grove, orchard, and vineyard.

In this hillside paradise, Mehlman’s sculptures became infused

with spirit and life, changing with the seasons and time of day.

Although the pieces hold their own at Manhattan’s Kouros Gallery

or in Mehlman’s Brooklyn carriage house, they seem much more

at home planted in the earth and stretching toward the sky. Just

as Antony Gormley’s figurative pieces are made of lead, fiberglass,

wood, steel and air, these sculptures are constructed of sunlight

and atmosphere, as well as stone, steel, and glass. The only way

to describe them is to speak in metaphor and analogy.

Panes of glass are compressed between layers of marble, onyx,

and granite. Surfaces, textured either by the hand of nature or by

the hands of the sculptor, reveal cracks and fissures. Although com-

posed and controlled, the resulting works evoke the wild beauty

of geological formations. Looking at Mineral Spring, Fountain,

I immediately thought of Thingvellir, in Iceland, where the North

American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet and where the crevices

in the rocks run so deep you can’t hear a pebble hit bottom.

Mehlman treats his slabs of stone like canvases: fault lines

become brushstrokes, and he exploits natural color variations.

Combinations of onyx, Belgian black marble, and travertine present

multi-layered hues. In some cases, he enhances the colors by


Opposite: The Realm of Matter, 1997. Travertine and granite, 78 x 57 x 36

in. Above: Sunscape: Dunes (detail), 2004. Onyx, travertine, and glass, 81 x

53 x 32 in.


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applying pigments, delicately pushing the

original tones into the dimensions of fantasy.

The results evoke the enchantment of illu-

minated underground caverns or the won-

der of playing with Magic Rocks, those

metallic crystals that grow before child-

hood eyes.

Because most of Mehlman’s sculptures

are relatively flat and unapologetically

frontal, they insist on direct engagement.

They look at us “face to face,” and we find

ourselves entering a meditative dialogue

with them, not unlike the type of practice

encountered in many religious traditions.

The way these sculptures are composed also

calls to mind processes used to create

Byzantine icons or to select and mount

Chinese garden stones and scholars rocks.

When an artist begins to “write” an icon

(interestingly, one “writes”—not “paints”—

an icon), the first step is a careful choice

of wood. Gradually, the layers of gesso, egg

tempera, and gold leaf are applied. The

image takes shape slowly, and the face

emerges last to become the focus of the

meditative eye. Though an icon is consid-

ered holy in itself, one does not pray “to,”

but “through” the image.

Stones of unusual shape have long

served a meditative role in Chinese culture.

Outdoor garden stones and smaller indoor

gongshi (scholars rocks) were sometimes

chosen for their resemblance to mountains

or caves, providing a spiritual gateway

to those “magical peaks and subterranean

paradises (grotto-heavens) believed to be

inhabited by immortal beings.” They were

also judged according to the four principals

of “thinness (shou), openness (tou), perfo-

rations (lou), and wrinkling (zhou).”* Mehl-

man likewise chooses his stones mindfully,

appreciating inherent aesthetic qualities

that might be subtly accentuated. Shou in

the onyx of Sunscape allows natural light

to shimmer through. Tou in Wedgework I

allows negative space to define the form.

Lou enables Scura Straits to encapsulate an

underwater landscape. Zhou brings the

desert to Sunscape: Dunes.

48 Sculpture 31.9

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Mineral Spring, Fountain, 2006. Travertine and

glass, 48 x 48 x 23 in.

Wadi Sfar, 2005. Onyx and glass, 55 x 38 x 20 in.


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At the appropriate point, Mehlman adds the layers of glass that

parallel the icon’s light-filled eye, the window through which we

experience the divine. InWadi Sfar, a slight tilt to the left and the

relationship between the yellow and purple shapes echo iconic

gesture. Imagine a sorrowful Madonna leaning to embrace her

child. It is as if Mehlman has welcomed Theophanes the Greek into

the Liu Yuan Garden in Suzhou, China. As the meditative eye gazes

through these sculptures, the sunlight beckons as it does through

the stone alignments at Avebury and Carnac, the circular con-

figuration of Stonehenge, and the solstice-illuminated passage

tomb of Newgrange.

Of course, Mehlman also draws inspiration from recent history

and a postmodern approach to materials. Like Brancusi, he treats

“bases” as integral to the sculptures. He mixes different types of

stone, glass, steel, and most recently, recycled wood from broken

furniture and invokes architecture (some of his commissioned pieces,

especially his fountains, respond directly to surrounding structures).

There are also resonances with Isamu Noguchi, David Nash, and Anish

Kapoor. But all of this takes a back seat to direct engagement with

the stuff of life. Mehlman’s sculptures take us into their own spatial

odyssey through matter and breath. While he may or may not liter-

ally believe that rock can be holy, he certainly believes that the best

art can be transcendent.

Note

* <http://www.metmuseum.org/special/scholar/scholar_more.html#museum>

Virginia Maksymowicz is an artist living in Philadelphia.


JANICEMEH

LMAN

Solar Arch, 2006. Onyx, 34 x 34 x 11 in.


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http://www.metmuseum.org/special/scholar/scholar_more.html#museum

CATHYCARVER

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Y,NY


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From plastic bits of detritus orchestrated into almost-geometric

form to meticulously choreographed, shifting compositions

rendered in wood and bronze, Tony Cragg has turned sculp-

ture on its ear. His work has pushed the medium in new direc-

tions, and his experiments with materials continue to evolve,

expanding notions of sculpture’s unseen, inner energies and

values. The linear dimensions inside a sculpture, in its silhou-

ette and shadows, play an increasingly significant part in his

explorations. Works like the “Figures of Thought” series use

plywood layers to create lines that disappear into the interior

of each piece. Cragg’s recent show at Marian Goodman in New

York featured large to monumental shapes that had to be

hoisted in through a fourth-floor window. Four more pieces—

one much too tall for the gallery—graced the atrium at 590

Madison Avenue.


ThinkingAboutThingsWe Can’tSee Tony Cragg

BY JAN GARDEN CASTRO

Opposite: Lost in Thought, 2011. Wood, 124.5 x

45.25 x 46.5 in. This page: Versus, 2010. Wood,

280 x 295 x 100 cm. View of work installed at the

Louvre, Paris.ANTO

NIE

MONGODIN/M

USÉ

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UVRE20

11,COURTESY

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THADDAEU

SROPA

C,PA

RIS/S

ALZBURG,ADAGP,20

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A Conversation with


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Jan Garden Castro: How does a piece like Lost in

Thought evolve? What is the beginning of the process?

Tony Cragg: In 2006–07, I made a series of works that

were more or less columns. They were elliptical in

cross-section, the ellipse being a useful formal device

because it gives you two axes, and I put different

drawings along the tangents of the axes. That enabled

a quite radical change of view as you walked around

the sculpture, more or less like Rodin’s comment:

“Sculpture is silhouette, silhouette, silhouette,”

changing from things that one recognizes or might

consider as profiles, then disappearing into abstract

sculptural volumes that one has to read for oneself.

One of those columns, though maybe more compli-

cated, is at the center of Lost in Thought. In a sense,

there is a figurative base to the sculpture. You very

rarely see a human figure in its entirety, and you never

experience a candid or open way to read what people

are thinking or feeling. We have learned so many socially

accepted conventions and mannerisms—whatever

happens, nobody finds out what we’re really thinking

or feeling. Lost in Thought is partly about the strategies

that we hide behind and use to represent ourselves.

I began with a central figure in wood—loosely fixed

together, but in a way that didn’t involve any jointing.

Once I’d established how the outer shells or parts should

be, I wanted to have a flowing, complete figure that

had a certain integrity, without strange foreign parts.

It’s quite a complicated work because any changes that

I make—even small ones—require the whole sculpture

to be taken apart into its constituent parts from the

top to the bottom. The whole thing is an enjoyable but

taxing process of looking at it, assessing it, finding out

what I feel about it, thinking about what I’m actually

seeing, what my ideas about it are, and, based on

those decisions, making the next step. It’s a long chain

of decisions. There is a starting point in my mind, but

it’s not where I’m going to end up. Making the sculp-

ture is more exciting and intelligent than trying to fig-

ure out what it’s going to look like. In doing it, it leads

me on—it’s a dialogue with the material.

JGC: How is it constructed?

TC: The layers are about an inch thick but made so that

they are sculpturally integral to the work. These inter-

connections have a point. The work is, in a sense, being

constructed out of many layers of wood into one solid

thing. During the making, they are all numbered. It’s

been taken apart dozens of times. After the final deci-

sion, it has to be taken apart and then glued and

screwed together in a consecutive sequence. We’ve

developed great tools to get around and into a piece.

JGC: Such as?

TC: There’s a company called Würt. They’re always

helping us find new solutions. They have developed

52 Sculpture 31.9

Above: Elbow, 2011. Wood, 300 x 102 x 398 cm. Below: Red Figure, 2011. Wood, 236 x 240

x 68 cm. View of work installed at the Louvre.

TOP:

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ENS,

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Y,NY/BOTTOM:CHARLESDUPR

AT,COURTESY

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Y,NY


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grinders and cutters and saws on long arms that go around corners if you want

to use them that way.

JGC: How many versions of Lost in Thought are there?

TC: At this point, there are four successive versions, each one getting larger.

The first was for myself. Then I made one that I was very happy with in Berlin.

