Sculpture 201203

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ublication of the International Sculp

ture Center

sculpture March 2012Vol. 31 No. 2

A publication of theInternational Sculpture Centerwww.sculpture.org

Andrew Mowbray South American Sculpture

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Last fall, I attended a special event in Berlin, where my wife, Kathy,

and I also had the pleasure of hosting a gathering for business executives

and their guests to learn more about this fascinating city, specifically

the contribution of contemporary art in making this one of the world’s

great metropolitan centers. Berlin is home to many of today’s most

exciting contemporary artists. The city has embraced an estimated

7,000 artists and a growing number of collectors. The best works are

showcased in more than 3,000 exhibitions held throughout the year.

Our trip gave us access to the studios, galleries, and private collec-

tions that have made Berlin the home of European contemporary art.

We met many exciting artists and had the opportunity to visit many

private collections and numerous museums. Berlin is home to 175

museums. Knowing the role that Berlin has played in history, it was

incredible to experience what the city now means to the international

sculpture community. I encourage each of you to visit Berlin and

experience it for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.

Speaking of Berlin, let me take this opportunity to welcome a

recent new member to our Board of Trustees, Phillip von Matt. I met

Phillip on our visit to Berlin, and I believe he will prove to be a valu-

able addition to our Board. He brings years of experience in the fields

of architecture, art, and education to his new role at the ISC. Born

in Switzerland, he is currently working on several projects in Berlin,

where he is active as an architect and teacher. Phillip is the ISC’s

fourth international board member and an important voice as we develop

more international programming and services in the coming years.

I am also proud to welcome Prescott Muir to the ISC Board of Trustees.

Prescott is a professor and director of the School of Architecture at the

University of Utah and principal of a 35-year-old architectural firm with

offices in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles. He has played a leading role

in shaping the urban form of Salt Lake City, having served as the chair

of the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, Salt Lake Downtown

Alliance, and Salt Lake Planning Commission. As an award-winning

architect, he will play an important role in the success of our Board

of Trustees.

I am pleased to report that we completed two successful fundraising

campaigns at the end of 2011—the Plan of Action Campaign, the 2011

Annual Appeal, and the Matching Gift of Art Campaign, in which contri-

butions to receive the Peter Voulkos print Abstraction #1 went toward

matching a grant from the Johnson Art & Education Foundation. Thank

you to everyone who made these two campaigns a success.

—Marc LeBaron

Chairman, ISC Board of Trustees

From the Chairman

4 Sculpture 31.2

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

David Handley, Australia

Paul Hubbard, Philadelphia, PA

Ree Kaneko, Omaha, NE

Gertrud Kohler-Aeschlimann, Switzerland

Creighton Michael, Mt. Kisco, NY

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

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

Reviews71 New York: Leandro Erlich

72 Toronto: Phillip Beesley

73 Leitrim, Ireland: Karl Burke

74 Paris: Takashi Murakami

75 Rome: Rome Biennale: International

Exhibition of Sculpture

76 Beijing and Shanghai: Xu Bing

76 Singapore: Wee Hong Ling

77 Mount Tomah, Australia: Rae Bolotin

78 Dispatch: 12th Istanbul Biennial

On the Cover: Andrew Mowbray, Bathyscape

(detail), 2007. Polyethylene plastic, acrylic,

bronze, steel, and vinyl, 84 x 42 x 42 in.

Photograph: Peter Harris.

Features22 Weird Science and Aesthetics: A Conversation with Andrew Mowbray by Francine Koslow Miller

30 Peru’s Contemporary Sculptors: Crafting New Social and Cultural Identities by Jan Garden Castro

36 Listening to Stones: A Conversation with Lika Mutal by Jan Garden Castro

42 Camilo Guinot: Exacting Immateriality by Maria Carolina Baulo

46 Working with the Wind: A Conversation with Tim Prentice by Jane Ingram Allen

52 Suzanne Morlock: The Green Magic of Recycling by Katarzyna Zimna

46

sculptureMarch 2012Vol. 31 No. 2A publication of theInternational Sculpture Center

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Sculpture March 2012 5

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SCU LP TURE MAGAZ INEEditor Glenn HarperManaging Editor Twylene MoyerEditorial Assistants Elena Goukassian, Joshua ParkeyDesign 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 FoundationKaren & Robert DuncanJohn HenryJ. Seward Johnson, Jr.Johnson Art & Education FoundationJoshua 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 LivingstonChelsea College of Art & DesignSir Anthony CaroClinton Family FundRichard CohenDon CoopermanDavid DiamondJarvis & Constance Doctorow Family FoundationGeraldine R. Dodge FoundationTerry & Robert EdwardsLin EmeryFred EychanerCarole FeuermanDoris & Donald FisherBill FitzGibbonsAlan GibbsDavid HandleyRichard HeinrichDaniel A. HendersonMichelle HobartPeter C. HobartJoyce & Seward Johnson FoundationKANEKORee & Jun KanekoMary Ann KeelerKeeler FoundationPhillip KingWilliam KingAnne Kohs AssociatesCynthia Madden Leitner/Museum of Outdoor Arts

Toby D. Lewis Philanthropic FundMarlene & 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 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 HainWeb Manager Karin JervertGrant Writer/Development Coordinator Kara KaczmarzykConference and Events Coordinator Samantha RauscherMembership Associate Emily FestAdministrative 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 BookerFletcher BentonErik & Michele ChristiansenRob 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)

This issue is supportedin part by a grant fromthe National 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.

555 International Inc.•Ruth Abernethy•Linda Ackley-Eaker•D. James Adams•John Adduci•Osman Akan•Mine Akin•Elizabeth Aralia•Michelle Armitage•Art Valley•Uluhan Atac•Michael Aurbach•Helena Bacardi-Kiely•SarahBarnhart-Fields•Brooke Barrie•Jerry Ross Barrish•Carlos Basanta•FatmaBasoglu-Takiiil•Bruce Beasley•Joseph Becherer•Edward Benavente•JoshuaBederson•Joseph Benevenia•Patricia Bengtson Jones•Constance Bergfors•Evan Berghan•Ronald Berman•Roger Berry•Henri Bertrand•CindyBillingsley•Denice Bizot•Rita Blitt•Christian Bolt•Marina Bonomi•Gilbert V.Boro•Louise Bourgeois•Linda Bowden•Judith Britain•Walter Bruszewski•GilBruvel•Hal Buckner•Ruth M. Burink•H. Edward Burke•Maureen Burns-Bowie•Keith Bush•Mary Pat Byrne•Pattie Byron•Imel Sierra Cabrera•KatiCasida•David Caudill•Jan Chenoweth•Won Jung Choi•Asherah Cinnamon•John Clement•Jonathan Clowes•Robert Clyatt•Marco Cochrane•LyndaCole•Austin Collins•Randy Cooper•J. Laurence Costin•Fuller Cowles &Constance Mayeron•Robert Crowel•Amir Daghigh•Sukhdev Dail•TomaszDanilewicz•Arianne Dar•Erich Davis•Martin Dawe•Paul A. Deans•ArabellaDecker•Angel Delgado•G.S. Demirok•Bruce Dempsey•Albert Dicruttalo•Anthony DiFrancesco•Karen Dimit•Konstantin Dimopoulos•MarylynDintenfass•Deborah Adams Doering•Yvonne Ga Domenge•Dorit Dornier•Jim Doubleday•Philip S. Drill•Laura Evans Durant•Herb Eaton•CharlesEisemann•Ward Elicker•Jorge Elizondo•Elaine Ellis•Bob Emser•RobertErskine•Helen Escobedo•John W. Evans•Philip John Evett•Isabelle Faucher•Johann Feilacher•Zhang Feng•Helaman Ferguson•Pattie Porter Firestone•Talley Fisher•True Fisher•Dustine Folwarczny•Basil C. Frank•Mary AnnellaFrank•Gayle & Margaret Franzen•Dan Freeman•Jason Frizzell•JamesGallucci•Eliseo Garcia•Ron Gard•Ronald Garrigues•Beatriz Gerenstein•Shohini Ghosh•James S. Gibson•Jacqueline Gilmore•Helgi Gislason•Joe

Gitterman•Edmund Glass•Glenn Green Galleries & Sculpture Garden•DeWittGodfrey•Roger Golden•Yuebin Gong•Gordon Huether Studio•ThomasGottsleben•Todd Graham•Peter Gray•Francis Greenburger•GabrielePoehlmann Grundig•Barbara Grygutis•Simon Gudgeon•Thomas Guss•Roger Halligan•Wataru Hamasaka•Phyllis B. Hammond•Mike Hansel•JensIngvard Hansen•Bob Haozous•Jacob J. Harmeling•Susan Harrison•BarbaraHashimoto•Sally Hepler•Kenneth Herlihy•David B. Hickman•Joyce Hilliou•Kathryn Hixson•Bernard Hosey•Jack Howard-Potter•Brad Howe•Jon BarlowHudson•Robert Huff•Ken Huston•Yoshitada Ihara•Eve Ingalls•Lucy Irvine•J. Johnson Gallery•James Madison University•Jivko Jeliazkov•Julia Jitkoff•Andrew Jordan•Johanna Jordan•Wolfram Kalt•Kent Karlsson•Ray Katz•Cornelia Kavanagh•Jan Keating•Robert E. Kelly•Lita Kelmenson•OrestKeywan•Hitoshi Kimura•Gloria Kisch•Stephen Kishel•Bernard Klevickas•Jacqueline Kohos•Adriana Korkos•Krasl Art Center•Jon Krawczyk•Dave &Vicki Krecek•KUBO•Lynn E. La Count•Dale Lamphere•Alexis Laurent•HenryLautz•Won Lee•Michael Le Grand•Evan Lewis•John R. Light•Ken Light•Robert Lindsay•Marvin Lipofsky•Robert Longhurst•Sharon Loper•CharlesLoving•Jeff Lowe•Helen Lykes•Lynden Sculpture Garden•Noriaki Maeda•Mike Major•Andrea Malaer•Jane Manus•Lenville Maxwell•Edward Mayer•Claire McArdle•William McBride•Isabel McCall•Jeniffer McCandless•JosephMcDonnell•Ceci Cole McInturff•Sam McKinney•Darcy Meeker•RonMehlman•Gina Michaels•Carol Mickett & Robert Stackhouse•Ruth AizussMigdal-Brown•Brian Monaghan•Norman Mooney•Richard Moore, III•Jean-Pierre Morin•Aiko Morioka•DeeDee Morrison•Keld Moseholm•SergeMozhnevsky•W.W. Mueller•Anna Murch•Robert Murphy•Morley Myers•Arnold Nadler•Marina Nash•Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park•Nature’sCircles•John Nicolai•James Nickel•Donald Noon•Joseph O’Connell•Thomas

O’Hara•Michelle O’Michael•Thomas Ostenberg•Frank Ozereko•PalmyraSculpture Centre•Scott Palsce•Ralph H. Paquin•Gertrud Parker•RonaldParks•Tarunkumar Patel•Mark Patterson•Jolanta Pawlak•Carol Peligian•Beverly Pepper•Cathy & Troy Perry•Anne & Doug Peterson•Dirk Peterson•Terrance Plowright•Daniel Postellon•Bev Precious•Jonathan Quick•SemionRabinkov•Morton Rachofsky•Kimberly Radochia•Marcia Raff•Vicky Randall•Jeannette Rein•Chase Revel•Anthony Ricci•Ellie Riley•Robert WebbSculpture Garden/Creative Arts Guild•Kevin Robb•Andrew Rogers•SalvatoreRomano•Carol Ross•Susan Ferrari Rowley•James B. Sagui•Olou KomlanSamuel•Nathan Sawaya•Tom Scarff•Peter Schifrin•Mark Schlachter•Andy Scott•John Searles•Joseph H. Seipel•Art Self•Carlos Setien•MaryShaffer•Patrick Shannon•Kambiz Sharif•Scott Sherk•Jerry Shore•DebraSilver•Daniel Sinclair•Vanessa L. Smith•Yvette Kaiser Smith•Susan Smith-Trees•Stan Smokler•Frances Sniffen•Sam Spiczka•John Stallings•RobertSt. Croix•Eric Stein•Linda Stein•Eric Stephenson•Michael Stearns•ElizabethStrong-Cuevas•Jozef Sumichrast•David Sywalski•Tash Taskale•Cordell Taylor•Timothy Taylor•Richard Taylor•Peter Terry•Ana Thiel•Marta Thoma•PeterTilley•Stephen Tirone•Cliff Tisdell•Rein Triefeldt•John Valpocelli•Jon VanderBloomen•Vasko Vassilev•Martine Vaugel•Philip Vaughan•Kathy Venter•Ales Vesely•Jill Viney•Bruce Voyce•Ed Walker•Martha Walker•SydneyWaller•Blake Ward•Mark Warwick•Jim Wheeler•Andrew White•MichaelWhiting•Philip Wicklander•John Wiederspan•Madeline Wiener•W.K. Kellogg Foundation•Wesley Wofford•Jean Wolff•Dr. Barnaby Wright•Joan Wynn•Cigdem Yapanar•Riva Yares•Albert Young•Larry Young•GenrichZafir•Steve Zaluski•Peter Zandbergen•Gavin Zeigler•Glenn Zweygardt