There are two in New York, which are tower-like, and I’m in the middle of

trying to make two others that extend almost horizontally.

JGC: Could you talk about your early work from the ’70s using crushed rubble

and stacks of objects?

TC: I think that any sculptor’s life has two histories. One is the time that you’re

born into and you work into, and the other is one’s own personal history.

They’re obviously interconnected. In the late ’60s, I went to art school in

Britain thinking I was going to paint, but I found that I was more interested

in drawing and making things. One innovation from the time particularly

interested me, and that was making direct, primary contact with the material—

getting a piece of string and tying knots in it, digging a hole in the ground,

piling up earth, stacking materials, finding materials, categorizing materials,

using materials that nobody else had thought of using. There was the sense

that you could make something interesting with the materials of urban and

industrial reality. I was only 20 years old, but those works were very, very

important to me. As a student, I was influenced, ironically perhaps, by Arte

Povera, Mimimalism, and conceptual art.

At some point, I realized that all of this belonged to another generation and

it wasn’t my direction. I started to break out of process-making, making things

that had images in them and working with discarded material that had nei-

ther the grace of nature nor of use. I recuperated material to make things

that were somewhat geometric; but because of the material, it was impossible

to make them perfect. Stacking material up into a cube that was never going

to be a cube was a self-defeating thing. Everyone

thought it was an ironic use of plastic; actually, plas-

tic’s a beautiful, remarkable material. Britain in the

1950s was a dour place—everything was broken and

rusting. A plastic toy looked remarkably fresh, bright,

and colorful; it didn’t break down or rust like traditional

toys. Even a plastic bucket looked like something from

outer space. I grew up in that time, and it stuck with

me for a bit. It wasn’t meant at all ironically.

After a while, I didn’t feel that I had to go on making

material gestures. I wanted to have just primary steps—

particular things spread around and arranged, then

layering up, making geological strata, layers of skin,

like molecules, grains of sand. Then, having made

things that started as skin—a two-dimensional sur-

face spreading out—I ended up with a bubble—a

thing that joins up on itself, making a vessel. By the

early ’80s, vessels as objects were very important for

me. My works always had an interior and an exterior,

though maybe something different happens on the

inside and the outside. I went on to articulate those

neutral forms in a series called “Early Forms,” which

I started in 1984. It was a simple concept—an object

moving in space and morphing into another form. It’s

about considering, not the things we can see, but all

the things we can’t see. Our industrial systems don’t

allow us to do that.

Those works are still going on. I thought it would

be a simple thing, then I realized that if you move

something in a curve, it isn’t too transparent, and if


Manipulation, 2008. Bronze, 250 x 220 x 220 cm. View of work installed at the Louvre.

CHARLESDUPR

AT,COURTESY

MARIANGOODMANGALLER

Y,NYANDTH

ADDAEU

SROPA

CGALLER

Y,PA

RIS/S

ALZBURG


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you throw a bubble around, then turn and

twist, suddenly you’re cutting through the

same reality twice. It was quite difficult to

realize that sculpturally. I ended up making

works that you couldn’t see inside; the sur-

face was hermetic. So, I started making

works with holes in them called Envelope

or Thin Skins. I realized that bronze is a kind

of a blind—a substitute for another material.

You see it and think, “That’s a bone” or

“That’s a figure.” Then you bang on it, and

it rings hollow—I won’t say fake. It still has

a reference to the early works in its truthful-

ness: you can see the inside and the out-

side and the entry from the outside—the

moment of going into the sculpture. That

interested me and continues to interest me.

With Lost in Thought, the stratification

is still there, the desire to lead into the

volumes. When we walk through the world, I think there’s a force in our minds. The light

that comes into our eyes is always rebounding off the surface of the world around us.

There is a mental pressure of some kind that we would like to see beyond. Have you ever

seen how kids have to find their balance when they start to walk? Because they’re not

sure, they walk like we walk on ice. They touch things to see if their hands will go into

them. We would like to know what’s underneath the surface we’re looking at. It may

sound a bit cheeky, but I think it’s important. It’s a keyhole to thinking about the struc-

ture of materials, to thinking about the eternal problem of sculpture: Why does the sur-

face look like that? What internal forces are behind it? When you see a Roman or Greek

figure with its bulging muscles and veins, it shows that the material is supported with

some energy. The form gives the impression that there’s a living force under the skin of

the stone—it’s the same in Henry Moore—the bulges are a sign of vitality, a sign of

human life. Things are erect because the material cooks up an energy. That’s how every-

thing works. If you lay down on the floor, first of all, you’re a nuisance, but after a while,

if you don’t show any energy, you will turn into dust and disappear into the surface.

Ultimately, the internal structure of the material gives it its form.

JGC: In relation to energy, how did you decide what to show at the Louvre?

TC: The Louvre is full of 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century marble masterpieces. You can read

each form as a story, but a figure extending an arm or carrying a spear also implies the

54 Sculpture 31.9

LEFT:CHARLESDUPR

AT,COURTESY

MARIANGOODMANGALLER

Y,NYANDTH

ADDAEU

SROPA

CGALLER

Y,PA

RIS/S

ALZBURG/RIGHT:

COURTESY

MARIANGOODMANGALLER

Y,NY

Left: Accurate Figure, 2010. Bronze, 188 x 76 x 81 cm. Above: 2 views of Red Figure, 2008. Bronze,

207.96 x 209.86 x 41.91 cm.


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enormous pressure on this shoulder over

the centuries. The piece is demonstrating

a vital force. I don’t make figurative sculp-

ture, but by stacking something up, you

invest the stack with potential energy. I

thought it might be interesting to show

Elbow, which hangs out there; that’s his

pose for, as far as I’m concerned, eternity.

All of the works for the Louvre were cho-

sen for that purpose; the very big Versus

also derives from elliptical figures—lots

and lots of columns placed inside each

other. In a similar way, we can think of

the sun as a three-dimensional volume in

space by grace of its internal explosions.

It’s cooking, making itself and giving itself

its form. My hands have their shape because

every cell in my body is working to give

them that shape. If you change the shape

of the cells, you get a hybrid, a different

being. The Louvre works are all related to

that idea. Versus is an object that is boiling;

Elbow is part of the inside of that sculp-

ture, as are Runner and Red Figure. Other

works—such as Manipulation, which is

a bronze molded negatively—show that

every point on a surface is a value. I’m

interested in thinking about—and varying—

the internal structure of a thing in the

knowledge that this will change the out-

side. That’s the principle of my work. For

the best chess players, after you’ve made a

chain of decisions, you’re a long way from

your original intention. In art, you’ve got

something you’ve never seen before. That’s

what I enjoy—it’s a great journey.

JGC:What about the role of science? Some

of your works are named after cells, and I

know that you have worked in research.

TC: I always say that when I was 19, I

worked in a biochemistry laboratory, but that

doesn’t make me a scientist. I was a lowly

lab assistant. Science is primarily a great

observation system. Some people don’t

take the time to find out how a light switch

works, how the world functions on a simple

level. I’m not interested in making art out

of science—it always looks appalling, pious,

and pretentious. But I think that art gives

science value and makes sense of it. Art

can give meaning and value to the reality

around us, maybe even to our lives.

JGC: You have been quoted as saying that all artifacts are extensions of ourselves.

TC: They certainly are. That’s because in the household of nature, we’re a body living in

an existential framework. Every organism exists in a biological niche. Most simple organisms

can’t control their environment; they have no conscience about it. We are different. We’re

aware of all these things, so there has to be some mitigation between the landscape and

our body, the two big categories. Just standing or sitting on the naked earth, we’ve found,

is not a good way to survive. It’s much better to have a pair of shoes or something to

sit on. Our predicate for survival is to use extensions of the material world around us—

from picking up a rock to driving a Mercedes down Madison Avenue.

JGC: I overheard a collector talking about seeing phallic imagery in your work. There are

intimacies in your sculptures that turn objects into subjects with which people interact.

TC: That has to do with the making process. When I talk about my emotional responses

to a form, I never think about anybody else. The fundamental difference between art and

design is that a designer always has to think about recipients and does what he can to

engage them. With artists, on the other hand, the only person in the room is the artist

himself, and what happens later is another story. The minute that the artist starts to


MICHAEL

RICHTER,COURTESY

MARIANGOODMANGALLER

Y,NY

Runner, 2011. Bronze, 156 x 107.3 x 80 cm.


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think about the recipient, he’s in trouble. Art—sculpture—is extraordinary. Everything

else is ordinary. Sculpture is a very rare, human use of material in a very small category

of objects. It’s the only one that doesn’t have a utilitarian-backed function. It can be

incredibly, frighteningly free to do anything. Of course, we have to learn to think with

it. It’s like listening to some weird music that you’ve never heard before—you’ve got to

pay attention to find the internal structures. In the end, you look at it and understand

the structure. I do it for my own enjoyment. I’m assuming that gets written into the

material in the same way that a poet writes a poem and knows that of the people who

read it, somebody will understand what he’s talking about, even if it’s not using the

standards of utilitarian language.

JGC: As the director of the Kunstakadamie in Düsseldorf, what are your goals for stu-

dents?

TC: Students have some advantages and some disadvantages. Their great advantage is

that they’re young, and their great disadvantage is that they’re young. I was lucky;

when I went to art school, there was no media coverage of contemporary art, fewer

journals, museums, and curators. The art world was very, very small. In the last 50

years, it’s gotten out of hand, with almost more curators than artists. Today it is easier

for artists to do big projects and use museum facilities, but it is not easier to be an art

student. Students have all of this stuff around them. Their tendency is not to look at

botany or zoology, at complicated numbers or social structures—to observe something.

That’s what I think is important: observe something, get information about it, respond

to it emotionally, and then find a way of

interpreting your response into the material.

All of that takes a lot of time.

There’s a tendency for young artists to

be too influenced by the over-commercial-

ization of the art world. When they go into

museums, they’re confronted by a cast of

museum curators and critics. You worry

about students seeing what’s in the gal-

leries and being too heavily influenced

by the enormous attention paid to the art

world. They should do something for them-

selves. For that, they don’t need dogmas

and indications of how to do it; they need

time, freedom, encouragement, and help

when there are material and formal con-

cerns. That’s all you can do. In the end,

you can’t teach art. They have to do that

themselves.

JGC: Some people have compared your work

to that of Boccioni and Noguchi.

TC: I don’t mind that, but I don’t think

about other artists. Sculpture has developed

56 Sculpture 31.9

CHARLESDUPR

AT,COURTESY

MARIANGOODMANGALLER

Y,NYANDTH

ADDAEU

SROPA

CGALLER

Y,PA

RIS/S

ALZBURG

Mixed Feelings, 2010. Cast iron, 62 x 63 x 50 cm. View of work installed at the Louvre.


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in a dynamic manner over the last 100

years, even over the last 50 years. It has

changed from being a power symbol made

to represent human beings in their glory

into a basic study of the material world.

Unlike scientists though, we don’t try to

find out how the whole thing works. Artists

give meaning and value to the material

world. Everybody makes their contribu-

tion. There’s not a sculptor I know whose

work is not valid and part of the whole

development. In a city like New York, mil-

lions of tons of something are made

in a day—from pizzas to paper to books.

Probably just a few pounds of sculpture

get made. It’s a rare human activity in the

whole picture of human existence.

JGC: I’ve heard people say that your works

create music. Do you think that your work

has a synaesthetic effect, triggering senses

other than the visual?

TC: That’s an interesting question. In music, we’ve learned to hear structures, and we

know how to vary elements like pitch and harmony. With this structure, you com-

pose something in the air. It’s abstract by nature. As complicated as the world of

sound is, the world of vision is even more so. We experience vision as overwhelming

and, at times, chaotic. In fact, stare at it long enough, and you’ll find that it has

the same repetitive structures that can be varied and used in different ways to pro-

duce something almost musical. It’s like changing the cells of an organism—you’ll

have a different organism at the end because the interior structure determines the

outside result. As soon as I change the internal, formal construction that I’m using

from an ellipse to a circle or a compound form, then the outside form automatically

changes. You can change the material to have a resonant feeling. I’m not saying it’s

music, yet you can almost feel the composition coming out of it. In the future, I

believe we’ll be able to see into things, to develop a vision to see the material world

in a different way.

We simplify the world so terribly. One square meter of forest is as complicated as

the whole of New York. Nature has had millions of years to make complicated struc-

tures. We’ve been at it for only a short period of time, and the world is hungry for

simple solutions, so that’s what we get. Slowly, we’re accumulating more knowledge

and trying more variations. We’ve taken this planet over now. We will compose the

reality of the future, and we have to be very intelligent about it. Somebody has to

be responsible for our fate.

Art historian Jan Garden Castro is a Contributing Editor for Sculpture.


MICHAEL

RICHTER,COURTESY

MARIANGOODMANGALLER

Y,NY

Group, 2011. Cast iron, 65 x 56 x 49 cm.


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68 Sculpture 31.9

COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDSITU

ATIONS,

UNIVER

SITY

OFTH

EWES

TOFEN

GLA

ND,BRISTO

L

Olympics: London 2012

Festival

As the finale of the Cultural Olympiad,the London 2012 Festival fulfilled itspledge to create a nationwide cele-bration of the arts in conjunctionwith the Olympic Games. This kind ofcelebration is designed to appeasepeople, make them feel involved andpatriotic. Great effort was expendedon organizing the spectacle, whichmight have succeeded as a tempo-rary distraction from greater con-cerns, but could also leave a bitteraftertaste should the promise of anenduring legacy fail to improve long-term well-being. Though the epicen-ter of activity and most commis-sioned works remained firmly andpredictably anchored in London, thefestival also created tangible off-shoots across the breadth of the U.K.

Everything about the festival wasbig, loud, and participatory: indeed,participation was built into its remitfrom the outset. Martin Creedencouraged the whole nation to ringbells, any bells, for three minutes ina simultaneous and all-encompass-ing cacophony to herald the firstday of the games. Yoko Ono’s Smileproject invited participants to uploadtheir smiling photos to a globalportrait anthology, while Marc Rees’straveling art space, created from awingless airplane, involved viewersin a plethora of cultural activitiesat each of its designated locations.Participation can become routine,however, and result in works withno purpose other than satisfyingthe inclusion of the masses. JeremyDeller’s full-size inflatable replica ofStonehenge, a buoyant playground

really, toured the nation as a diver-sionary entertainment, becomingan inadvertent tribute to some ofthe excessive and vacuous strandsof the festival itself.As each location vied for attention,

separating the interesting from theinane became increasingly difficult.Equally problematic was the assump-tion that giving artists a theme, asite, and some money would leadthem to produce their best work.Offerings, therefore, ranged from theintriguing to the excruciating, tothe downright mundane. RichardWilson deserved attention for pre-cariously dangling a full-size replicacoach off the edge of Bexhill’s De LaWarr Pavilion to re-create the finalscene from The Italian Job. Not to beoutdone, Oded Hirsch installed a liftcrashing through the ground in the

heart of Liverpool, much to the con-sternation of passersby. Hans PeterKuhn sited red and yellow flags,rotating freely in the wind, along thelength of the bay of Port Noffer inGiant’s Causeway, while a spinningcloud column by Anthony McCallrose to infinity from the WirralWaters in the North West.Some of the commissioned works

took on a distinct life of their own.In Nowhereisland, conceived by AlexHartley, a piece of geography mas-queraded as a public artwork. Thisnomadic enterprise took the form ofan Arctic island that journeyed 500nautical miles around the SouthWest coast, hosted by eight ports

reviews

Alex Hartley, Nowhereisland, 2011–

12. Traveling Arctic island, dimen-

sions variable.


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and harbors and accompanied by itsown mobile embassy. Hartley dis-covered the island eight years ago,and on its initial withdrawal fromNorway, he developed it into a trav-eling, multifaceted project. Equallyesoteric was Exploratory Laboratory’sfusion of art, geology, and technol-ogy along the Jurassic Coast—a 95-mile section of coastline betweenDorset and East Devon. Here, art-works developed over an eight-month research period and commis-sioned by the visual arts collective,Big Picture, sprang from the geolog-ically sculpted Mesozoic landscape.The investigation aimed for freshinsights into an ancient worldthrough geomapping and land-scan-ning technologies with the capacityto make the invisible visible. Find-ings were presented in the form offieldtrips and installations.In London, the Olympic Delivery

Authority’s Art in the Park programdeveloped a series of commissionsover a period of two years and fusedthem into the infrastructure ofthe Olympic Park. This was a brand-ing exercise on a scale never beforewitnessed: made-to-order and cor-porate in feel, these works attempt-ed, through size alone, to make upfor an inherent lack of purpose. Theprojects had little aesthetic or intel-lectual value, other than their oblig-atory participation in this mam-moth celebration of sport and cul-ture. Here, artists were locked intoa committee-imposed scheme thatencouraged competition and self-perpetuating hierarchies of domina-tion. Many of the works are intendedto be permanent. Whether visitorswill travel to see them once theglitz has ceased and the artworkssettle into the scenery is, of course,a matter for posterity.At nine meters high, Monica Bon-

vicini’s RUN is the largest stand-alonework in the park, and it stronglyresembles an overblown corporatelogo. The three steel and glass let-ters reflect their surroundings during

the day and glow psychedelically atnight with internal LED lighting.Ackroyd and Harvey’s History Treeseach support a 500-kilogram metalring, symbolically marking the 10entrances to the 500-acre park, whileCarsten Nicolai transformed the fiveOlympic rings into an image of alow-frequency oscillation sound waveand digitally printed it on a fence.Not all of the commissions willendure beyond 2012: Running Waterby Peter Lewis and Bit.fall by JuliusPopp were both commissionedas temporary water features. KeithWilson’s brightly colored Steles(Waterworks), a chain of nauticalmonoliths, were designed to be usedfor boat moorings after the games.Artistic endeavor inspired by the

Olympic Games is not a new concept;the idea dates back to the originalgames in eighth-century BCE Greece.There, the mood was also competi-tive, as artists congregated to displaytheir works to potential patrons,who commissioned works from someof the greatest sculptors of thetime. Likewise, some of the U.K.’smost revered artists, now pillars ofthe establishment, produced newwork for the festival. AntonyGormley exhibited a stage elementdesigned for the production ofWaiting for Godot at Castle Coole inEnniskillen. Rachel Whiteread creat-ed a frieze to complete the historicfaçade of the Whitechapel ArtGallery, more than a century after itwas first proposed by Walter Crane,and Yinka Shonibare’s life-size GlobeHead Ballerina, inspired by the leg-endary dancer Margot Fonteyn,slowly rotated over the entrance tothe Royal Opera House.With images of a regal London

beaming across the world, it waseasy to forget that great swathes ofthe U.K. still lie barren, a wastelandneglected and ignored by consecu-tive governments. People wanderthe streets aimless, jobless, andhomeless, while the privileged minor-ity repeatedly make empty promises

and flawed decisions from their basein the capital. The games havealways been a political tool, and thisgovernment has pledged a lastingOlympic legacy in terms of newjobs, homes, and the developmentof thriving communities. Art has

Top: Marc Rees, Adain Avion, 2012.