Dean ArkfeldDoris H. ArkinVerina BaxterMelva Bucksbaum & Raymond LearsyGiancarlo CalicchiaCause Contemporary GalleryThe Columbus MuseumHenry DavisGuerra de la PazTerry Dintenfass, Inc.James GeierAgnes GundDr. LaRue HardingEd Hardy Habit/Hardy LLC

Olga HirshhornPaul HubbardPaul KleinPhlyssa KoshlandGary KulakNanci LanniChuck LevyJim & Karen LinderSteve MaloneyRobert E. Meyerhoff & Rheda BeckerMillennium Park, Inc.Lowell MillerDavid MirvishPrescott Muir

Museum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoNaples IllustratedJohn P. & Anne NelsonGeorge NeubertSassona NortonRalph O’ConnorSteven OliverTom OtternessEnid J. PackardRaul PerezPolich Tallix Art FoundryRoger Smith HotelKy & Jane RohmanGreg & Laura Schnackel

Sculpt NouveauStorm King Art CenterThai Metal CraftersThe Todd & Betiana Simon FoundationTmimaTootsie Roll IndustriesUBS Financial ServicesEdward UlhirSteve Vail Fine ArtsHans Van De Bovenkamp LTDUrsula von RydingsvardAlex Wagman

Professional Circle ($350–999)

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

Museum of Arts & DesignPrinceton University Art MuseumKiki Smith

Elisabeth SwansonDoris & 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 MartProperties

Jill & Paul MeisterGerard MeulensteenNational Gallery, LondonKristen NordahlBrian OhnoClaes Oldenburg & Coosjevan Bruggen

Dennis OppenheimBill Roy

Doug SchatzMary Ellen ScherlSculpture Community/sculpture.net

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

TateJulian TaubLaura ThorneHarry T. WilksIsaac WitkinRiva Yares Gallery


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14 Sculpture 31.2

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THEARTIST

Asia SocietyNew YorkSarah SzeThrough March 25, 2012For nearly two decades, Sze’s dis-tinctive assemblages of commondisposable objects have riveted andchallenged viewers. Her complexspatial matrices combine water bot-tles, drawing pins, paper, salt, string,lamps, matchsticks, and wire intospectacularly intricate universes thatmold themselves to their hostspaces, spreading across, over, andthrough architectural surfaces.Within the delicate balance of hercompositions, the slightest changeseems capable of precipitating adescent into chaos. “Infinite Line” isthe first exhibition to focus on theprocess behind Sze’s illusions.Exploring line across media, fromdrawing to sculpture to installation,the works collected here (includinga new installation) demonstratehow the careful calibration of dis-

order can re-orchestrate our under-standing of and relationship tospace.Tel: 212.517.ASIAWeb site <www.asiasociety.org>

Fondation CartierParisMathematics: A BeautifulElsewhereThrough March 18, 2012“Mathematics” instigates whatalgebraic geometer AlexandreGrothendieck calls “a sudden changeof scenery.” Intended to expand themind and senses, this uniquecollaborative endeavor teamed math-ematicians and scientists with agroup of artists distinguished bytheir curiosity and their ability

to observe. Jean-Michel Alberola,Raymond Depardon and ClaudineNougaret, Takeshi Kitano, DavidLynch, Beatriz Milhazes, Patti Smith,Hiroshi Sugimoto, and TadanoriYokoo, as well as Pierre Buffin andhis crew (BUF), have translated themost arcane beauties of equations(from number theory to differentialgeometry, topology, and probability)into a series of sensorial andinspiring experiences. From the finiteboundaries of material reality tothe infinite vastness of conceptualuniverses, mathematics governsour world: this show allows evenhumanities majors to grasp thewonder behind the code.Tel: + 33 (0) 1 42 18 56 50Web site<www.fondation.cartier.com>

GemeentemuseumThe HagueAndré KruysenThrough March 18, 2012In Kruysen’s sculpture, the numi-nous effects of light contrast sharplywith today’s fast-moving imageculture. Harnessing the constantbarrage, he distills a meditativeexperience from its cacophony—though the harmony is not withoutrebellious, anarchical strains. Likethe stacked planes of RussianConstructivism or the buildings ofDaniel Libeskind, Kruysen’s haphaz-ard heaps of curbside waste andinformal structures strike a precari-ous balance between chaos andorder. Detailed investigations of theinteractions among space, light,and material, they coalesce in hugefloating architectural compositions.For his Ouborg Prize exhibition,he has constructed a new “space inmovement” that takes natural lightas its starting point. Captured withinthe distorted planes of the sculp-ture, timeless luminosity becomesa vehicle for ever-changing experi-ence.Tel: + 31 (0) 70 3381111Web site<www.gemeentemuseum.nl>

Henry Moore InstituteLeeds, U.K.United EnemiesThrough March 11, 2012“United Enemies” explores the 1960sand ’70s, a radically fertile period inthe history of British (and Western)sculpture, when the very idea ofthree-dimensional art came underintense scrutiny. Three themesorganize opposing approaches. “Thehand” celebrates the artist’s (andthe viewer’s) touch and the roleof manual thinking, from foldingto eating (a re-creation of Roelof

itinerary

Far left: Sarah Sze, Notepad. Left:

The Library of Mysteries, from

“Mathematics.” Below left: André

Kruysen, Close Enough.


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Louw’s Soul City [Pyramid of Oranges]opens the exhibition with 6,000 freesnacks). “The standing form” investi-gates the body and verticality, adeparture from the prone positionpreferred by many artists of theperiod. And “the ground” examinesthree-dimensional representationsand interventions in the landscape(outdoor sculpture as usual comesunder fire in An English Frontier,which documents a walk conductedby Richard Long with Tony Cragg,Roger Ackling, Jim Rogers, and BillWoodrow). Works by a rangeof artists—including Keith Arnatt,Shirley Cameron, Anthony Caro,Angela Carter, Helen Chadwick,Barry Flanagan, and Wendy Taylor—reveal how the disparate achieve-ments of this era pushed per-ceptions and opened the way totoday’s unfettered sculpturalexpressions.Tel: + 44 (0) 113 246 7467Web site<www.henry-moore.ac.uk>

Kunsthaus BregenzBregenz, AustriaAntony GormleyThrough April 2012Gormley’s explorations of the humanbody mediate between individualand collective, containment andextension, what can be seenand what can be sensed. Makingunexpected connections acrossideas and disciplines, his works havemoved the domain of figural sculp-ture beyond the confines of thephysical body to include interactionwith the surrounding world, whetherthat be the matrix of community,space and energy, memory, or builtform. One hundred of his life-sizefigures are now about to endtheir sojourn in the Austrian Alps.Spread over a 150-square-kilome-ter area, some of the sculpturescan be reached on foot orskis, while others remain visible butunapproachable, defining a rela-tional field that places the humanin its original, unprotected context,

weathering the elements and theunknown.Tel: + 43 55 74 4 85 94-0Web site<www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at>

Mori Art MuseumTokyoLee BulThrough May 27, 2012Bul approaches the human formnot just as individual body, but alsoas social entity. Expanding the ideaof the physical, her work embracesnew technologies and redrawsthe frontiers of human existence.“Monsters” and “cyborgs” conflatereality, science, and fiction, delib-erately leaving their borders opento interpretation. Her recent sculp-tures and installations have becomemore ambitious in scope, exploring

a global history of humanity inwhich the recognizable human formis replaced by its products andachievements. This retrospective,covering more than 20 years, revealsa progressively expansive vision.Within Lee’s sensuous and darklyseductive spaces of glittering ruin,human desire and ambition giverise to a realm of disintegrating uto-pian aspirations.Tel: + 81 3 5777 8600Web site<www.mori.art.museum>

Museum of Chinese in AmericaNew YorkLee MingweiThrough March 26, 2012Whatever materials Lee uses in hisinstallations, his true medium ispeople, and shared experience. Forover a decade, he has played a piv-otal role in the expansion of “invita-tional aesthetics” through his gen-erous people-to-people participatoryprojects. His new work, TheTravelers, began in 2010, when Leeand MOCA released 100 artist-designed notebooks to the public,inviting each recipient to write a

Top left: John Davies, Three Figures:

One Standing, One Kneeling, One

Standing on a Chair, from “United

Enemies.” Left: Lee Bul, After Bruno

Taut (Beware the sweetness of things).

Top: Antony Gormley, Horizon Field

(detail). Above: Lee Mingwei, The

Travelers.

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http://www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at

http://www.mori.art.museum





16 Sculpture 31.2

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personal story about leaving home,then pass the book along like achain letter. The last writers werecharged with the return of the books,and those that made their wayback are featured here. A secondwork, The Quartet Project, considersdisplacement from a more immedi-ate perspective, this time throughDvorak’s “American String Quartet.”

Viewers dictate the work’s orches-tration, activating or silencing partsof the music as they move throughthe darkened space.Tel: 212.619.4785Web site <www.mocanyc.org>

Museum LudwigKölnCosima von BoninThrough May 15, 2012von Bonin epitomizes the proteanmedia- and role-shifting that definescontemporary artistic practice.Her conceptual-feminist work shiftsacross sculpture, installation, per-formance, photography, video, andpainting, just as von Bonin herselftransforms from artist to curator,to DJ, to raconteur, to collaborator.Her hybridized approach finds inspi-ration in a wide range of sources,including pop culture, fashion, andelectronic music, as she tackles ideasof play and indoctrination, structureand improvisation, cultural andgender representations, and identity

and self-reflection. This home-townexhibition of 70 works features bothold and new work elaboratelycombined in ensemble installations,as well as a new architecturalintervention and outdoor sculptures.Tel: + 49 221 221 26165Web site<www.museum-ludwig.de>

Museum of Modern ArtNew YorkSanja IvekovicThrough March 26, 2012A feminist, activist, and video pio-neer, Ivekovic came of age in a post-1968 Yugoslavia, where artists brokefree from mainstream institutionalsettings and rebelled against officialart. Part of the generation known

as the Nova Umjetnika Praksa (NewArt Practice), she produced works ofcross-cultural resonance that rangefrom conceptual photomontages tovideo, performance, and social sculp-ture. In the 1970s, she probed thepersuasive qualities of mass mediaand its identity-forging potential, butafter 1990—following the fall ofthe Berlin Wall, the disintegrationof Yugoslavia, and the birth of a newnation—she focused on the transfor-mation from socialist to post-social-ist political systems. Her first U.S.museum show features more than100 works, including the contro-versial monument Lady Rosa ofLuxembourg (2001), which tradesmythic ideals for hard facts andreplaces definitions of male heroismwith terms of female abuse.Tel: 212.708.9400Web site <www.moma.org>

Museum of Old and New ArtHobart, AustraliaWim DelvoyeThrough April 2, 2012In Delvoye’s work, opposites attract:the divine merges with the secular,past meets present, and ornamentovercomes function. Needless tosay, high also encounters low. Hisongoing “Gothic” series applies tra-ditional craft and folk art practicesto industrial objects, such as gascanisters hand-painted with blueDelftware motifs and Caterpillarexcavators perforated with tracery.The undeniably popularizing, andperhaps a bit juvenile, Cloaca projecttransforms the mechanics of thehuman body into a tongue-in-cheekmachine for the production of artand commodities. MONA, an insti-tution that defies almost everyaccepted convention of institutionalpractice, is the perfect foil for suchobstinate flaunting of decorum. The13 subterranean galleries devotedto Delvoye’s first Australian exhibi-tion also feature his version of theword made flesh—a tattooedman—and Suppo (2010), a giant

Above: Cosima von Bonin, installation

view of “Cut! Cut! Cut!” Left: Sanja

Ivekovic, Lady Rosa of Luxembourg

(detail). Right: Wim Delvoye, Untitled

(Suppo)—scale model 1:2.


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http://www.museum-ludwig.de

http://www.moma.org





itinerary


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suspended sculpture in “rectalGothic style.”Tel: + 61 (3) 6277 9900Web site <http://mona.net.au>

The Noguchi MuseumLong Island City, New YorkCivic ActionThrough April 22, 2012The Queens neighborhood that hoststhe Noguchi Museum and SocratesSculpture Park boasts a vital mixof large open spaces, waterfrontaccess, industrial buildings, resi-dences, and studios. Once a polluted,almost abandoned zone, the areaagain faces serious threat—thistime, from speculative development

that flaunts zoning regulations anddisregards infrastructure capacity,traffic, parking, and quality of life.In response to these abuses, themuseum and sculpture park invitedNatalie Jeremijenko, Mary Miss,Rirkrit Tiravanija, George Trakas, andtheir teams to create visionary alter-natives to mindless expansion. Thisexhibition offers a first glimpseof their plans, which tackle nothingless than the redefinition of growth.Their integrated concept of plan-ning envisions an evolving and sus-tainable neighborhood, rich in pub-lic amenities, affordable housing,jobs, and creative outlets. Later thisyear, a show of large-scale proto-

types at Socrates will continue thedialogue.Tel: 718.204.7088Web site <www.noguchi.org>

Toledo Museum of ArtToledo, OhioSmall WorldsThrough March 25, 2012The power of the miniature receivesnuanced treatment in this considera-tion of smallness and what it meansin today’s world. Artistic microcosmshave not enjoyed this degree of pop-ularity since the Victorian era (theMuseum of Arts and Design rana similar show last year), perhapsbecause we once again need relieffrom the burdens of responsibilityand an escape from the boredom ofreality; their almost magical view ofthe ordinary lends something fantas-tical, colorful, and adventurous tothe grayest, most prosaic of everydayscenarios. The five artists featuredhere—Gregory Euclide, Tabaimo, JoeFig, Lori Nix, and Charles Kanwischer,offer more than 40 intricate and inti-mate worlds that instill wonderinto the everyday normality of the

home, the studio, the neighborhood,the city, and the natural world.Tel: 419.255.8000Web site<www.toledomuseum.org>

de Young MuseumSan FranciscoStephen De StaeblerThrough April 22, 2012De Staebler (who died last year)once observed that the human fig-ure “is obviously the most loadedof all forms because we live inone…It’s our prison. It’s what givesus life and also gives us death.” Formore than 50 years, this equivocalapproach to the human conditionfound expression in fragmented claysculptures that fuse nature, mor-tality, and culture in forms both con-temporary and ancient. Questioningboth the relevance of the figuraltradition and the efficacy of faith ina postmodern world, these crum-bling, alienated ruins (55 of themgathered here) capture the meta-morphic potential between matterand spirit, creation and decay.Tel: 415.750.3600Web site <www.famsf.org>

Top: Natalie Jeremijenko, X-ing Problem, from “Civic Action.” Above: Gregory

Euclide, Capture #9, from “Small Worlds.” Right: Stephen De Staebler,

Standing Woman and Standing Man.


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http://mona.net.au

http://www.noguchi.org

http://www.toledomuseum.org

http://www.famsf.org





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Through March 25

Internationally renowned Spanish master Manolo Valdésis a pioneer in the fields of painting, sculpture, drawingand printmaking. This stunning retrospective features avariety of paintings and sculpture that demonstrate therange and singular talent of this great artist.

Generously underwritten by Bruce and Cynthia Sherman

This exhibition is organized by the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art and Marlborough Gallery, New York

LOUISE NEVELSONThrough April 29

Featuring a remarkable variety of works from throughoutNevelson’s prolific career, ranging from massive wallpieces to more intimate wood sculptures.Organized by the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art and thePace Galleries, New York

ThePhil.org · 800.597.1900

SW Florida’s premier art museum. Three floors. 30,000square feet. Located at the Philharmonic Center for the Arts: 5833 Pelican Bay Boulevard, Naples, FloridaHours: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sun., noon-4 p.m.

NAPLES MUSEUM OF ARTPATTY & JAY BAKER

MANOLO VALDÉS

View these fine exhibitions and more at the


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http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.ThePhil.org&id=17132&adid=P18A1






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http://www.qmags.com/clickthrough.asp?url=www.nextartchicago.com&id=17132&adid=P19A1





Louise Bourgeois and Peter ZumthorSteilneset: Memorial to the Victims of the Finnmark

Witchcraft Trials

Vardø, Norway

At the easternmost point of Norway, less than 200

kilometers from Murmansk, Russia, lies the small

island of Vardø, Finnmark. Home to the legendary 24-

hour days of the Arctic summer, equally long nights

in winter, and six months of prime Aurora Borealis

viewing, the fishing town of just over 2,000 people

has seen its fair share of extremes—both natural and

manmade.

Toward the end of the 16th century, Christian IV

of Denmark journeyed to the far north of his kingdom

(then Norway-Denmark) in an effort to create a more

unified state, setting up local governments along the

way. At the time of Protestantism’s spread into northern

Scandinavia, the remote island of Vardø was largely

populated by Norwegians and the indigenous Sami

people, groups that appeared backwards, even hea-

then, from the vantage point of the royal residence in

Copenhagen almost 2,000 kilometers away. It comes

as no surprise, then, that when the district governor

suddenly died shortly after the king’s visit, witchcraft

bore the blame. Sudden storms and shipwrecks

occurring at around the same time only aggravated

the situation. Thus began a series of witch-hunts

leading to some of the most extensive witch trials in

the history of the Scandinavian Peninsula. By the

end of the 1600s, 91 people, mostly lower-class

Norwegian women and a few Sami men, were burned

at the stake. Now, more than 300 years later, the

victims of the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials have finally

been memorialized.

A joint project created by the late Louise Bourgeois

and architect Peter Zumthor, Steilneset stands on

a desolate, rocky shore, where the condemned met

their demise. The memorial is composed of two parts.

Visitors first walk up a wooden ramp into Zumthor’s

Memorial Hall. A 120-meter-long structure reminis-

cent of a canoe turned on its side, the exterior of the

hall echoes the wooden racks used by the locals

for drying fish. Inside the hall, as Suzanne Stephens

observed in Architectural Record, “the feeling is like

being in the stomach of some prehistoric creature,

half-fish, half reptile, except there is a glimmer of

light.” The glow emanates from 91 small, haphaz-

ardly arranged windows, each one with a light bulb

hanging in front, mimicking Vardø’s tradition of

hanging lamps in the curtainless windows of houses.

There is one lighted window for each victim of the

Finnmark Witchcraft Trials. Detailed information about the individuals

accompanies these solemnly poetic displays.

After exiting the Memorial Hall at the opposite end, visitors encounter a

second structure, Zumthor’s glass-and-steel House of Fire, which contains

Bourgeois’s The Damned, the Possessed, and the Beloved. At once powerful

and awe-inspiring, the installation consists of a chair placed in what

appears to be a fire pit surrounded by oval mirrors. Flames burst from the

seat. The glass walls encourage viewers to consider the piece in the context

of the treeless landscape and the crashing waves of the Barents Sea, creating

a mysteriously solemn space of contemplation and remembrance.

When the Norwegian government first approached Bourgeois with the idea

of designing a memorial to the victims of the Finnmark witch-hunts a few

20 Sculpture 31.2

commissionscommissions

Louise Bourgeois and Peter Zumthor, Steilneset: Memorial to the Victims of the Finnmark

Witchcraft Trials, 2011.

©BJARNERIESTO,COURTESY

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years ago, the artist saw it as an opportunity

to draw attention to the plight of women.

As Bourgeois’s longtime assistant Jerry

Gorovoy pointed out in an interview with

The Art Newspaper, “What happened to

women [in the 17th century] is still going

on in parts of the world today. They are not

being burned, but stoned, hacked, acid

thrown in their faces.” Although Steilneset

commemorates a specific event, it also

embraces witch trials in Germany and

Salem, Massachusetts, and stretches to the

condemned in present-day sub-Saharan

Africa and Saudi Arabia. The international

nature of Steilneset—designed in Norway

by a French-American artist and a Swiss

architect—draws further attention to witch-

hunting as a shamefully global and inter-

cultural phenomenon.

Part of an initiative sponsored by the Nor-

wegian government, Steilneset is the first

in a series of projects sited in some of

Norway’s most remote regions. The goal of

the National Tourist Routes project is to

create public artworks along 18 major road-

ways in an effort to promote tourism and

settlement in rural areas. Scheduled for

completion in 2020, the project will feature

about 200 works from major international

artists, including Mark Dion, Peter Fischli

and David Weiss, and Lars Ramberg.

Steilneset, at the northeastern-most of the

National Tourist Routes, seems to teeter on

the edge of the island—and, by extension,

on the edge of Norway, the European conti-

nent, and the world as we know it in

the 21st century. “The burning of women

accused of witchery in Finnmark…is a for-

gotten history in a forgotten place,” Zum-

thor told ARTINFO in 2010, noting, “There

is a line, which is mine, and a dot, which

is [Bourgeois’s].” With the dedication

of Steilneset last June, the historically over-

looked has been beautifully remembered

by a profound simplicity in the form

of Zumthor and Bourgeois’s line and dot.

—Elena Goukassian


TOP:

©BJARNERIESTO,COURTESY

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URISTROUTES

/BOTTOM:©

JARLE

WÆHLER,COURTESY

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Above: Peter Zumthor, interior of Memorial Hall, 2011, 120 x 7–8 x 6 meters. Below: Louise Bourgeois,

The Damned, the Possessed, and the Beloved, 2007–10. Glass, steel, concrete, mirrors, mixed media, and

fire, installation view.

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]>.


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___________






Weird Scienceand Aesthetics

A Conversation with


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“In Search Of,” 2011. View of exhibition at LaMontagne Gallery, Boston. CLEMEN

TS/H

OWCROFT,BOSTON


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BY FRANCINE KOSLOW MILLER

Andrew Mowbray makes objects that, in

the spirit of his hero Marcel Duchamp,

upend elitist notions about the artist, the

art object, and its place in the traditional

white-box gallery. His finely tooled works—

frequently carved out of ivory polyure-

thane—are often used in video perfor-

mances sited outside or staged within

gallery walls. His recent show, “Andrew

Mowbray: In Search Of” at Boston’s

LaMontagne Gallery, dealt with luck and

fate through a selection of handmade

objects that included a divining rod, a

wishbone, a planchette, and a lucky horse-

shoe. Writing his own press release in the

third person, Mowbray described his prob-

lem with privileging fine art by referring

to one of Bruce Nauman’s most iconic

and ironic neon sculptures: “Mowbray ack-

nowledges the absurdity of applying

meaning to both art objects and fortune-

telling implements. This struggle with

belief in art is similar to Bruce Nauman’s

neon work that states ‘The True Artist Helps

the World by Revealing Mystic Truths.’”

After two days of lengthy conversations

with the naturally droll, deeply earnest,

and ever-inquisitive Mowbray, I began

to realize that his unique gift involves an

idiosyncratic spiritual sincerity combined

with a proletarian approach to the role of

art in society.

Mowbray was born in Boston in 1971

and grew up in the coastal town of Dux-

bury, Massachusetts, where he first began

fly-fishing. He received his BFA in 1995

from the Maryland Institute College of Art

and his MFA in 1998 from Cranbrook Aca-

demy. Mowbray has been the subject

of one-person shows at the Mills Gallery,

Boston Center for the Arts (2005); Space

Other, Boston (2007); Gallery Diet, Miami

(2008); and the DeCordova Sculpture

Park and Museum, Lincoln, Massachu-

setts (2009). He has received grants

from the LEF Foundation, the Massachu-

setts Cultural Council, and the Artist’s

Resource Trust Fund. He is currently

teaching in the art department at Wel-

lesley College.

Francine Koslow Miller: From your earliest days as a sculpture student at Cranbrook, you

have been making, packaging, and selling art that is distinctly sweet and subversive. Back

in 1995, you made chocolate Jesus figures that celebrated and satirized Easter.

Andrew Mowbray: I made an endless edition called Sweet Jesus and packaged each one

in what looked like a coffin. I made them around Easter time, and they were my version

of the omnipresent marshmallow Peeps. I thought that they related more directly to what

Easter was about than pink or yellow candy chickens.

FKM: Speaking of chickens, for your 1998 MFA thesis show, you made a vending cart and sold

plastic wishbones with chicken heads, combining a Pop aesthetic derived from commercial

products with a Fluxus subversion of the art world and recognition of art as commodity.

24 Sculpture 31.2

BOTTOM:LU

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Palingenesis, 2005. Mixed-media installation, 12 x 14 x 3 ft.

Wishbone, 1998. Packaging, plastic, and cardboard, 6 x 4 x 1 in.


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AM: I formed wishbones from cast urethane plastic and added my own carved and painted

eyes, beaks, and packaging. My studio became my personal sweatshop. The idea was to

explore the strange belief that a wishbone could grant you a wish if you broke off the

larger part of the bone. It is absurd to think that this synthetic plastic product could

potentially be a fortune-telling instrument, but there is all this weirdness out there and

I wanted to add to it.

FKM: And you had an entrepreneurial spirit, selling quite a few breakable, chicken-headed

wishbones for $9.95 apiece.

AM: Yes, I made just enough money to cover my expenses, pay my phone bill, and help

out with my rent.

FKM: After moving back to Boston in 1998, you participated in a number of group shows,

among them “Supermarket” (Slop Art, Kansas City, Missouri, 1999), “The Entertainment

Show” (Jorge Hernandez Cultural Center, Boston, 2003), “Boys Life” (Evos Art Center,

Lowell, Massachusetts, 2005), and “Back From Nature: The Sportsman Redux” (ICA, Maine

College of Art, Portland, 2005). These titles imply a populist-allied life outside the studio

and the gallery. One show was even named after the official magazine of the Boy Scouts

of America, leading to an association between your work and male gender identity.

AM: I like the fact that my work draws on everyday life. The most elaborate installation

for me was the one in “Back From Nature,” which included Bob Braine, Kimberley Hart,

Arturo Herrera, Jocelyn Lee, Scott Peterman, Alexis Rockman, Mark Swanson, and Inga

Svala Thorsdottir.

FKM: “Back From Nature” explored art either dealing directly with the activities of hunting

and fishing or with the aesthetics, cult status, history, and politics of the sportsman.

Although three women contributed work, the press release stated, “The American sports-

man is a cultural icon and enduring metaphor for manliness, bravado, and courage.”