Full-size wingless airplane. Center:

Jeremy Deller, Sacrilege, 2012. Life-

size inflatable Stonehenge replica.

Bottom: Monica Bonvicini, RUN,

2012. Glass and stainless steel, 9

meters high.TOP:

WARREN

ORCHARD/CEN

TER:ANGELACATLIN/BOTTOM:DAV

IDPO

ULTNEY


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70 Sculpture 31.9

TOP:

ARCELORMITTA

L

been entrusted with a significantrole in this future vision. Billionswere invested in the Olympics, sothe stakes are high.With this in mind, Britain’s biggest-

ever piece of public art—AnishKapoor’s £22.7 million ArcelorMittalOrbit—is a phenomenal exercise inproduct placement: ArcelorMittal, akey funder of the project, is a globalsteel production company with oper-ations in more than 60 countries.Intellectual integrity was undeniablysacrificed in the development of thisbrash tower, which, at 115 metershigh, has been dubbed one of theworld’s tallest sculptures—a struc-ture to challenge both the height ofthe Statue of Liberty and the iconicstatus of the Eiffel Tower. It has tobe said that this vertiginous struc-ture, designed as a major visitorattraction, would not look out of

place on Blackpool Pleasure Beach.The festival offered an opportunityto showcase the U.K. to the world:the louder the message, the greaterthe chance of being noticed. Orbit’sfuture purpose is well defined—toserve as a conduit for investmentand a shining beacon for regenera-tion in what has historically been agrossly neglected area of London.Creating artworks to order nearly

always results in discordant compro-mise. Not that wealthy sponsors arenew to artistic endeavor—far fromit—and to some degree, artists’choices have always been subject toeconomic, political, and moral con-straints. However, when an artworkassumes a municipal appearance tothe detriment of artistic integrity, avital ingredient has gone adrift. Inthe Art in the Park commissions, theaesthetic and the social merge into

a spectacle of vast proportions, andthis kind of commodification elimi-nates the idea of originality or dis-covery. The relationship between artand economics is notoriously diffi-cult; egotistical forces also play asignificant role. It is perplexing, forinstance, that ArcelorMittal Orbitbears the name of its funder, whilethe Eiffel Tower—to which it is fre-quently compared—is named afterits designer, Gustave Eiffel.The transformation of east London

into a world-class tourist destinationin time for the Olympics—with artbranded good for business—waslargely achieved. The festival is sup-posed to act as a springboard for1,000 unemployed young people inthe Host Boroughs to find jobs in thearts over the next few years, and itis imperative that this kind of tangi-ble aftermath be achieved. EastLondon may thrive under the sym-bolic auspices of Orbit, but there isa danger that many of its poverty-stricken residents will be ejectedfrom their neighborhoods to makeroom for wealthier inhabitants—

one of the eternal downsides ofregeneration. The summer of 2012will undoubtedly be rememberedfor an invigorating—if somewhatuneven and controversial—fusionof sport and culture. But a lastinglegacy? Only time will tell.

—Ina Cole

Santa Monica

Masayuki Oda

Lora Schlesinger Gallery

Masayuki Oda’s recent work consistsof familiar-looking things made moreinteresting and sculptural becausethey are out of proportion, funny,or very abstract. Several objects arestrange re-makes of the ordinaryand overlooked, and all of them arecute to some degree. Thoughhe draws some of his imagery frombanal objects, the work has no con-nection to issues of consumerismor mass-production; instead, Oda’sinsistent humor, particularly inthe choice of materials and wackydistortions, gives it some bite. Everyobject has a title that plays off theimage: Anonymous is a ghostly

Top: Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, ArcelorMittal Orbit, 2012. Steel and red

paint, 115 meters high. Above: Richard Wilson, Hang on a Minute Lads, I’ve

Got a Great Idea, 2012. Life-size model of a bus. Right: Masayuki Oda, Frozen

Chicken, 2009. Fabricated bronze, 11.5 x 9 x 14 in.


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paper bag with holes for eyes andmouth; Enlightenment consists ofan industrial-sized wall lamp withan extra-large light bulb. The pun-ning adds an element of discomfort,an antidote to so much “cute.”What makes Oda’s work worth

looking at is the way that it’s made.Each piece is a one-of-a-kind bronze,neither cast nor editioned. Theyhave the feel of handmade objects,of something made directly. Thesurfaces are modulated, a bit impre-cise. Oda works in an oddly Minimal-ist fashion; his sculptures are pared-down but inflected by the means offabrication.Only a few pieces resemble things

usually made out of metal, but everywork is polished and patinated. Thepatinas are very traditional—darkbrown, silver, polished bronze, cop-per, and black. There is the preciouslook of bronze sculpture, but alsoa mockery of that tradition, as inWallwalker, a life-size pair of heavyboots stuck onto the wall at a rightangle and ennobled by transforma-tion into shiny bronze. In this show,the sculptures benefited from prox-imity; no object was more thana few feet away from the next. Youcouldn’t look at the side of a stove-pipe (Exhaustion) without seeing awing-nut (Wound-up) on the oppo-site wall or a faucet/phallus (SizeCounts) on the left. The experiencewas more like a hallucination than avision, drawing together completelyunrelated objects: a Giacometti-esque pair of chicken legs meets alarge white eyeball, a wing-nut, anarrow. Several objects in this menag-erie, such as Sucker (a shiny bronzecylinder with four bronze disks forfeet) and Warrior (a small herd ofsheep-like objects), are completelyimaginary.The unlikeliest “vision” in the exhi-

bition was Day Dreaming, a largegrouping of thought bubbles ren-dered as a two-part, black andwhite cartoon drawing on bronze.Awkwardly curved, narrow edges

raise the ovals slightly off the wall.This was the most cerebral piece inthe show, in part because of its mini-mal quality; it was also the mostsuggestive in its austerity. Comparedto Oda’s other works, which are self-referential, identifiable, andanchored to their likenesses, DayDreaming is tentative, imprecise,and more intelligent than clever.Despite its comic-book ties, DayDreaming offers an uncomfortableblank, a cipher.Oda loves commonplace things;

he wants to transform them, makethem art, preserve them in bronze.His work is meant to make the view-er re-envision these ordinary objectsand rescue them from the worldof utility and invisibility. Despite thepunning humor, a Proustian senti-ment is at work here: “Even whenone is no longer attached to things,it’s still something to have beenattached to them.”

—Kathleen Whitney

Miami

Ruben Ochoa

Locust Projects

Ruben Ochoa’s many talents includeexcavating and revealing hiddentruths. His recent installation atLocust Projects was a fitting “lastshow” for a soon-to-be-demolishedbuilding. In conjunction with thisexhibition, Ochoa also created theironically and literally titled A Bit ofDetritus for the James Cohan Galleryat Art Basel Miami. Ten slabs ofaggregate with a terrazzo edge andVenetian finish were threaded ontoa central metal rod to form a 5,000-pound column. The constructionevoked a major “foundation” ofWestern civilization—Rome’s discov-ery of pozzolana, a volcanic ash thatbecame the key ingredient in con-crete. The slabs also suggested crum-bling, present-day economies.Cores and Cutouts at Locust

explored the space above and belowthe floor. During a nine-month ges-tation period, Ochoa and his studio

director Cam La built life-size card-board models of the proposed inter-vention in his Los Angeles studio.They took a core sample of the earthbelow the gallery to further assessthe feasibility of the project. Installa-tion required five weeks: Ochoa andhis small crew opened up the floor,cutting out seven giant squares witha circular saw. Ochoa’s cutsappeared as crisp lines “drawn” intothe floor, extending just beyond the“corners” of each square. The crewthen used a chipping hammer to digdown through layers of sand, earth,limestone, and coral—increasinglydense substances. Most of the exca-vated material was removed, but

some was sorted by color—fromdark earth to yellow, to pink coraland light gray limestone—andplaced in discrete piles on theremaining floor areas. An angledmetal post was planted in each ofthe seven excavated pits, and thedisplaced floor squares were mount-ed on top of the posts. Rebar, evi-dence of a fire 100 years ago, andother anomalies could be seen inboth the slabs and the excavatedstrata. Even though the installationmoved forward in the knowledgethat the building was going to betorn down, the excavated areas andfloor had to be restored at the endof the show.

Top and detail: Ruben Ochoa, Cores and Cutouts, 2011. Concrete, dirt, and

mixed media, installation views.


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Ochoa’s work requires an activeexploration of each site and ardu-ous physical labor in order to acti-vate and reveal the space. As heexposes unexplored relationshipsbetween raw earth, built environ-ment, and the psyche of civilization,he demonstrates not only how artcomes into being, but also howhumans destroy one thing in orderto create another. This is a rarevision—and a rewarding one forviewers who pay attention to thespirit as well as the body of the work.