AM:My contribution to the show was an installation of sculpture and framed digital pho-

tographs called Palingenesis, which is a term referring to rebirth, regeneration, and rein-

carnation. In genetics, it describes an unmodified inheritance of ancestral characteristics.

FKM: You have said that the conceptual setting for this work dealing with maleness,

bachelorhood, and fishing was inspired by Duchamp’s The Bride Stripped Bare by Her

Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass). Palingenesis recapitulates Duchamp’s mechanistic

interpretation of desire, featuring a Bride in her domain above and the Bachelor’s Appa-

ratus below. The nine Malic Molds symbolizing the Bachelors share their space with,

among other things, a Chocolate Grinder. The Bride floats in an amorphous Milky Way

with three windows. Her suitors misfire their

“shots” and are thus forced to “grind their

own chocolate” (masturbate), while being

watched by faint circular patterns repre-

senting Oculist Witnesses. Explain your rein-

carnation of Duchamp’s love machine

AM: My installation also dealt with bach-

elorhood. I put my personal twist on it by

taking the Large Glass and translating it

into a functional piece whose themes were

fishing, masculinity, and femininity. Posi-

tioned in two layers against one of the

gallery walls were my hand-crafted objects,

including a horizontal metal bar to sepa-

rate the Bride from the Bachelors. The

Bride was represented by an oversized

pink creel basket—used to carry fish and

usually made from willow, though mine

was made with interlacing pink plastic

lanyard and had three windows woven

into it. I created a replica of the Milky

Way from white synthetic fur. Below, my

Bachelors were signified by a white vinyl

two-piece suit on which I sewed tiny uri-

nal buttons to refer to Duchamp’s Foun-

tain. Beside the suit, I arranged my ver-

sion of seven sieves—which were small

landing nets for catching trout—above

my fly-fishing rod, or chocolate grinder. I

then cut tufts of hair from my head and

used them as dubbing around hooks to

create freshwater fishing flies. I placed a

number of these flies inside a white cabi-

net fitted with an oval window and a zipper


PETERHARRIS

Bathyscape, 2007. Polyethylene plastic, acrylic, bronze, steel, and vinyl, installation view and detail.


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latch. Picture this as the area of the Oculist Witnesses, where the

Bachelors shoot a look, or other things, up at the Bride located in

the Milky Way.

FKM: This wall and another with video stills documented a per-

formance at Walden Pond.

AM: I associated Thoreau and his Walden adventure with bache-

lorhood. My pre-show private performance featured me fly-fishing,

dressed in the waterproof white vinyl suit, which stood out as

being very out of place with nature. Just above my crotch, I wore

a gimbal belt cummerbund, which is a girdle-like device used to

hold a rod while fighting and catching large fish. My action of

turning the fishing reel was meant to refer to the Bachelors grinding

their own chocolate. I carried the oversized pink creel on my shoul-

der. The video was never intended to be shown, but I photographed

stills from it and framed them in white plastic. I like the pixelated

look because it suggests that my fishing efforts were simply a

performance and not real life. It also suggests action without

being tied to a narrative.

FKM: Everything became fetishistic and sexy. The gimbal belt

makes the attached rod appear as an extended phallus, and your

white waterproof suit reminds me of John Travolta’s suit in Satur-

day Night Fever.

AM: But the sexy part is very tame, and everything was a result of

extensive research. I have clippings in my scrapbook/sketchbook

of Michael Jackson, the Bee Gees, the Beatles, and the Superfly

album cover in which the men are dressed in white suits. I also

have images of Victorian hair wreaths that inspired me to use my

own hair.

FKM: Indeed, you have put together voluminous notes, sketches,

clippings, and photographs in what seems to be a modern ver-

sion of Duchamp’s own mass of notes, which he began jotting

down in 1913 while fabricating The Large Glass and later pub-

lished as The Green Box (1934).

AM: I just kept collecting and drawing, and the pages kept piling

up and started to fall out of the notebook. Eventually, I put all of

my notebooks into a white plastic and vinyl box fitted with a handle

on which I stitched another urinal.

FKM: Your first big solo show in Boston was in 2007 at the pro-

gressive South End gallery Space Other. To prepare, you sat dressed

in a white T-shirt and pants on a small stool inside your Victorian-

style version of a bathyscaphe. Your four-sided rendition with deli-

cate legs, four windows, and water installed in a ceiling tank was

created from white polyethylene plastic, acrylic, bronze, and steel.

What is a bathyscaphe?

AM: It’s a rare device related to a diving bell, which is an airtight

windowed chamber lowered underwater to transport a small num-

ber of divers. The pressure of the water keeps the air trapped inside

the bell. Although the first bathyscaphes were engineered in the

late 1920s to investigate the deep sea, interest in diving bells goes

back to the time of Aristotle. Along with a number of designs for

diving bells, I also found an illustration from a medieval manuscript

showing Alexander the Great being lowered into the ocean in a

diving bell. I pictured divers bringing treasure and stories to the

surface in much the same way that artists bring ideas to light

in the gallery.

FKM: Your one-person apparatus seems to be from the world of

fantasy. It reminds me of Cinderella’s carriage.

AM: It has also been compared to a Victorian cabinet and the

elevator in Tim Burton’s Willy Wonka. I love that. The top has a

hatch to let air in, while the top basin percolates with water to

create an undersea illusion. For me, Bathyscape was more like a

birth canal with four oval windows. I had a hollow tube attached

to the top, which was like an umbilical cord that connected me

to the gallery.

FKM: So you made a womb/studio inside Bathyscape. Bellows

operated by gallery workers dressed in white vinyl suits pumped

air into the area where you sat silently on a white cushion and

created the works of art, which you framed.

AM: I installed the apparatus for tying fishing flies on a small

white plastic table. I cut locks of my hair off and used them to

tie 24 Hairwing flies, which are the type used to catch salmon.

I then framed each fly in an egg-like plastic oval and clipped it

to a pulley system that ran through a small hole in the bottom

of Bathyscape.

26 Sculpture 31.2

Top: Anemometer, 2008. Video still from performance. Above: Tempest

Prognosticator with Park Bench, 2009. View of mixed-media installation

at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.

TOP:

MARIANOC.PE

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FKM: Again, you used your hair as the main material for your

“product.” As the frames came out, another assistant, also dressed

in a sanitary white costume, received them and hung them on

an adjoining wall in a predetermined pattern of spirals based on

your double cowlick. This complicated performance seems to com-

bine fetish with ritual and identity. Your hair, a source for DNA, is

also a memento of a performance enacted without an audience.

AM: Bathyscape was about networks and devices of support. The

diving bell is tethered to the ship like a baby to its mother and

the artist to the gallery. The performance was documented in

a video that became part of the installation.

FKM: This elaborate performative sculptural installation has been

compared to Matthew Barney’s CREMASTER cycle.

AM: I admit that we share an interest in materials and what they

stand for in the history of art, as well as a definite theatricality.

However, Barney’s work has an overt and dark sexuality to it that

mine doesn’t. In Bathyscape, I’m more like a baby in an incu-

bator, while Barney is an athletic hero wrestling with his content.

We both deal with masculinity in different ways. My work is internal

and contemplative rather than aggressive and spectacle oriented.

FKM: There is a strong narrative insinuated by the sculptural arti-

facts of your performances. Tempest Prognosticator, your next

major work (originally at Gallery Diet in Miami in 2008, then at

the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in 2009), used weather

to symbolize the uncontrollable parts of life that we try to mea-

sure through technology. For this project, you placed yourself on

a Boston rooftop clad in a black business suit and a white plastic

harness with three extending arms, each ending in a wind-catching

cup. You became a human anemometer and weather vane, standing

on a low plastic table and rotating at a very slow pace. The per-

formance was shown as a video in the museum, and the audience

was invited to sit on a white polyethylene park bench that you

fashioned.

AM: Even when I try to make something functional, it is absurd

because it all comes down to weird science and aesthetics in the

end. The title refers to a rather bizarre Victorian device, which


Left: Weather Vane/Anemometer, 2008. Polyethylene, steel, vinyl, and PVC, installation view. Right: Drawing Machine #2, 2009. Steel, polycarbonate, Mylar,

and pen, installation view.

LEFT:MARIANOC.PE

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used live leeches to measure atmospheric

conditions. It was invented in 1851 by a Dr.

George Merryweather who had observed

that freshwater leeches tended to become

quite agitated before a severe storm. He

created an apparatus meant to harness the

energy of the leeches. He placed 12 white

glass pint bottles around a circular stand

at whose top was a bell and 12 hammers.

Each bottle was attached to a hammer

through a metal tube, a piece of whale-

bone, and wire to which a gilt chain was

connected. Merryweather then poured a

small amount of rainwater and a live leech

into each bottle. When influenced by elec-

tromagnetic changes in the atmosphere,

the leeches ascended into the tubes;

in doing so, they dislodged the whalebone

and caused the bell to ring, thus predicting

a thunderstorm. In the spirit of Merry-

weather’s device, I created a series of

alternative weather instruments, including

my wearable weather vane and anemo-

meter. I was the leech in this work.

FKM: Weather Vane/Anemometer (2008)

became an artifact of your rooftop perfor-

mance and a unique sculptural object. Three

plastic arms with catching cups and an

elaborate interlaced arabesque capped by

an arrow were attached to PVC pipe.

AM: The pipe was affixed to a white Lazy

Susan pedestal-type table, which I stood

on in the performance. It appears to be another chocolate grinder.

FKM: You also made a drawing machine that reacts to the weather outside.

AM: I put together a vitrine-style table meant to be used outside to make drawings from

wind power. A wing-like weather vane catches the wind and moves two pens attached by

magnets to create all-over drawings on Mylar inside the case. The markings are purely

aesthetic and reveal little measurable evidence of wind direction or speed.

FKM: One of my favorite performance-based artifacts is Parachute (2005), made from

found umbrellas sewn together with kite lines. You attached yourself to the parachute

with a human-scaled vinyl umbrella handle. Did you actually fly?

AM: Well, I did get my feet a bit off the ground. When I made Parachute, I was thinking

about the corporate world, which is why I wore a black suit for my performances first

in 2005 and then in 2008. I collected a ton of umbrellas—all representing corporations—

and sewed them together as one giant parachute-umbrella. In the gallery, Parachute

is best displayed in a pile. When an object enters a gallery, it cannot function, so it has

to be seen deflated. It was on exhibit in 2008 during the economic crash.

FKM: Your most recent show, “In Search Of,” moved from parascience to the paranormal.

AM: Most of the objects in this show are implements used to conjure and interact with

luck and chance. I’m trying to tap into something inexplicable—the unknown. These

sculptural implements were made to draw on some power that scientific instruments

cannot. I’m concerned here with the somewhat futile attempt to get any real answers.

FKM: The show featured two baroque “magic mirrors”—one white and the other black—

installed on either side of the gallery. They reminded me of the magic mirror in Disney’s

28 Sculpture 31.2

Above: Parachute, 2008. View of performance.

Right: Parachute, 2005. Found umbrellas, kite

line, vinyl, and aluminum.


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Snow White. They reflect one’s image with some texture, because you used a

polycarbonate, and they both have solid polyethylene frames. How did you

come up with the design, and what does a mirror inside a gallery mean to you?

AM: I found the design motif in a Sotheby’s auction catalogue. Both mirrors

are based on an Italian rococo tinted mirror. I wanted supernatural ornate

mirrors because I was thinking about mirrors as portholes to another realm.

When I made the decision to create a mirror, anything reflective was at the

forefront of my mind. I consider these pieces performative, too, in that the

viewer is performing with him/herself while looking in the mirrors. At the

same time, the viewer is being reflected into the gallery space.

FKM: This show featured a great deal of work made from white plastic. Why

are you attracted to this material?

AM: I use a solid polyethylene, a strong white surface most commonly used

to make cutting boards, and carve into it with a chisel. Ours is the age of

plastic, whether we like it or not. And plastic has the ability to mimic many

traditional sculptural materials both in form and craft. Since the gallery space

is white and sanitized, it provides a good home for plastic objects.

FKM: Oracle (2011) was one of my favorite pieces from “In Search Of.” It is an

oversized planchette—a heart-shaped movable indicator made to be used with

a Ouija board to spell out messages from the spirits during a séance.

AM: Oracle was used in a performance to find something unknown or mean-

ingful within the empty gallery space. But it can also be a functional coffee

table if nothing works out with your search for the supernatural.

FKM: You placed a coffee mug from Marfa, Texas, and a copy of Artforum

containing the “Best Shows of 2010” on top of Oracle.

AM: Those objects ended up there during the installation of the show, and I

just left them. It seemed fitting. I think that the investment side of the art

world deals with the future and a search for the unknown.

FKM: You used an oversized black plastic divining rod called The Curator (2011)

to find water or treasure in a clever video performance. When the gallery

was still empty, you walked around with this representation of a stick held

in front of you.

AM: As much as I’m joking around with this material,

I take my art and humor seriously. I am interested in

my work having a functional quality. I used the stick

to mark out the places for the works. I taped off the

areas where the stick seemed to lead and eventually

installed the works there. Maybe the rod was telling

me good places to stop, but I’m not sure.

FKM: It seems that you have gone full circle, back to

your student days of making plastic chicken wish-

bones, with Implement for Studio Practice (2011),

which is a giant white plastic wishbone made to be

broken.

AM: I wanted something that could be broken and put

back together again, so I fitted the sculpture with equal

breaking points and magnets on both sides. I wanted

something to interact with physically, so I made a video

performance with it held in my hands. I kept pulling

the bone apart and putting it back together again. This

reflects a lot of the art-making process.

FKM: How so?

AM: Well, you just mentioned that I’m back to wish-

bones. This is one example of re-creating something.

The repetition of process can be very revealing. Whether

it is a line repeated in a drawing created by the wind,

a form or subject revisited, or a performative action,

there is an understanding achieved by the meditative

quality of a repetitive process.

FKM: Like fishing?AM: Like fishing.

Francine Koslow Miller, a Boston-area critic for Artforum

for over 20 years and a regular contributor to Sculpture,

has published numerous catalogues and monographs,

including the forthcoming Cashing in on Culture:

Betraying the Trust at the Rose Art Museum (Hol Art

Books).


CLEMEN

TS/H

OWCROFT,BOSTON

Left:Well, 2011. Found Styrofoam flotsam, 24 x 48 x 48 in. Above:

Oracle, 2011. High-density polyethylene and acrylic, 18 x 34 x 48 in.


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Peru’s sculptors range broadly in ethnicity, processes, and materials, yet many

share a keen awareness of their country’s cultural heritage. With a new presi-

dent, a new culture minister, and surging tourism, Peru is still struggling to

overcome its legacy of gang, cult, and government violence (an ongoing dilemma

that resulted in more than 60,000 murders during the 1980s and ’90s), racism,

and poverty. From the capital city of Lima to Cuzco, to the town of Puno,

Peruvian culture today continues to blend the historic and the modern. At

12,000 feet above sea level, Puno, located near Lake Titicaca, is rich in ancient

culture; it is an isolated area, removed until very recently from the national

project that is Peru.


Opposite: César Cornejo, model of MoCA installation for Galeria Lucia de la Puente at

Art Basel Miami, 2011. Cardboard, wood, and paper, 42 x 50 x 45 cm. This page: Aymar

Ccopacatty, Chullo for a New Leader, 2010. Knitted plastic bags, 9 x 5 ft.

BY JAN GARDEN CASTRO

PERU’SCONTEMPORARYSCULPTORS

Crafting NewSocial and CulturalIdentities

IRMAALVAREZ


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Puno native Aymar Ccopacatty <www.

aymart.org>, who studied at the Rhode

Island School of Design, is proud of Puno’s

pre-Inca Aymara and Quechua heritage. He

translates the textile traditions of his Aymara

grandmother into non-biodegradable plas-

tic weavings and knittings, plastic paintings,

and art objects of all sizes. His objective is to

acknowledge marginalized traditional crafts

while critiquing pollution and waste. Cco-

pacatty says, “Obviously all this is in the

interest of getting the bags out of nature,

and back to serving a function, while helping

people to reflect about how much we waste,

and alternatives to this waste.”1 One of

his favorite icons is the chullo, a traditional

pointed hat with earflaps. Before the 2011

national election, he knitted a large-scale

plastic chullo that could serve as a giant

thinking cap for Peru’s president. Chullo

for a New Leader was constructed using

oversized knitting needles made from PVC

tubes with pointed wooden tips at one end.

Ccopacatty divides his time between intro-

ducing technology to Aymara-speaking

teachers and students in Puno and exhi-

biting and directing exhibitions in Lima

that transform recycled materials into art.

While respecting the traditions of Peru-

vian artists such as Alberto Guzman, Joa-

quín Roca Rey, Jorge Piqueras, Cristina

Gálvez, Anna Maccagno, Lika Mutal, Johanna

Hamann, Sonia Prager, and Benito Rosas,

the metal sculptor Rhony Alhalel Lender

<www.rhonyalhalel.com> aligns his spare

forms to various cultural traditions, from

pre-Columbian and Andean to Japanese and

Turkish. His public art commissions in key

public squares include La Marinera, dedi-

cated to Chabuca Granda, a well-known

composer; The Night Guard, located at an

important business center; El Lector, for

the new façade of the Universidad del Pací-

fico; and Signos, a project for the Peru

International Airport. Arriving passengers

see a form resembling a fetus/question

mark—indicating that Peru is still devel-

oping—while departing passengers see a

human form/exclamation mark—signifying

wonder at the pace of Peru’s progress. After

training at the school of plastic arts at the

Universidad Catolica del Peru, Alhalel studied

painting, papermaking, and Zen calligra-

phy in Japan and later encouraged his com-

patriot César Cornejo to do the same.

Cornejo’s work <www.cesarcornejo.com>

addresses how socio-political, environmen-

tal, aesthetic, and economic issues in Peru

translate into international contexts. His

ongoing Puno Museum project, initially

funded by New York’s Creative Time, is a

collaborative endeavor. Cornejo works with

Puno residents to improve their dwellings

by adding modern design to traditional

houses; for an agreed-upon period, he then

helps them transform those spaces into

galleries showing contemporary art. With

its unique blend of the traditional and

the modern, public and private, the Puno

Museum gives a new kind of life to contem-

porary art, encouraging interactions among

tourists and visitors, city residents, and

artists with varied backgrounds. The tem-

porary house museums offer immediate

anthropological, cultural, and economic

exchanges on many levels, and in many

directions, forming a new model for com-

munity development.

In 2005, Cornejo created La Cantuta to

commemorate the July 18, 1992 kidnapping,

torture, and murder of nine students and

a teacher at La Cantuta University by a

government death squad. The bodies were

found buried on the outskirts of Lima, and

government officials were later tried and

convicted for the crime. Though a public

monument was planned, it was never built,

and 13 years later, it was still radical to

mourn this loss of life publicly by using art

to grieve and rebuild community. Cornejo’s

project brought together more than a

32 Sculpture 31.2

LEFT:DANIELGIANNONI

Above: Rhony Alhalel Lender, Link / Vínculo (scale model), 2008. Cor-ten steel, acrylic paint, and

graphite powder, .33 x .58 x .18 meters. Right: Cecilia Paredes, The River Within, 2010. Recovered

crystals and monofilament, detail of installation.


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http://www.aymart.org

http://www.rhonyalhalel.com

http://www.cesarcornejo.com





thousand citizens and students to make

60,000 black paper flowers commemorat-

ing every victim of violence in Peru.2 La

Cantuta consisted of nine flower-covered

student desks and one teacher’s desk in a

setting landscaped with black flowers.

Making art to remember the dead during

a repressive period when such behavior

was risky created a collective memory.

It was also a synecdoche, a microcosm of

mourning for a nation still afraid to mourn.

Cornejo’s work was featured at Art Basel

Miami Beach in 2011, and his solo show

“El Cambio” is on view at the World Bank

in Washington, DC, from March through

June 2012.


ALEXBRYC

E

Above: Cecilia Paredes, Tapiz, 2010. Abandoned

chrysalis and thread, 39 x 40 in. Right: Cecilia

Paredes, Necklace, 2010. Porcupine quills and

linen, 9.5 x 8 in.


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Like Cornejo, Carlos Runcie Tanaka, Ceci-

lia Paredes, and Ishmael Randall Weeks

show their work on the international stage.

Lima-based ceramic artist Runcie Tanaka

<www.carlosruncietanaka.com> has taught

and exhibited internationally and has repre-

sented Peru twice at the São Paulo Biennial.3

He and sculptor/performance artist Cecilia

Paredes and many other Peruvian artists

have had solo shows at the International

Center for Peru and North America (ICPNA),

in Lima.

Paredes <www.ceciliaparedes.com>

divides her time among Lima, Costa Rica,

Philadelphia, and other locations, including

China and Spain. She uses unusual and

symbolic materials such as butterfly cocoons,

which have a natural fluorescent quality.

The work featured in her 2010 solo exhibi-

tion “The River Within” at the ICPNA was

composed of elements gathered in far-flung

locations. Paredes traveled to the highlands

to find cane for A Light I Gathered, a fragile

woven shelter referring to the shantytowns

that highland immigrants piece together

for shelter. In the Amazon, she collected

porcupine quills for Necklace and rain sticks

for Ucayali, a musical tribute to the Amazon

in which bamboo instruments filled with

musical pebbles were wired to sensors

that triggered them to play when viewers

approached.

Ishmael Randall Weeks <www.randall

weeks.com> was raised in Ollantaytambo,

a small town between Cuzco and Machu

Picchu. Much of his work, as he says, “comes

34 Sculpture 31.2

BOTTOM:PA

BLO

HARE

Right: Ishmael Randall Weeks, Huacales, 2008.

Mirror-covered market crates and light, dimen-

sions variable. Below: Ishmael Randall Weeks,

Progreso, 2006. Used tires, steel, inner tubes,

netting, sand, and water, 132 x 856 x 334 cm.


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http://www.carlosruncietanaka.com

http://www.ceciliaparedes.com

http://www.randallweeks.com





from thinking about that culture, about

migration, mobility and change.”4 His father,

Robert Randall, was a writer and ethno-

historian, and his painter mother, Wendy

Weeks, still lives in Peru. At Bard, Weeks

studied with Elizabeth Murray and Judy Pfaff

and worked for Gillian Jagger. His lengthy

exhibition list includes representing Peru

in two biennials, a gallery-sized installation

at MoMA PS1’s “Greater New York” show

(2010); a tribute in rubber to Vallejo for

New York’s Museo el Barrio Biennial (2011);

and installations at Dublin Contemporary

and at the Drawing Room in London (2011).

In Lima, the ICPNA, which is notable for

its openness toward showing a range of

innovative work, provides an important

gathering place for contemporary artists.

The Museo de arte de Lima, a magnificent

example of Lima’s eclectic architecture circa

1870, shows international artists and art

from earliest times to present. The politi-

cal art of Fernando Bryce, born in Lima in

1965, was recently featured. MAC, a new

building for contemporary art in the

Barranco area has remained unfinished for

decades but is slated for completion in

2012. Although the contemporary art scene

in Peru leaves much to be desired, Alhalel

Lender cites three “interesting facts”: “New

private foundations, cultural institutions,

and municipalities are organizing compe-

titions for public sculpture. Today most

of the best-known sculptors and highly

regarded pedagogues in the field are women.

And finally, sculpture is no longer a three-

dimensional figure of a saint or hero in the

middle of a park.”5

Many Peruvian-born artists live in other

countries and exhibit internationally. Berlin-

based David Zink Yi recently exhibited

Untitled (Architeuthis), a 660-pound, room-

sized ceramic rendering of a prehistoric

squid surrounded by its inky residue, as

part of his solo show at New York’s Hauser

& Wirth Gallery. Conjuring ancient oceans,

this elegant yet grotesque form seems to

be a metaphor about nature, history, and

myth. Grimanesa Amoros, a sculptor and

mixed-media artist based in New York, has

recently shown in Madrid and Finland; her

work incorporates social history and explores

notions of personal and community iden-

tity. Whether at home or abroad, these

contemporary artists combine keen aes-

thetics with a sense of social history.

Through talent and networking, they are

forging their own paths.

Notes

1 E-mail from Ccopacatty, June 4, 2011.

2 Some reports count almost 70,000 victims.

3 For a detailed analysis of Runcie Tanaka’s work, see Sculpture May 2011:

pp. 28–33.

4 E-mail from Weeks, August 2011.

5 E-mail from Lender, June 17, 2011.

Jan Garden Castro is a contributing editor

for Sculpture and the author of books on

Sonia Delaunay and Georgia O’Keeffe.


THOMASMÜLLER

,©

HAU

SER&

WIRTH

,COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDJOHANNKÖ

NIG,BER

LIN

David Zink Yi, Untitled (Architeuthis), 2010. Burnt and glazed clay, 575 x 115 x 29 cm.


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Lika Mutal knows the ages of stones. Her stu-

dios in Lima, Villa Salvador, and Pulpos, Peru,

contain examples of ancient igneous forma-

tions that she has harvested from Peru’s moun-

tains and deserts and reverently transported—

making sure that granite boulders weighing

up to seven tons arrive without a chip or

scratch. It may take years for Mutal to use a

piece and up to a year to hand-polish a large

work. Leaving parts of original golden-brown

outer surfaces while revealing sparkling green-

black interiors or mating stones of different

ages and hues is part of her magic.


Opposite: Lunar Stone, 2010. Traver-

tine with calcarian algae, 106 x 106

x 38 cm. Above: Stonebud Ocean,

1990–92. Travertine, 215 x 230 x

159 cm.

Listeningto Stones

Lika MutalA Conversation with

OPP

OSITE

ANDTH

ISPA

GE:

GAM

KLU

TIER

BY JAN GARDEN CASTRO


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38 Sculpture 31.2

Jan Garden Castro: You speak eloquently about the genders, his-

tories, and ages of stones.2 Why are these understandings impor-

tant?