—Jan Garden Castro

Boston

Swoon

Institute of Contemporary Art

Self-styled street artist and activistSwoon (a.k.a. Caledonia Curry)recently contributed a site-specificwork to the ICA’s 75th-anniversarycelebrations. While officially part ofa series on the Sandra and GeraldFineberg Art Wall, AnthropoceneExtinction leapt off the wall as soonas possible, erupting into a long,ribbony chain of paper and cloth, likea giant kindergarten art project,that culminated in a 400-pound,suspended sculpture next to theICA’s glass elevator. During its instal-lation, visitors took more than thenecessary number of elevator rides—they were mesmerized.Walking into the museum, viewers

immediately encountered animmense portrait of a 90-year-oldAboriginal woman on a copper-col-ored wall. This is where most peo-ple, I think, began the journey—even though an ICA label instructedyou to start at what I saw as theend, the huge sculpture next to theelevator. The woman was renderedin Swoon’s signature style, thescratchy strokes representing one ofthe last nomads on earth, someonewho travels with the seasons inorder to find food, the antithesis ofthe typical ICA visitor en route to asophisticated café. This incongruousfigure introduced one of the instal-

lation’s primary themes—industri-alized society destroying ancientlifestyles and the environment.Anthropocene Extinction moved

quickly, turning into that ribbonof drippy cut paper and lengths ofshredded white cloth. The projectinhabited a cluttered, busy space,with ticket counters, café entrance,and shop all competing with it—and losing. Swoon is accustomed toworking in the streets, so she makesaggressive work that is nearly impos-sible to ignore. She contributedto the Konbit Shelter Project in post-earthquake Haiti, using scavenged

materials to create sustainablehousing. She has also made motor-ized rafts out of found materials;these vessels, which have traveleddown the Mississippi and HudsonRivers, created a sensation at the2009 Venice Biennale. The authoritieshad denied Swoon permission tosail down the Grand Canal, but onthe last night of her two-week stay,she and her team thwarted the pro-hibition and entered the Canal any-way. As all of this indicates, Swoonoften works with collaborators. Forthe ICA project, she had eight helpersworking on the hanging sculpture

in Pennsylvania; in Boston, sheworked with two assistants, half adozen art handlers, and eight localvolunteers.The progress of the ICA piece was

lyrical and logical; the long chainlinked all of the elements togetherto create a single large work, 40feet high. The paper chain embodiedanother of the installation’s themes,interdependence. Despite its size,the chain had a certain delicacy, andfollowing it was as irresistible asfollowing the yellow brick road in TheWizard of Oz.The reward was the dramatic hang-

ing sculpture. Its armature consistedof bamboo sticks lashed together,and its form recalled a tiered tem-ple. Cut paper birds, fish, skeletons,lizards, spiders, hammerheadsharks, beetles, sea horses, and otherfauna inhabited the sculpture, waft-ing gently in the air currents. Werethese creatures threatened withextinction? They seemed to be takingrefuge in the temple as if it were anairborne Noah’s Ark.

—Christine Temin

Mountainville, New York

“Light & Landscape”

Storm King Art Center

“Light & Landscape,” organized byStorm King associate curator NoraLawrence, was inspired by AlysonShotz’s Mirror Fence (2003), a 130-foot-long stretch of mirrored picketsthat reflect the viewer’s every move-ment, along with the beauty of thesurrounding landscape. The show,which remains on view through Nov-ember 25, features 14 artists whouse the light of the sun as a centralcomponent of their work.Katie Holton’s Sun Clock (Making

Time) (2012) tells the time of dayby using shadows cast by viewers asthey stand in front of 12 monthly,planet-shaped markers. Lunar (2011),

Swoon, Anthropocene Extinction,

2011. Mixed media, detail of instal-

lation.


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Spencer Finch’s solar-powered geo-desic dome becomes startlinglyvisible at night; from the thruway,it resembles an object from outerspace. Peter Coffin’s delightfullyunexpected Untitled (Bees MakingHoney) (2012) consists of a fenced-in area containing four active bee-hives that highlight sunlight’simportant role in apian navigationand the production of honey.Inside the gallery, Anthony McCall’s

1972 video Landscape for Fire showsa series of geometrically timed firesin the middle of a sports field. RoniHorn’s five colored photographs(2009–10) document the effects ofchanging weather conditions on awoman’s face. Her sky-blue glasscube polished to a fare-thee-well isinstalled nearby. Peter Coffin’sUntitled (Yellow Outline) (2008–12),a solitary window treated with athin layer of translucent yellow film,casts a yellow shadow across thespace.Transitional Objects (2010–11), two

of Shotz’s laser-cut acrylic sculptures,use the reflected light streamingthrough the windows to bring thehidden rainbow colors of the sunto life. In Solarium (2012), WilliamLamson presents a glimmeringglass house composed of hundredsof small, baked sugar panels sand-wiched between panes of glass. Thekaleidoscopic structure, which herefers to as an “experimental green-house,” houses a few plants in theprocess of photosynthesis.Equally magical, though its full

process remains invisible, KatiePaterson’s Streetlight Storm (2009)uses Skype to connect the lanternsabove the building’s entrances toan antenna in Britain. That device,which detects lightning from theArctic Circle to North Africa, transmitsits data to the lanterns and causesthem to flicker. In Paterson’s 100Billion Suns (2011), a hand-held can-non discharges 3,216 pieces of con-fetti, representing the 3,216 timesthat sunbursts have been photo-

graphed since 1960. Shot off everyafternoon, this fusillade of confettiis a celebration of creativity.

—Edward Rubin

New York

Frieze Art Fair Sculpture Park

Randall’s Island Park

The arrival of London’s huge andtrendy Frieze Art Fair was the NewYork City art world event of May2012. A long, subtly slithering,gigantic white tent was erected onRandall’s Island for the occasion, toaccommodate the gallerists’ individ-ual booths. Along the western flank,sculpture was installed in an areadesignated (rather optimistically) asa “sculpture park,” where “newselected works by emerging artists,curated by Tom Eccles” could beviewed free of charge—though howSubodh Gupta, Jaume Plensa,Matthew Ritchie, Ernesto Neto, andthe late Louise Bourgeois couldbe qualified as emerging artists, I donot know. For the record, Ritchie’scontribution was a no-show—a notinsignificant factor in an exhibitionfeaturing only 14 works from an evensmaller number of galleries.While searching for Ritchie’s work,

I saw two shopping carts filled withstuff, the kind of mobile installationcreated by homeless people who canonce again be seen pushing alongcity streets, and wondered for amoment if these, too, were artworks(though I quickly concluded other-wise). The confusion was increasedunnecessarily by a lack of informa-tion—neither Ritchie’s absence fromthe exhibition nor descriptions ofthe featured sculptures were record-ed anywhere. The shopping carts,abandoned near pricey, supposedlycutting-edge sculpture, struck amelancholy note, as a fair numberof multi-millionaires swooped acrossthe oblong island—with its hugepsychiatric clinic, elevated highway,and a motley view of Manhattan onthe other side of the East River—togather additional trophies.

Eccles’s exhibition featured abstractbiomorphic, abstract geometric,and figurative work. Various materi-als were also on display, includingconcrete, polished steel, bronze,and painted metal. Some work fea-

tured closed volumes (Bourgeoisand Gupta), the traditional approachto sculpture. Other work was builtup of open planes (Katja Strunz andNeto), a category developed exactlya century ago in Picasso’s cardboard

Top: Alyson Shotz, Transitional Object (figure #1), 2010, and Transitional Object

(figure #2), 2011. Dichroic acrylic, 63 x 45 x 31 in. each. Above: Spencer Finch,

Lunar, 2011. 2 solar panels with charger, light-emitting diodes, lamp fixture,

lead, aluminum, stainless steel, and polycarbonate, 136 x 200 x 138 in. Both

from “Light & Landscape.”


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74 Sculpture 31.9

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IEZEand sheet-metal guitars. Other

sculptures were constructed of lines,including Tomas Saraceno’s Pollux(2012), one of the better worksin the show, which subtly acknowl-edged its roots in Synthetic Cubismand the engineering strategies ofKenneth Snelson. Though differentapproaches appeared, the selections

had an air of déjà vu. Joshua Cal-laghan’s Two Dollar Umbrella (2011),apparently broken by a suddengush of wind, was too reminiscentof Oldenburg (a banal object on amonumental scale). Ryan Gander’sEverything is Learned (2010), asunburst of concrete cones, usesthe same base, cheap material

employed for an unexpectedly largenumber of sculptures displayedinside the big tent (which could beaccessed for a whopping entrancefee of $40, including bus or boattransport to Randall’s Island). Theidea of geometrically regularizeddispersion, embodied by Gander’ssculpture, can be traced backto certain pictures by Salvador Dali.Jeppe Hein’s polished steel Geomet-ric Mirrors I (2010), on the otherhand, is an elegant work of classicgeometric abstraction. Its foldedand cut-through reflective surfaceadds, as in certain works by DanGraham, just the right amount ofvisual confusion, mixing up surfaceand depth, nature, and themachine-made.

—Michaël Amy

New York

Carol Mickett and Robert

Stackhouse

The Lab Gallery

Breath of Water, an installation cre-ated by the collaborative team ofCarol Mickett and Robert Stackhousefor the window space of The LabGallery, consisted of thin strips oflight-colored wood radiating out-ward from a central nexus. Attachedto beams above them and gentlymoving, the strips echoed what mightbe described as the wind’s breathover water. No one was allowed to

enter the space; viewers could onlysee the installation from the out-side (like looking into an aquariumtank). The sculpture impressivelycombined philosophical notions withsubtle, experimental representa-tions of the idea of water—Mickettbrings a background in ancientphilosophy to her partnership in artwith Stackhouse, a more conven-tionally trained artist. For about 10years now, the two have collaboratedon projects that promote intellectualideas through physical embodiment.Here, the duo saw water architec-turally. The enclosed space wasfilled, in theory but not in practice,with water that would flow out intothe street if the glass were broken.Breath of Water alluded to the work

of two Greek philosophers, Thalesand Heraclitus. Thales spoke of theomnipresence of water—the notionthat everything is water—and rec-ognized water’s ability to changeshape. Heraclitus articulated the ideathat you can never step into thesame stream twice, a concept thatemphasizes flow and time; hisobservation implies that the self isdeeply affected by change and doesnot remain constant. As a structure,the sculpture was simple but effec-tive, influenced by the currents ofair that made their way inside thespace. It was abstract and did notshow water, or its movement, in anydirectly recognizable way, but theidea of water, its ability to changesubtly, was beautifully portrayed.Breath of Water merged ancient

ideas with a physical constructionvery much in line with contempo-rary works of a Minimalist bent.Watching the paper-thin strips ofwood moving, the viewer wasreminded of the seemingly effortlessrise of the sea. This image, in turn,conjured the effect of wind—orin Mickett and Stackhouse’s term,“breath”—on water. Their partner-ship was especially effective in thiswork with its conflation of idea andimage, concept and structure. The

Top: Rathin Barman, Untitled, 2010. Welded iron rod structure and found con-

struction debris, 20 x 18 x 7 ft. Above: Jeppe Hein, Geometric Mirrors I,

2010. Aluminum, stainless steel, and high-polished steel, 78.75 x 39.25

x 39.25 in. Both from Frieze Art Fair Sculpture Park.


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visuals succeeded in part becausethe piece embodied knowledge oftimeless philosophical concepts andin part because its construction washighly current, addressing the visuallanguage of our time.

—Jonathan Goodman

New York

“Jesús Soto: Paris and

Beyond, 1950–1970”

Grey Art Gallery,

New York University

Venezuelan-born Jesús Soto, a majorfigure in avant-garde, mid-20th-cen-tury sculpture, left his country forParis in 1950. As the intriguing andhistorically informative “Jesús Soto:Paris and Beyond, 1950–1970”points out, he took quickly to theprogressive Parisian milieu, makingfriends with Yves Klein and JeanTinguely. The artists in their circle,including, on the periphery, com-poser Pierre Boulez and critic PierreRestany, looked at the found materi-als of urban life as a solution to theprivileged use of traditional artmediums. Though there was a strongleftward slant to their philosophy,coming as it did after the defeat offascism, most of their attentionfocused on dematerializing the artobject, that is, conceptualizing thecreative impulse to reflect artisticprocess over completed work. Soto,who began as a painter influencedfirst by Cézanne and then by Mon-drian, soon moved into the realm

of three dimensions, although hissculptures, developed through over-lays, tended toward planar frontalityand shallow depth.La cocotte (1956), for instance,

consists of black and white stripespainted on sharply angled piecesof wood. As the work rotates on astring, the planes shift and change,prefiguring Lygia Clark’s work withfolding geometric panels. In responseto the ideas of Klein and the otherNew Realists, Soto began to manu-facture sculptures made of recycledmaterials: wood, metal, wire, andnails. These pieces might lack thegeometric precision of the earlieroverlays, but they gain a rough-and-tumble integrity from Soto’s refusalto shape them according to any

formalist need. The raw intelligenceof Mural (1961), a mural-size dip-tych made in one day, demonstratestheir effectiveness. The left side con-tains black-painted materials takenfrom the street—refuse, buildingsupplies, pipes, and brooms. On theright half, tangles of barbed wireand black geometric forms are sus-pended in front of Soto’s signaturebackground of black and white ver-tical lines. This part of the sculpturerepresents an ongoing attemptto dematerialize the art object andbring the viewer in as an activeconstituent whose movement causesswift, seemingly motion-filledchanges in the work.For me, the most exciting sculp-

tures in the show were the overlays,

which Soto began soon after movingto Paris. By overlapping two or threeplanes of painted Plexiglas, he didtwo things: first, he created patternsthat rely on contrasting imageryachieved through layered depths;and second, he made viewers com-plicit in the experience of his work.Soto’s angled lines, usually in frontof a background of vertical stripes,move along with the viewer, anaction that further destabilizes theobject by negating single-pointviewing. Other outstanding piecesinclude muddles of wire placed infront of similar backgrounds of alter-nating black and white stripes—one of the most beautiful is Untitled(Writing) (1962). Completely non-objective but also highly lyrical,Writing compels the viewer’s inter-est by abstracting language to sim-plified, linear forms. Early on, Sotowas able to see how movement anddepth would make his imagery moreintricate; strikingly, he was able toparlay this insight into three-dimen-sional images for the length of his

Left: Carol Mickett and Robert Stack-

house, Breath of Water, 2012.

Florida cypress and paper, 8 x 35 x

18 ft. Below: Jesús Soto, Mural,

1961. Paint, wire, and mixed media

on wood, 278 x 493 x 62 cm.


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76 Sculpture 31.9

career. Because he is not fully knownin America, this show performed aconsiderable service, showing Sotoas the influential, highly creativeartist that he was.

—Jonathan Goodman

Columbus, Ohio

“Carved and Whittled

Sculpture: American Folk Art

Walking Sticks from the Hill

Collection”

Columbus Museum of Art

Former Cranbrook Academy of Artsculptor-in-residence Michael Hallhas challenged art world conventionsfor more than four decades. Thoughhe has created a significant bodyof work during that time, his effortsas a critic, curator, and collector havebeen arguably more influential.In the 1960s and 1970s, he playeda key role in shifting considerationof American folk art from old-timeycurio to artistic expression demand-ing to be judged through the lensof contemporary aesthetics. In the1980s and 1990s, he rescued theoutput of mid-century artists workingin the Great Lakes region from virtualoblivion by using postmodern con-cepts of identity, site-specificity, andwhat we now term relational aes-thetics. More recently, he surveyedcreations of the First Peoples for theCanadian government. This winter,Hall was at it again, mounting anexhibition of hand-carved walkingsticks from the collection of Pamelaand Tim Hill.The show featured 105 examples,

created between the mid-19th andmid-20th centuries, which Hall pro-poses be viewed as sculpture at itsmost elemental. In good curatorialfashion, he parsed out the objectsaccording to categories of style,iconography, and form. One category,“Intimate Observations,” includedworks inspired by close encounterswith plants, animals, and people.Another category consisted of“Reflections of Shared Identity.” Theseworks reference various aspects of

community, from the patriotic sym-bols of the national imaginationto the hermetic codes of fraternalorganizations, to the allegories ofBiblical parables.A crucial section of the exhibition

gathered works that could be identi-fied as the creations of individual

carvers. These pieces demonstrate aunique, sustained vision on the partof their creators, many of whosenames are known to us. As sociolo-gist Gary Alan Fine, who credits Hall’srole in mapping the aesthetic ter-rain of contemporary folk art, notesin his study Everyday Genius: Self-Taught Art and the Culture of Authen-ticity, the creation of the label (insociological parlance “subjectivity”)of “artist” is essential to the recog-nition of certain cultural productionsas belonging to that rarified activityknown as art, a category that nowincludes the self-taught.Hall’s claim sinks or swims on the

evidence of the works themselves.Here, their sophisticated engagementwith form and material persuaded.The late-19th-century Root with Sug-gestive Rib Cage Form, for instance,bends and twists the wood into acohesive visual unit whose nervouslines evoke the figures of Giac-ometti.Man’s Head Over Ball in Cageand Geometric Shaft (1930), carvedfrom a single piece of wood, includesthree free-floating balls containedin a cage near the top, a column

that reads like a mash-up of RomareBeardon and Brancusi.In his essay, Hall notes, “As physi-

cal forms in space, carved walkingsticks provide a rare insight intosculpture as an art of transforma-tion.” This exhibition testified to theveracity of his statement.

—Vince Carducci

Newport, Rhode Island

China Blue

Newport Art Museum

Over the last 10 years, sound hasestablished itself on solid footing,solid enough to be considered seri-ously by museums and critics asanother form of sculpture. Duringthis same period, China Blue, a fore-runner in the so-called contempo-rary sound art movement, beganto think about scientifically miningthis territory in the most originaland unorthodox ways.After beginning as a painter, China

Blue realized that creating withthe implied structure of energy inspace, the geography of sound, washer true calling. Using recordingdevices, she began to study soundsabove and below the frequenciesdetectable by the human ear. Workscapturing the Eiffel Tower’s vibrations(2007) and the underwater soundspervading Venice’s canals duringaqua alta—exhibited at OPEN XI onthe Lido in 2008—brought her tointernational attention and set the

Left: Anonymous, Root with Sug-

gestive Rib Cage Form, late-19th

century. Carved and painted root, 38

x 6 x 4 in. From “Carved and Whittled

Sculpture.” Below: China Blue, Firefly

2.0, 2010. Pager motor, flashing LEDs,

and guitar strings, installation view.