Lika Mutal: As a European, I was taught that stone was a lifelessmaterial, while here in Peru, in traditional and popular lore,

An avid reader, pianist, and music lover who has lived in Peru

for more than 40 years, Dutch-born Mutal continuously refines

the role of vision in her work, bringing out possible resonances

inherent in the stones themselves. Recognizing the palpable

presence of Mutal’s sculpture, the Novartis campus in Basel

changed the façade of a building to be more in harmony with

her stone. Without criticizing sculptors who waste materials or

rely on industrial equipment, Mutal creates work that honors

and preserves the earth’s ecology, environment, and substance.

Stone not only represents millions of years of the earth’s history,

but also, in Mutal’s hands, its transformations, resonances,

beauty, and messages.

Mutal has had many solo exhibitions at the Daniel Gervis

Gallery in Paris, the Nohra Haime Gallery in New York, and the

Galeria Lucia de la Puente in Lima. In 2008, she exhibited 20

sculptures, including four monumental works, at the new Patricia

Ready Gallery in Santiago, Chile. Her work is in public and private

collections around the world, including the Centre Pompidou in

Paris and the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. Her

awards include two prizes from the Fujisankei Biennale in Japan.

Mutal has received international attention for The Eye that Cries,

a memorial labyrinth and sculpture in Lima for the more than

60,000 victims of the armed conflict between government and

guerrilla forces during the ’80s and ’90s. This work brought consola-

tion and symbolic reparations to survivors, but it became contro-

versial after its desecration by followers of the Fujimori govern-

ment, whose methods of suppressing terrorism were often as vio-

lent as the terrorist acts they sought to control. The memorial is

now supervised by a consortium of human rights groups.1

Above: The Eye That Cries, 2003–06. Memorial to the victims of Peruvian

violence, Lima. Below: Messenger, 2007. Travertine with fossil, 147 x 147

x 48 cm.

TOP:

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THEARTIST


to feel these stones as emissaries of nature. When a group of poor

people turned the quarry into a shantytown, I had to look in other

directions. In the north of Peru, I found a place of astronomical

proportions with thousands of blocks of eroded black granite. The

new stone carver with whom I visited the place would say, “It is

an enigma—how these blocks of granite flowered here.” It must

have been the result of a giant cataclysm that broke the layers of

lava into pieces.

stone is alive. What it meant to my European mind was that one

stone was a reliable material and with another you had to be

careful. Later on, this was confirmed in a profound way by the

Andean priests of the Q’ero nation when they told me, upon seeing

the stones in my studio, that each was a direct descendent of a

sacred mountain (Apu) sharing in all the properties of the moun-

tain, and that they were called ancestral stones. One stone could

teach you vision; another stone was a healing stone and would

bring great blessings to the person to whom that stone would

come. The central stone of The Eye that Cries is a descendent of

Ausangate, the sacred tutelary mountain of all the pre-Hispanic

nations in Peru.

JGC: How did you find the Inkarri stone and develop your friend-

ship with Don Martin Quispe, an altomesayog or stone sage from

the remote mountain-based Q’ero nation?

LM: It was Martin who told me that the stones in my studio

are related. The Inkarri is like a messiah. When Martin and other

sages first came to my studio in Barranco and saw the stones

and sculptures on my patio, one of them went into a trance and

started to communicate with the stones. They called one a sym-

bol of Inkarri, and when I said that I was going to work in the

stone, I was told not to touch it as it would be punishment for

the stone. One man said that this stone was the center of my

house. Then he bent over and touched the rim of the stone and

said, “If you work Inkarri here, maybe Inkarri would grow.” I

interpreted that to mean if I put it on a mirror of water, it would

grow through its reflection. I chose to surround it with flowers and

plants, and it is the center of my house. It’s a gray granite stone

with a knife edge in three sections—like a mountain. I brought

that stone from a quarry where I went with Don Juan Arias, a stone

carver who taught at the School of Fine Art at Catholic University

where I studied.

JGC: What did you study with Don Juan?

LM: He taught that the big challenge for sculpture was granite—

the giant that you attack in its weakest spot. He would visit my

studio to teach me direct carving with chisel and hammer—all

hand-work. When I was done expressing ideas in travertine, the

softest hard stone, he took me to a small natural quarry where

there were hundreds of little granite blocks shaped by nature. You

could read their history: the north face would be rusted, the south

covered with moss; there was a different texture, color, and feel

to each side of the stone. I would sit near one that had attracted

my attention, then I would walk away, and if, coming back, I could

still recognize it, I would take it to my studio. Then, in my studio,

I would live with it for months or years until I knew what to do

with it—how to enhance an aspect in it that would make it land-

scape, architecture, sculpture, by lifting a part out of the mass

and polishing it while basically leaving the same stone. I started

Echo of the Wind, 2007. Granite with wind- and water-eroded stone, 164 x 133.5

x 94 cm.

Hommage à Louise Bourgeois, 2007. Marble, travertine, and natural stone,

26 x 37 x 34 cm.


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JGC: What about the seven-ton stone in your studio in Villa

Salvador?

LM: That was from a different place, which I found later when

this quarry, too, became inaccessible because of huge avocado

plantations that had been built around it. The stones in this new

place were shaped by water and by wind. This stone is bigger than

any of the others and has spectacular features; it says, “You may

use me but you may not touch me.”

JGC: A maquette shows where you plan to place it with other stones.

LM: I’ve learned during the years that you cannot take what you

like. You have to ask permission to use it. I do that through a small

ceremony that the Q’ero have taught me to perform, making small

bundles of coca leaves in a special shape enhanced with flowers

of a special color. You blow your intention into the leaves, and

then it is burned as an offering. At the same time, you feed all

the stones—the ones you take and the ones you don’t take—with

drops of pisco and chicha (Peruvian distilled wine and beer).

JGC: In your earlier work, you turned some of the travertine into

quipus, or “counting knots,” used for recording in the Inca Empire.

How do quipus figure in Quechua culture?

LM: A quipu is an object made of chords and tied with many knots.

Each knot means something. It is believed that it was both a

counting device and a way of writing. It inspired me because it

represented an unknown language. Between 1978 and 1982, I

was looking for a personal idiom, and to create knots that could

move around one stone without being separate from the central

ring was an irresistible challenge. It was very difficult to do. Don

Juan would come in to teach me about weights and sounds. If the

sound produced by the chisel started to lose its resonance, he

would say, “You’re risking”—the stone could break. I always had

to consider the relationship (among the parts) and keep in har-

mony the several weights (of the parts of each work).

JGC: How do you connect “dream time,” the fusion of time, con-

sciousness, and topography created by aboriginal songs, with

your work?

LM: I’ve written about this in an essay called “The Conscience

of Space.” The work has taken me to realms where there are no

defined separations between the conscious and the subconscious

mind. I was raised in a culture where people called early religious

beliefs paganism. I have come to recognize those beliefs as the

religion or spirituality of nature. The cruel sacrifices of early nature

40 Sculpture 31.2

GAM

KLU

TIER

Listening to See, 2011. Travertine with wind- and water-eroded granite, 101.5

x 101.5 x 68.5 cm.

View of the artist’s studio in Lima.


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religions have been discarded, while the munay or the charismatic and emo-

tional intelligence of the universe is there for us to discover.3

JGC: In the same essay, you mention Alfred North Whitehead and the quan-

tum physics of Max Planck and Niels Bohr. What else has inspired your work?

LM: Though I have learned much from pre-Columbian and other early cul-

tures, nowadays, my work has to do with ecology. We can only discover the

secrets of matter by being open to nature and by coming into our own high-

er consciousness of nature as it reveals itself to us.

JGC: Mario Vargas Llosa says that your process shows the original nature of

the stone and sometimes reveals that its inner core and polished face may

show different hues, textures, or moods.4 Listening to See is a sculpted globe

of travertine into which you have set an ear-like stone shaped by the ele-

ments. The two somehow curl around each other.

LM: I brought the old stone from the wind-blown place, and I used the traver-

tine as its dwelling. Look at the circles in the old one, which continue inside

the travertine. This shape is the echo of the shape inside the stone. Vargas

Llosa talks about an amorous surge within the stone, a deep urge and mystery

related to these old stones that represent nature, and I like that very much

because I feel its truth. If you are silent enough and alert enough, a wordless

communication is established. This guides your doings

in the stone, as well as your awareness about art,

about life. It’s an experience that guides you to new

findings and levels that reach beyond matter per se.

From matter, life was born. From life, mind. And being

silent, or meditating, you come to learn that there is

no end to these levels, which become non-material.

There is higher mind, there is highest consciousness,

and all of these layers inform each other. In our present

world, we are stuck too much in the layer of mind and

in the tricks it can perform: excess technology, vio-

lence, fanaticism. A mind that divides and does not

feed from the lesson of oneness of matter does not

evolve to another level. In my understanding about the

importance of matter in all kinds of creation, there is a

quality of “is,” “now,” and “being”—to create that

presence and the light around it is like a mission.

Jan Garden Castro is a contributing editor for Sculpture.


JAVIERSILVA

Front and back views of Isle de Paracas, 2007. Natural stones, 21 x 17 x 8 cm.

Notes

1 Katherine Hite, “The Eye that Cries: The Politics of Representing Victims in Contemporary Peru,” A Contra

corriente, A Journal on Social History and Literature in Latin America, Fall 2007: pp. 108–134.

2 This interview took place in Pulpos on February 9, 2011. Mutal’s essay “Stones are My Teachers” is featured in Encountering Art,

Different Facets of the Esthetic Experience (Shigaraki, Japan: Miho Museum, 2001), pp. 23–36.

3 Lika Mutal: Del espacio sagrado, de las piedras soñadas, del munay, exhibition catalogue,

(Lima: Galeria Lucia de la Puente, 2007): pp. 37–44.

4 Mario Vargas Llosa, “La tentacion de la piedra” (1983), reprinted in La tentacion de la piedra

(Santiago: Patricia Ready Galeria, 2008).


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TOP:

COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDROGALERÍA

DEARTE,BUEN

OSAIRES

/BOTTOM:COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDOFICINAPR

OYECTISTA,BUEN

OSAIRES


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Camilo Guinot’s work is notable for its sensitivity and meticulousness. The Argentinian

artist works on each piece like a surgeon. He approaches everything in his environment

as a potential medium for expression, discrediting no technique or material as he exper-

iments with installation, sculpture, drawing, photography, and performance. Neverthe-

less, the importance given to objects stands out in his productions: the exactitude of

construction, conceptual rigor, and finished form of his sculptures are amazing.

Guinot first came into contact with art when he was a little kid, through play, though

he recognizes that the ability to create is a skill inherent to humans and never felt special

because of it. His works tell us about an artist trained for years in exhaustive, almost

obsessive practices. In each work, formal resources adapt to the necessities of the con-

cept or the nature of the object, and each piece is conceived as a tool for knowledge,

acting as a bond between the artist’s sensibility and the outside world. Guinot’s works

establish a fluid communication in which images translate intuitions without language.

Each action seems to develop into a new creation; there’s no place for repetition, but

always room for the creation of something absolutely new.

Guinot’s aesthetic rests on several foundations, as he points out: “Octimio Landi and

Javier Lampreabe, Duchamp’s attitude, Matta-Clark’s physicality, Beuys’s messianic and

shamanic aura, the precise, precious, and invisible in Boetti, Alÿs and Orozco’s simplici-

ty in re-creating the predecessors, Xul Solar and De la Vega’s plurality, Miyazaki’s worlds

and characters, the precarious and sophisticated Gondry machines, Thoreau’s irreverence

and unique vision, Cage’s re-interpretation of Duchamp’s attitude, Jorge Luis Borges,

Bukowski’s sense of humor, Villa-Matta’s essays, Murakami’s landscapes, the terrible

and fascinating challenge in the way that Lao Tzé, Bohm, Castaneda, Heraclitus, the

Epicureans, the skeptics see things…and the list goes on and on.”


COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDSA

NJAVIERRES

IDEN

CY,

MUSE

OCASTAGNINO-M

ACRO,SA

NTA

FÉ,ARGEN

TINA

EXACTING

IMMATERIALITYBY MARIA CAROLINA BAULO

Opposite top: Esfera, 2005. Matches, 10 cm.

diameter. Opposite bottom: S/T (panadero),

2009. Spores, 35 cm. diameter. This page: Bicho,

2010. Sugar canes and scotch tape, 5 x 4 x 2.5

meters.

Camilo Guinot


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Life and death, time, and the construction of identity—related

themes for Guinot—concern him in a particular way, driving him

to search for new experiences. But multiple sources of inspiration

aren’t the only factors operating in his work: creativity awakens

according to the specific context. Series and isolated pieces become

alive. There’s no methodology regulating Guinot’s work, his only

method is variety. The act of discovering, the power of curiosity,

trial and error, the possibility to play—everything becomes part

of a process, in continuous movement.

The importance given to forms is fundamental: forms prevail

within these works. The pieces are intense and ordered because

the methodology of multiplicity demands a system, certain pat-

terns, in order to organize the elements. These qualities define

an artist dedicated and committed to his craft, following a phi-

losophy that he applies not only to his work, but also to his life.