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stage for two grants from NASA, aswell as a 2012 New Genres grantfrom the Rhode Island State Councilof the Arts.China Blue continues to study and

sample acoustic phenomena. In2009, she recorded the sounds ofNASA’S Vertical Gun, a device thattests hypervelocity impacts. In2011, she recorded sounds heard inthe atmosphere from a weather bal-loon, using microphones embeddedin an artificial head. Recently, shehas widened her purview to includethe biometric. In Hygro Rhizome(2010), a biomimetic work firstexhibited at the University of RhodeIsland, she constructed a groupof six interconnected, root-like struc-tures, each with electronics thatmonitor the water level in a beaker.As long as there is water, the rhi-zomes remain illuminated.“Firefly Projects,” China Blue’s

most comprehensive and complexexhibition to date, drew inspirationfrom the iconic summertime insects.The biometric fireflies in the sculp-tural works called attention todwindling firefly populations in thereal world, where they are threat-ened by light pollution and urbansprawl. Housed in a small, darkenedgallery, the installation becamean otherworldly experience of eerie,data-driven sounds, twinkling bluelights, and electrifying photographs.The nighttime photographs col-

lected in Firefly Cloud depict clustersof wind-blown LEDs programmedwith flashing light patterns thatimitate the signals emitted by fire-flies in their quest for a mate. FireflyBook, its spine illuminated by 3D-printer fireflies terminating in blink-ing LEDs, added more drama, buttwo 7.5-foot trees, their woodenbranches blanketed with flashingfireflies, commanded pride of placein the show. The work was construct-ed from recycled power cables,wooden dowels, 3D-printed fireflies,LEDs, and speakers. The blinkinglights and soothing audio, both

programmed to mimic the rhythmicmating call of the North Americanfirefly, transported viewers back tonostalgic childhood days of collect-ing fireflies in a jar.

—Edward Rubin

Ottawa, Canada

David Askevold

National Gallery of Canada

As David Askevold’s recent retrospec-tive “Once Upon a Time in the East”demonstrated, Pop, Minimalism, andmedia culture could all be partof conceptual art. As Askevold com-

mented in 2008, “I never thoughtconceptual art should be a style.I thought of it as a way to questionassumptions and to comment on arthistory, and also on subjects outsideof art, in order to expand the bound-aries of art beyond the tastes andstyles that had been dominant forso long.”Don’t Eat Crow (1994), a little the-

ater (actually a store-bought Cana-dian Tire shed) sat in the center ofone exhibition space at the NationalGallery of Canada. Sounds emergedas viewers approached, temptingthem to enter and take a seat towatch the video. A passive, searchingvoice recounts the correspondencebetween a would-be writer and hermuch-hoped-for future publisher overimages of a crow, the “trickster”in native lore. This beautiful, elegiac

installation captures the spirit of the1970s remarkably.Photogenic print stills from Aske-

vold’s performance Johannes Kepler’sMusic of the Spheres Played by SixSnakes (1971–74) depict the snakessliding eerily among ball bearingsand stringed instruments. Other stillsreveal Askevold’s identificationwith the ghosts of Hank Williamsand Hank Snow, while The Poltergeist(1974–79) features fake ectoplasm.In Once Upon a Time in the East(1993)—one part of The Nova ScotiaProject—aerial photographs from

the Department of Fisheries coveredan entire wall, investigating the tem-poral, spatial, and social dimensionsof the Canadian coastline. 3 SpotGame (1968), inspired by an articlein Scientific American, consists ofPlexiglas sections strung togetherwith cords. Aluminum bars placedon the floor are engraved with therules of the game.Among the video works in the show,

Learning About Cars and Chocolate(1972) was the most amusing. Wesee a young Askevold in conversationwith his young London dealer, JackWendler, who leans out of a window;cars and traffic are moving alongbelow. The discussion centers arounda car that Askevold has just bought.It’s like an in-joke, and the video endswhen the bag of candy has beenentirely consumed. Late in his career,

Askevold collaborated with formerstudent Tony Oursler (Mike Kelleywas another student) to producevideo clip exchanges. Completedafter Askevold’s death by Oursler,the piece is a crazy quilt of wide-ranging images.Part of the Museum of Modern

Art’s seminal “Information” show in1970, Askevold’s work was near mys-tical, reflecting a time of greatcultural and social change in NorthAmerica. “Once Upon a Time in theEast” allowed viewers to understandhow his innovations with sound,

video, film, performance, media,sculpture, and installation wereall about experimentation andrevealed his work as a basic ques-tioning of what artistic practicecould be.

—John K. Grande

San Gimignano, Italy

Antony Gormley

Galleria Continua

San Gimignano, a historic town inthe heart of Tuscany, recently hostedan absorbing exhibition of new andolder works by Antony Gormley.At the heart of the show was Vessel,a site-specific work conceived forthe former theater and cinema that

David Askevold, installation view

of “Once Upon a Time in the East,”

2011–12.


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forms the central part of the labyrin-thine Galleria Continua space. Madefrom 39 interconnecting rectangularsteel boxes, the structure interpretedthe town’s medieval skyline as areclining male figure. Four other newworks filled the first room of thegallery, exploring how bubblescoalesce to create cloud forms. Here,the principles of natural growth andstructure are applied to the body.These sculptures were complimentedby Sum, made from a network ofsolid iron polyhedral forms arrangedon the floor. In this work, Gormleyuses the formal purity of Modernistabstraction to evoke inner states.Two marble figures, installed in

the garden, test the evolution of artin the age of mechanical reproduc-

tion, transforming bone, skin, andmuscle into compositions of geomet-ric crystalline rigor not dissimilar tothe structure of marble itself. Gorm-ley’s vision of the body is inspiredby tradition, but at the same time,it reflects new knowledge about, inthis case, the sub-optical propertiesof matter.For 20 years, Gormley has investi-

gated space and time using thehuman figure (usually an iron castof his own body) as a unit of mea-sure. In San Gimignano, his iron fig-ures quietly invaded streets, squares,gardens, and the top of a tower. ForGormley, the figures in Another Time,as well as their predecessors, are“empty,” “meaningless” forms—mute units of measure designed to

consider space and human identity.Only viewer reaction—typically inthe form of silent dialogue—gives“meaning” to these clones. Realizedin collaboration with the local munic-ipality, Another Time offered yetanother example of how public sculp-ture has abandoned its commemora-tive roots. In Gormley’s hands, thehuman figure becomes a reflexivefield that stimulates self-awarenesswhile encouraging deeper investiga-tion into our individual and collec-tive position in the larger world.

—Laura Tansini

Zurich

Koenraad Dedobbeleer

Mai 36 Galerie

Making sculpture from found objectshas become as common today as itwas shocking when Duchamp creat-ed his first readymade in 1915. Ittakes something fresh, different, andlet’s face it, unique, to make this sortof sculpture interesting. Belgianartist Koenraad Dedobbeleer mostlydelivers with constructions re-assem-bled or slightly altered from pieces offunctional objects. His most success-ful and engaging works use parts ofold tools or furniture, which he trans-forms and reconstructs in ways soabsurd that the original object andits function are completely lost,though the aura of the past remains.As the title of the show, “SomeMaterial Culture Following a RandomMethod Based on Aleatory Rules,”makes clear, Dedobbeleer is attractedto the history of craftsmanship andthe meanings behind objects.Like many of Dedobbeleer’s sculp-

tures, Resigned Astonishment, achair-like object that is neither chairnor functional, pays homage toModernist design. The wood comesfrom an old table, but no one would

know the source by looking at thesculpture. While transforming theold into the new, Dedobbeleer alsopoints to Ornament and Crime, AdolfLoos’s 1929 text criticizing ornamen-tation and promoting return to asimple, craft-conscious modern art.Many of Dedobbeleer’s titles consistof phrases taken directly from Loos.A marble tabletop reminiscent of

café tables at the turn of the 20thcentury hangs on the wall like apainting. Revolution Always ComesFrom Below quotes a fragment fromanother Loos text, written in 1897,which continues, “and in this casebelow is the craftsman’s workshop.”The work contains a multi-layeredmeaning and play on words: politi-cally, the title alludes to the ideathat change starts with the demandsof the people rather than the initia-tive of their leaders, which may bea nod to recent worldwide protests.The object’s physical position ismoved from below—the top of asmall table—to a higher location—the wall.Duchamp was not particularly

interested in the visual qualities ofreadymades, but Dedobbeleerindulges in the beauty and harmonyelicited by his juxtapositions. Whatmay be more revolutionary, however,is his return to craftsmanship ata time when the art world mostlychampions artists who rely on pre-fabrication and outsourcing. Dedob-beleer may not work in a traditionalway, but he not only chose thepieces, he also combined them inpoetic reconfigurations.The historical patina of the source

objects allows viewers to dreamaround and create personal associa-tions for each piece, maybe recallingobjects from their youth. In manyregards, Dedobbeleer’s respect formaterial culture, meaning, andcraftsmanship is the unique elementin his work, a concept that hasbecome rather obsolete in contem-porary art.

—Olga Stefan

Left: Antony Gormley, Another Time

XV, 2011. Cast iron, detail of installa-

tion. Below: Antony Gormley, Vessel,

2012. Cor-ten steel and steel screws,

370 x 2200 x 480 cm.


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Tokyo

Motohiko Odani

Takamatsu City Museum of Art

Sculptor and multimedia artistMotohiko Odani is a leading youngvoice in the Japanese art scene. Hesays that he grew up captivated byAmerican cinema, including the hor-ror genre and the films of DavidLynch. His other inspiration comesfrom anime, computer games, anddigital media. Odani is highlyknowledgeable about digital tech-nology and keeps his eye on currenthappenings in the international artworld. He became a professor ofart at Kyoto University of Art andDesign in 2003 and now teaches atTokyo (National) University of theArts. When he uses English titles forhis work, he borrows vocabularyfrom literature, as well as from com-puter games. His talks and writingabout art are as eloquent as hiswork. Odani’s traveling exhibition,“Phantom Limb,” originated atTokyo’s Mori Art Museum in 2010;when it reached its final destina-tion, the Contemporary Art MuseumKumamoto, at the end of 2011, cura-tors inserted an additional piece—

a group of malformed Noh masks(2008) that added another levelto his renderings of latent thoughtsand emotions, pain and fear.“Hollow Series” (2009–10) enters

the world of adolescent girls. Thoughrealistic, these large-scale worksare created from pure white ribbonsof FRP (fabric-reinforced plastic),which allows them to be hollow. Theimages are not of vibrant youth:a girl on a unicorn possesses an

unknown strength in her shiningglass eyes, yet she is wrapped in sad-ness and uncertainty; two girls,perhaps twins, hang light as feathershigh on a wall, while their eyes lookelsewhere; and the hands of“pianists” droop like decaying vege-tation against the wall. Taken as awhole, the series hovers betweenthe tangible moment of vulnerableyoung girls coming of age and theghostly dream of another reality.Odani’s uneasy aesthetic combines

discomfort, disease, and thegrotesque. Human Lesson Dress 01(1996) consists of a wolfskin dresswith a pair of heads attached tothe shoulders. In Double Edge ofThought, Dress 02 (1997), longtwists of human hair, presumably awoman’s, create a gown imbuedwith vindictive attachment, sexualdesire, and sacrificial offering. InNo. 44 (The Mysterious Stranger byMark Twain) (2010), a video of bloodbubbles (in part from the artist’sown blood, is accompanied by end-

lessly repeated, numbing sound. Itis unnerving, yet eerily beautiful towatch the red bubbles keep foaming,popping, and leaving marks on thebackground, which starts out plainwhite at the beginning of eachcycle.Terminal Documents (2011) exper-

iments with digital media. On thered water filling a large vessel inthe center of a dark room, projectedimages of a constantly moving whirl-pool of waves produce an apparentfoam of white lights. In the East,such an image might symbolize thepond of hell. In another work, thewalls of a red pool serve as screensfor two identical videos of a younggirl in a red dress reading in a whis-per from E.T.A. Hoffman’s DerSandmann translated into Japanese.Even without firsthand knowledgeof the novel, I was swallowed up bythe constantly moving waves.Unlike artists who treat comic fig-

ures as heroic, cultural icons, Odanimakes his characters struggle underthe weight of history and reality.His work constitutes a brave attemptto search for a genuinely contempo-rary Japanese voice that more hon-estly reflects the current situationof Japanese youth.

—Kazuko Nakane

Left: Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Resigned

Astonishment, 2011. Wood, varnish,

and enamel, 81.5 x 68.5 x 72.5 cm.

Below: Motohiko Odani, Hollow:

Pianist/Rondo, 2009. FRP, urethane

paint, and mixed media, 154.5 x 496

x 62 cm.


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80 Sculpture 31.9

Vol. 31, No. 9 © 2012. Sculpture (ISSN 0889-728X) is published monthly, except February and August, by the International Sculpture Center. Editorial office: 1633 Connecticut Ave. NW, 4th floor, Washington, DC20009. ISC Membership and Subscription office: 19 Fairgrounds Rd., Suite B, Hamilton, NJ 08619, U.S.A. Tel. 609.689.1051. Fax 609.689.1061. E-mail <[email protected]>. Annual membership dues are US $100;subscription only, US $55. (For subscriptions or memberships outside the U.S., Canada, and Mexico add US $20, includes airmail delivery.) Permission is required for any reproduction. Sculpture is not responsi-ble for unsolicited material. Please send an SASE with material requiring return. Opinions expressed and validity of information herein are the responsibility of the author, not the ISC. Advertising in Sculptureis not an indication of endorsement by the ISC, and the ISC disclaims liability for any claims made by advertisers and for images reproduced by advertisers. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, DC, and addi-tional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send change of address to International Sculpture Center, 19 Fairgrounds Rd., Suite B, Hamilton, NJ 08619, U.S.A. U.S. newsstand distribution by CMG, Inc., 250 W. 55thStreet, New York, NY 10019, U.S.A. Tel. 866.473.4800. Fax 858.677.3235.

isc PEOPLE, PLACES, AND EVENTS

ISC BOARD NEWSThe ISC would like to thank three departing members of the Board

of Trustees for their contributions to the organization. David

Handley, founding director of Sculpture by the Sea, served on the

International Affairs committee and worked to strengthen the ISC’s

international exchange. Mary Ellen Scherl, an artist who joined

the Board in 2010, served on the Perspectives and Membership

committees, providing guidance on membership initiatives and

programming. Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, who will finish her service

at the end of the year, has participated on the Awards, International

Affairs, and Membership committees, helping to increase the

ISC’s international presence. All three departing members will

stay connected to the ISC.

The ISC is pleased to announce two new Board members.

Deedee Morrison joined in March 2012. Founder of Private Air

magazine, she brings years of experience as a maga-

zine publisher and also has a thriving career as

a sculptor focusing on public art. She serves on the

ISC’s Communications committee. Morrison currently

works out of her studio in Birmingham, Alabama, and

is actively showing work across the United States.

Also joining the board is Carla Hanzal, Chief Curator

of Contemporary and Modern Art

at the Mint Museum. She has

over 15 years of curatorial and programming

experience at various institutions, including

the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia; she

previously served the ISC as Deputy Director

of Exhibitions and Acting Director. Hanzal

has curated exhibitions showcasing the works

of Romare Bearden, Andy Warhol, Jun Kaneko,

Chuck Close, and Mark Rothko, to name just a few. The ISC

Board of Trustees and staff extend a warm welcome to both of

these new Board members.

Two Board members have been re-elected by the Board of

Trustees. Chakaia Booker, fine artist and sculptor, has served on

the ISC Perspectives committee, offering insight on the ISC’s con-

ferences, educational programming, and award galas. Also to renew

is Bill FitzGibbons, public artist and founder/director of Blue Star

Contemporary Art Center in San Antonio, Texas. He has been

serving as the Vice Chairman of the ISC. Boaz Vaadia has also been

elected as the new chair of the ISC’s Membership committee, and

Prescott Muir was elected as co-chair of the Development commit-

tee, working with Josh Kanter.

STAFF NEWSThe ISC would like to thank a few staff members who have

recently left the organization—Dawn Molignano, Kara Kacz-

marzyk, Emily Fest, and Josh Parkey—and welcome new team

members. Manju Philip is the new Membership Associate. Her

background in customer service provides exceptional support

to our valued members. She can be reached at <manju@

sculpture.org>. Candice Lombardi is the new ISC Development

Manager. She has many years of development and grant writing

experience at Philadelphia-based nonprofits and can be reached

at <[email protected]>. Erin Gautsche, Conference and

Events Manager, joins the ISC with years of experience in pro-

gramming and event planning, having previously worked at the

Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. She can

be reached at <[email protected]>. Amanda Hickok, Sculpture

magazine’s new Editorial Assistant, graduated from George

Washington University and has had internships at the Phillips

Collection, Harper’s Bazaar, the District of Columbia Art Center,

and International Arts & Artists. She can be reached at <amanda@

sculpture.org>. Advertising Services Associate, Jeannette Darr,

will be working with the Advertising Services Manager to pro-

mote Sculpture and build its advertising database. She can be

reached at <[email protected]>.

The ISC would also like to thank our dedicated interns, whose

efforts help each department in the organization reach its goals.

The Web and Portfolio department has greatly appreciated the help

of Ryan and Kyle Czepiel, Bernadette Weibel, Navjot Banwait,

Kevin Monaghan, and Rob Zakes. Their efforts have provided sup-

port to our members and their on-line portfolios. The Membership

department would like to thank Martha Vincent for all her great

work with the ISC’s Outstanding Student Achievement Awards

program. Conference and Events has had the pleasure of working

with Madeleine Lesperance and Kristy Cole, who through their

hard work have helped the team plan for the Chicago and New

Zealand conferences. Administration would like to thank Marie

Wdzieczkowski for her help with the Art Sale Project and the ISC’s

involvement in art fairs. The Advertising department has appre-

ciated the help of Beverly Wong and Kyle Franklin, who helped

to expand the ISC’s advertising database. The Fundraising and

Development department would like to thank Gwendolyn Kurtz,

who has been assisting with funding outreach and grant writing.

The Library, a new ISC department, would like to thank Julia

Cuddahy and Jennifer Galarza for their hard work and dedication

in cataloguing over 2,000 books in the ISC’s collection. We wish

all of the interns the best of luck in their feature endeavors.

Deedee Morrison

Carla Hanzal


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