The presence of beauty gives evidence to internal rhythms and

harmonies, the different parts combining in exact ways to achieve

balance. This is particularly obvious in the small pieces, where

attention to detail recalls the care applied to creating ships inside

bottles: elegance, patience, and determination govern Guinot’s

forms. Sculptures created by putting together hundreds, and

even thousands, of tiny pieces of wood—matches mostly—lines

drawn in space with steel, zinc, or paper supports, they all show

the binding conjunction fusing the idea, the concept, and

the materiality of the object itself. Guinot defines his forms as

“a welcome and goodbye dance, a battlefield and a celebration at

the same time; a movement searching for its right spot, its space,

its way.” Enormous and minuscule rhizomes, these works seem

to hold the key to a jealously guarded secret code.

Each one of Guinot’s forms is a small part of an entire concep-

tion—every sculpture, no matter its size, shape, or format, is

complementary and establishes a dialogue with the rest of the

pieces. Something similar happens when he works with photogra-

phy, drawing, and painting; they act as additional links in this

large chain, which materializes the immaterial. Immateriality,

desire, and memory rule his creativity, and even when they can’t

44 Sculpture 31.2

LEFT:COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDROGALERÍA

DEARTE,BUEN

OSAIRES

/RIGHT:

MARÍA

MILES

SI,COURTESY

CEN

TROCULTURALCARLO

SAMEG

HINOMARÍN,MER

CED

ES,BUEN

OSAIRES

Left: S/T (oval), 2010. Matches, mdf, and paint, 120 x 80 cm. Right: Delta, 2008. Branches, plastic bottles, scotch tape, and chairs, detail of installation.


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be apprehended, he captures them in a

precise moment of their existence, here

and now, preserving that portion of time

intact. Ephemeral art also captures Guinot’s

attention, and when he uses organic mate-

rials, he embraces their degradation and

finitude. Freedom is absolute: the journey,

the experience itself, has no boundaries

even when it comes to works that will cer-

tainly vanish as time goes by.

Guinot has participated in numerous

exhibitions, international residencies, com-

petitions, and art fairs. He believes that

time will provide his works with new mean-

ings, enriching and nurturing them with

every change that takes place in their envi-

ronment. Art isn’t something given once

and forever, it interacts with its context and

history. The future will bring new ways of

reading and approaching the work. Full of

ideas and faithful to materials, Guinot’s cre-

ations carry the stamp of the one who took

them beneath his wing day and night for

long periods of time before setting them

free and watching them fly.

Maria Carolina Baulo is a writer based in

Buenos Aires.


Left and detail: S/T, 2010–11. Matches and lac-

quer, 85 x 85 x 65 cm. Below: Fragilísimo, 2006.

Matches, lamp, and cord, installation view.

LEFT:COURTESY

THEARTIST

ANDROGALERÍA

DEARTE,BUEN

OSAIRES


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Tim Prentice is a kinetic sculptor whose works can be seen in many public

buildings and corporate collections, including American Express, Bank

of America, Citigroup, Mobil, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard. He received a

master’s degree in architecture from Yale in 1960 and founded the award-

winning architectural firm of Prentice and Chan in 1965. Ten years later,

he moved to Cornwall, Connecticut, to design and fabricate kinetic sculp-

ture. Over the last few years, he has completed installations in Japan,

Korea, Northern Ireland, Australia, and Taiwan. Prentice has had recent

solo exhibitions at Maxwell Davidson Gallery in New York and the Berk-

shire Botanical Gardens in Lenox, Massachusetts, and the Schuylkill

Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia featured his Yellow

Zinger in its 2010 show “Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature.” He

recently completed a nine-part kinetic installation for the atrium of

a new building in Taipei.

I first met Prentice in 1992 when he was installing a work over the

stairway at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Operations Center in

East Rutherford, New Jersey. The whimsical, wind-generated movement

and fluid, fabric-like qualities of his kinetic sculpture, along with its

unique combination of very technical, controlled precision and unpredict-

able and spontaneous movement, captivated me.


NORMANMCGRATH

Working with the Wind

Opposite and above: Swarm, 2010.

Lexan, aluminum, and stainless

steel, 15 x 100 x 30 ft. Work at 42nd

Street and 8th Avenue, New York.

BY JANE INGRAM ALLEN

A Conversation with


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Jane Ingram Allen: How does your training and experience as an architect

inform your work as a sculptor?

Tim Prentice: The architectural training is useful for a number of reasons. My

skills and experience are helpful in visualizing the space, making models,

renderings, and perspectives. This is second nature to me, but I think it is not

the case with most artists. Architects have the experience in graduate school

of defending their work to a battery of critics and fellow students. I am often

presenting my work to architects, and we speak the same language.

JIA: Do you feel that there is much difference between what an architect does

and what a sculptor does?

TP: The difference is huge. Architecture requires a balance of function and

expression. Function without expression is flat. Sculpture is expression without

function. The contrast between the general public’s reaction to buildings and

to art tells the story. People respect the functional obligations of buildings.

They may not consider themselves authorities on architecture, but they live

in a manmade environment and have experienced a wide variety of building

types. People are usually not shy about sharing their opinions on design.

When confronted with contemporary art, they feel much less confident.

Architecture is not hands-on. A small house can take months to design and

a year to build. You don’t get the answers back for a year. It’s as if you

snapped a photograph and took it to the developer and were told that the

print would be ready in a year. You can’t learn quickly from that process, it’s

too slow. If you are making something with your hands, you can learn immedi-

ately. I missed that experience.

JIA:When did you decide to go into sculpture, and how did that come about?

TP: It crept up on me for years. I came out of school with a very hot genera-

tion of architects, many of whom now enjoy international reputations. During

the early stages of my career, most of the projects I drew were built, but I

didn’t feel that I was finding my own voice. This nagged at me. Peter Eisen-

man and I were friends at the time. He was a theorist with a slim record of

construction, and I was a non-intellectual with a growing list of built pro-

jects. We were separate halves of a balanced diet.

I was intrigued with the kinetic sculpture of Alexander Calder and George

Rickey and had been since I was a kid. I like to tell the story of being taken

48 Sculpture 31.2

Above: Yellow Zinger, 2008. Neoprene, aluminum, and stainless

steel, 96 ft. long. Below: Tall Windframe II, 2010. Stainless

steel, 32 x 4 x 1 ft. Work at Eastern Connecticut State University.


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as a teenager to the Addison Gallery in

Andover, Massachusetts, and seeing my

first Calder. It was standing in the entrance

lobby. When the tour was over, I was still

frozen there. I never got past the lobby. I

went back several times to see this piece,

but it was always out on loan. I finally

caught up with it years later in an exhibi-

tion at the Hartford Athenaeum in Con-

necticut. I thought I had memorized the

work that changed the course of my life,

but it was about half the size that I expected.

It wasn’t until I was in my early 40s

that I dared to take the plunge and aban-

don what was seen as a successful career

as an architect to begin a new one as a

sculptor. I had been making kinetic sculp-

ture all along as a hobby, but that’s

another story.

JIA: Tell me about those early years. It must

have been difficult to make the change.

TP: I started in the living room of our apart-

ment in New York. I was yearning to move

to the country, but we still had kids in

school in the city. Fortunately, I was offered

a job teaching at Columbia, which helped

to tide me over. Sculpture was not imme-

diately successful, as most ventures are

rarely immediately successful. I am now

working out of an old farm in Connecticut

with a small team of craftsmen.

JIA: Did you start with kinetic sculpture?

TP: Yes, it was always kinetic. That was whatintrigued me—the movement, the balance,

the craft, and the element of time.

JIA: Do you remember your first piece?

TP: Yes. It was when I was still in school.

I began with wire coat hangers. I made

something hanging from the ceiling in the

student housing. It was vaguely anthropo-

morphic and, in a way, a kind of joke. I

remember it because every once in a while,

in a quiet way, it would come into a conjunc-

tion and have an assignation with itself.

JIA: You mentioned Calder as a great influ-

ence. Who are some others?

TP: When I was in high school, I opened a

book on the Russian Constructivists, and

it blew my mind. That period, from 1910

to 1915, shook me into consciousness and

still does—Tatlin, Malevich, Rodchenko,

and the others. Calder came out of that

period with a heavy dose of Surrealism. His

forms recall Arp and Miró, and his primary

colors came out of the Constructivists. Then George Rickey comes along. Comparing the

two, Calder was not an intellectual and hid behind his humor when people asked him

tough questions. He was purely intuitive. Rickey was an intellectual. He taught most of

his life. He was far more Constructivist. He analytically isolated movement the way that

Josef Albers isolated color. They represent the contrasting left and right sides of the brain.

JIA: Are there any contemporary sculptors or artists who have influenced you?

TP: I like the discipline of Agnes Martin. I studied with Albers, and he was a great influence.

I took his color course twice, once as an undergraduate and again in graduate school. The

course was “The Interaction of Color,” which became a model for schools across the country.

JIA: Did color become an important element in your work?

TP: No. The interesting thing is how Albers isolated color. Composition went out, surface

went out, and he focused only on color. He neutralized composition by settling on only

one format (Homage to the Square). So how did that work for me? I thought, “Let’s try

to isolate movement with the same discipline.” I tried to think like an engineer rather

than an artist. I wanted to reduce friction and only use elements strong enough to do

the job. It’s curious how much is made of Calder’s engineering training; in reality, his

engineering is pretty rudimentary. Rickey, however, was a master engineer, which is sur-

prising for a history major.

JIA: You mentioned that you admire the discipline of Agnes Martin. It seems that disci-

pline is very important to your work, as is economy.

TP: Yes, the economy of means. Coming back to Calder, everybody knows his soft floating

triangular forms and how the relationship changes as they move. I thought, “What if

you could have the forms themselves change?” With that in mind, the first breakthrough

for me was the sort of piece that I showed at Schuylkill—a line in space made up of a

string of small elements that the wind can warp and bend at will.

JIA: The elements in your work all seem pretty much the same, repeated geometrical

shapes and no color.


Nine Dragons, 2011. Aluminum and stainless steel, 80 x 25 x 25 ft. View of work in Taipei.


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TP: Yes, many small elements are assembled to make a larger form. The light-reflecting

materials pick up the colors around them. As the air moves the elements, the colors

change. There’s always color.

JIA: Do you often use prefabricated or commercially made and recycled materials?

TP: Yes, the Schuylkill piece was made with industrial scrapers from the local paint store.

JIA: Did you experiment at all with motors?

TP: No, that’s another branch of kinetic sculpture that comes out of Jean Tinguely. I pre-

fer natural forces to make the movement. I make the machine that I hope will attract

the attention of the wind, and then the wind becomes the choreographer.

JIA: Have you always worked with the same materials?

TP: Well, the movement is the primary subject, and I wanted materials both light and

strong. I rarely use color, because I want to reflect the light since that is the second

subject—light, reflecting light and shadow. This means aluminum or stainless steel sur-

faces that can be mirror or matte. I also use a polycarbonate called Lexan, “the cham-

pagne of plastic.” If it is backlit, it glows in a wonderful way. If you mix aluminum

and Lexan, you get one effect with the light behind and another with the light in front.

As they move, the darks become light and the lights become dark.

JIA: Have you changed materials over the years?

TP: I find that these are the ones that work best for reflectivity and translucency. Actually, Istarted with plastic milk cartons because the price was right, but of course, they don’t

last, so I switched to Lexan. I’ve also worked with feathers. Hospitals love them for their

beauty. Corporations hate the feather pieces because they have the one thing they fear

most, whimsy.

JIA: Yellow Zinger, the piece at Schuylkill, was outside in a nature park, but most of your

works are indoors. Which do you prefer?

TP: Indoors and outdoors are two different worlds. Any occupied space will have air move-

ment. It can be very gentle, so the work must be very light to catch the air indoors.

Outdoors is far more difficult because the wind is so unpredictable. The engineering has

to be foolproof. I like the example of a sailor picking a sail for a race. If it is too large,

he’ll be fast but risk capsizing. If it is too small, he’ll barely move. It has to work well

in all conditions.

JIA: Does your work have any connection to the environment?

TP: Working with the wind is dealing with the environment in the most direct way pos-

sible. The constantly changing energy in the environment is what makes the work. The

same piece in a different environment will have an entirely different response.

JIA:What do you want viewers to get from

your work? You have mentioned light and

movement. What do you want people to

feel?

TP: That’s up to them. In a perfect world,

a work of art might stop somebody’s clock

and draw him out of his worries for just a

moment. Delight is what I would like peo-

ple to feel. There is no other agenda.

JIA: What were the most difficult things

about creating the piece in Taipei?

TP: The challenge was the tremendous

verticality of the space. People don’t look

up. They are more comfortable looking

out directly, and I discovered this in an

odd way. I got a call from a local develop-

er who had heard about me and wanted a

piece for a new building but said he wasn’t

familiar with my work. I asked if he ever

flew out of Bradley Airport where I had

installed a piece years ago. He asked, “What

piece?” He flew out of there all the time

but had never noticed a kinetic ribbon over

200 feet long, bright red, and moving.

He had walked under it any number of

times and never noticed it. This was a

hard lesson.

In the Taipei building, you come in on

the ground floor and have to crane your

neck to look up because the space is very

tall but not very wide. We made nine

50 Sculpture 31.2

Cloud, 2006. Lexan, aluminum, and stainless

steel, 1.5 x 12 x 4 ft. Work at Wells Fargo Bank,

Des Moines, IA.


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pieces to deal with the height and scat-

tered them through the space. As a result,

the best views are looking out from the

upper floors.

JIA: For this commission, you communi-

cated with the client through the Internet

and e-mail. How did that work out?

TP: This client liked what he saw of my

work on the Internet and contacted me.

I was dealing with the architect of the

building from the beginning. So, to pre-

sent my idea for the space, I made a

maquette and sent him a video proposing

to make a total of nine at full size. He

eventually came to my studio in Connec-

ticut to see the work in progress.

Video is the best way to present the work

to clients or public art committees. I make

an architectural model of the space with

the maquette of the sculpture. I make a

booklet for each member of the commit-

tee with renderings, construction details,

and material samples. My experience with

public art commissions has been quite dif-

ferent.

The selection committee is typically

made up of several future occupants,

the building manager, and representa-

tive members of the community, the

architect, and an artist. As they consider

the options, they are asking themselves

what they (the public) would like to see.

I believe that this is the wrong question.

It is difficult enough for most people to

know their own mind when confronted

with a work of art and virtually impossi-

ble to predict with any accuracy how

someone else will respond. I worry that

out of the concern to satisfy an unknown

audience these decisions are made more

out of fear than love.

JIA: Tell me about your next project.

TP: There is a project in development at

the moment, and I am exploring a series

of triangular banners that will warp and

turn independently. I imagine themmoving

like so many boats moored in a harbor and

responding to the conflicting energy of wind and tide by moving together but not in

unison.

JIA: I see in your work a dance between spontaneity and control.

TP: The wind is moody, whimsical, and unpredictable. If I could capture these qualities,

the wind itself would be the work of art. I work for the wind. I like to imagine the air

becoming visible.

Jane Ingram Allen is an artist and writer living in Taiwan. She is a frequent contributor

to Sculpture, Public Art Review, and other publications. Her most recent exhibition was

a two-person show at Galerie N in Bangkok.


Three Wheeler, 2003. Lexan, aluminum, and

stainless steel, 12 x 6 x 3 ft.

Turbines, 2002. Lexan, aluminum, and stainless

steel, 2 units, 12 x 7.5 x 7.5 ft. each. Work at

Wright State University, Dayton, OH.


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SuzanneMorlock

The Green Magicof Recycling


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An 80-foot-long train of knitted newspaper “glides” through

the gallery space at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódz,

Poland. Its tangled, dynamic shape plays with air, light, and

structural elements, winding around pillars and hovering just

below the ceiling. Suzanne Morlock’s Magic Carpet Ride seems

to represent both the carpet and the ride itself. It is full of mys-

terious primal power and energy, despite its fragile material.

This charming, outwardly simple installation serves as a per-

fect introduction to other projects by Morlock, a mixed-media

artist based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Magic Carpet Ride

offers a conceptual and emotional “ride” on many different lev-

els. It can be interpreted as a piece of site-specific, sustainable

art that makes new connections between Third Wave feminist

issues and ecological concerns. Manifesting eco-feminist ideas

in its celebration of women’s creative potential, the work does

not refer to oppression, a shared reality for many women and

the natural habitat in our civilized world. Instead, it introduces

a positive—maybe even idealistic—way of thinking by connoting

the Moirae, or the Fates, symbols of feminine power—creative,

inventive, playful, and responsive—and spirits of transition

and transformation. Femininity, a theme knitted into Magic

Carpet Ride, refers to the strength, determination, and persis-

tence of every sorceress and every housewife who transforms

the mundane into the magical, who recycles abandoned

waste and toxic, outworn scraps of life into something new

and inspiring.


Magic Carpet Ride, 2011. Knitted newspaper, 25 x 20 x 80 ft. 2 views of

installation in Łódź, Poland.

BY KATARZYNA ZIMNA


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The idea to knit installations with news-

paper came to Morlock as she considered

what to enter in a paper exhibition held in

France in 2010, for which participants were

challenged to think about alternative ways

to produce paper. One night, at her hearth,

she used a newspaper to ignite a fire. This

act sparked the idea of using newspaper

as an art material—a material that she

would knit. Inspired, her husband invented

a system of spinning glued pieces of news-

paper into yarn. This perfect, almost arche-

typical, beginning to the story of a magic

carpet transforms darkness, night, and

destruction into light, warmth, and the

creation of a new series of artworks. The

show was held in a chapel turned art space

in Le Vigan. Morlock’s Overlay was designed

to cover the stained glass windows with

overlays of knitted paper to create a border

zone between light and shadow, sacred

and profane, old and new. Since the show

relied on natural light to illuminate the

works on display, Morlock covered only one

window, but L’association “Chaine de Papier”

invited her to develop her idea in a second,

separate show at the Chapelle de la Con-

damine (2012).

Excited by the creative potential and

formal qualities of her knitting technique,

Morlock adopted it for other projects. For

her, the attractiveness of knitting stems

from its associations with women’s craft,

something widely considered as less valu-

able than high art. Morlock enjoys the

ambiguous territory between craft and art

(between useful and useless, practical and

poetical) that makes her work difficult to

label.

Magic Carpet Ride primarily explores the

conceptual duality of mudane/routine/

ordinary versus magical/startling/revital-

izing, telling a story about movement and

the ongoing transition between these oppo-

site yet complementary aspects of our

experience. The aspect of the everyday

can be traced on a few levels. Ride was

knitted with local newspapers, a kaleido-

scope of news that had already lost its

sparkle. The process of knitting took seven

days of monotonous labor by Morlock and

12 students from the Academy of Fine Arts

in Łódz (10 women and two men).

The notion of routine work (particularly

in textile production and workshops) relates

to the local context of past and present-

day Łódz and the Central Museum of Tex-

tiles. The museum is located in the classi-

cist White Factory, a facility erected by the

family of Ludwik Geyer between 1835 and

1886. The White Factory was the first multi-

department factory in Poland, with steam-

driven spinning, weaving, and printing

looms for cotton. The history of Łódz is

closely tied to the development of the tex-

tile industry. The city experienced rapid

development in the 19th century, becoming

a multicultural promised land that then

suffered a decline by the end of the com-

munist era. This history brings together

the lives of rich industrialists, who made

fortunes on cloth production and trade, and

the lives of the thousands of women—

spinners and seamstresses—who worked

in three shifts, day after day, and repre-

sented the city’s main workforce. Łódz has

recently transformed again, this time into

a center of creative industry, with a strong

academic foundation represented by the

Technical University, the Wladyslaw Strze-

minski Academy of Fine Arts, and the famous

Leon Schiller Film School, among other

institutions of higher education.

This historical, practical, and functional

context provides important elements for

Morlock’s site-specific work. The aspect of

magic can be understood as a reference to

the hope for transformation—or rather trans-

mutation—of Łódz from a gray, gloomy, and

polluted city of chimneys to a vibrant cen-

ter where abandoned industrial sites are

being revitalized and adapted for new cul-

tural and artistic functions. Here, women

eagerly use their opportunities for educa-

tion. Because of a difficult job market,

however, they must embrace and employ

their creative potential to tailor career

54 Sculpture 31.2

Overlay, 2010. Knitted newspaper, 144 x 48 x .25 in.

View of installation in Le Vigan, France.


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opportunities for themselves. In response

to these local conditions, Morlock’s instal-

lation asserts that women’s creativity can

do wonders.

Morlock recently executed a project in

Skagaströnd, Iceland, that, like Magic Car-

pet Ride, references the social and indus-

trial context of its site. In Nets, she com-

bined two concepts: knitting and fishing.

In order to develop the contextual back-

ground, she spent time talking to the owner

of a local net-making shop and to a woman

recognized as a local knitter. At the village

dump, Morlock found old, discarded nets,

took the refuse to the studio, cleaned and

sorted it by color, and tied the material end

to end in order to knit a new and curious

version of the original nets. This was again

a laborious process of reworking—not only

of the old material into a new object, but

also of a piece of history and of the local

everyday into an unexpected piece of artis-

tic magic.

The ecological dimension in Morlock’s

work is related to the feminine side of cre-

ative nature. “Eco,” from the Greek oikos

or home, suggests that we should go back

to basics and seek solutions within reach

of our hands. Home—the traditional domain

of women’s activities—can be interpreted

as a beginning for the transformative process

of healing people and communities suffering

from the side-effects of civilization: envi-

ronmental degradation, isolation, loneli-

ness, stress, and unhealthy lifestyles. It is

not a matter of going back to the tired

nature/culture dichotomy, but of finding a

creative and responsive solution to the prob-

lems that arise in a specific local context.

Morlock’s work proposes that knitting can

be a contemplative and creative form of

recycling.

A great remedy for the overproduction

of our civilized world, recycling represents

the inventive character of women—not,

as Claude Lévi-Strauss would have it, the

invention of an engineer but of a bricoleur,

someone who resourcefully combines and

uses already existing objects and ideas,

regardless of their original purpose. It is


Nets, 2010. Knitted found materials, 84 x 60

x 84 in. 2 views of installation in Skagaströnd,

Iceland.


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second nature for women to find solutions

to everyday problems on the go, to use

creatively accessible tools, and to do all

this with the household budget in mind.

Morlock designs her works to be ephem-

eral, avoiding the production of new waste.

In fact, the process, and not just the prod-

uct of her knitting, is crucial to the concep-

tual impact of her installations. She invites

collaborative help to make the creative

process a social experience, and she often

performs knitting during the show, as in

the case of Overlay. Her works belong to

the endless cycle of creation and decom-

position that characterizes both the natur-

al and the human-made worlds. These ele-

ments make Morlock’s work an example

of sustainable art, produced with consid-

eration for the wider environmental con-

text (ecological, social, economic, histori-

cal, and cultural). Locality (an extension

of site-specificity), especially with regard

to materials, is very important to Morlock.

She knits her installations with fabrics

that are part of a local, everyday experi-

ence.

This said, Morlock’s work resists the ossi-

fication of ethical position-taking. She

avoids didacticism, and her work is open

to interpretation. Above all else, one impor-

tant and eagerly applied ingredient—play—

makes Morlock’s work ambiguous and full

of life. Playfulness helps her to balance at

the edge, between everyday life and magic,

repetition and surprise, ethics and aesthet-

ics. She admits that the artist is a player—

one who juxtaposes distant objects, mate-

rials, processes, and ideas and invites sur-

reality into everyday life. In her installa-

tion all the time in the world (2005), she

posted a motto from Heraclitus on the

wall: “Those who approach life like a child

playing a game, moving and pushing pieces,

possess the power of kings.” In this respect,

Morlock draws her inspiration from the

Surrealists: she welcomes the unexpected,

incorporates chance into her working

process, plays with various materials, and

looks for unusual applications of ordinary

things. Her objects can be seen as fetishes

or strange dream-like creatures. She does

not want to terrify viewers, but she does

want to surprise and inspire them to look

outside the box.

56 Sculpture 31.2

Above: all the time in the world, 2005. Mixed

media, installation view. Left: Kitedreams II, 2010.

Found materials, dimensions variable.


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Childhood themes and attributes often

appear in Morlock’s works, a product of

her nature and disposition. She is cheer-

ful, loves to laugh, and possesses that child-

like ability to look at things as if for the

first time, with innocent eyes. The beauti-

ful and poetic Kitedreams II (2010), an

installation of tiny dresses collected from

thrift shops and hung as if in defiance

of gravity, expresses her playful tone. Her

recent project, Sweater, is reminiscent of

Charlie Brown’s iconic shirt. Morlock knit-

ted her enlarged version of this familiar

piece of clothing with Mylar remnants from

a sequin and spangle factory. Sweater was

installed outdoors in Jackson Hole as a tem-

porary public art piece during the winter

season. Huge and strange, Sweater acted

as a playful totem watching over local

residents. As Morlock explains, she was

inspired by Charlie Brown’s unfortunate

experiences, and she wanted to capture

that spirit with an image that would carry

people through the long winter and pro-

vide them with some mental refreshment.

This project refers us back to Magic Car-

pet Ride as an example of “good sorcery,”

white or rather “green” magic that gives

new life to the by-products of civilization.

Riding through Morlock’s world turns out

to be simultaneously serious and playful,

visually pleasing and mentally demanding.

She proves, by example, that we can draw

inspiration from our closest surroundings,

from such simple activities as knitting,

to transform the everyday into the magi-

cal, old into new, gray into green. The

ecological attitude begins at home and

concerns all aspects of life. Women have

the power and potential to lead the way,

and they should celebrate and use their

everyday creativity, ingenuity, and play-

fulness.

Katarzyna Zimna is an artist and researcher

based in Poland. She is currently working

on a book about play as a creative strategy

in contemporary art.


Sweater, 2010. Knitted Mylar remnants, view of

work in Jackson Hole, WY.

Silage, 2011. Knitted recycled water barrier fabric

and cable spool, 65 x 45 x 45 in.


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JASO

NWYC

HE,

NY,

©LEANDROER

LICH,COURTESY

SEANKELLY

GALLER

Y,NY

New York

Leandro Erlich

Sean Kelly Gallery

In the exhibition “Two DifferentTomorrows,” Argentinian conceptualsculptor Leandro Erlich addressed theproblem of time that he encounteredwhile traveling in Asia: he confusedthe tomorrow that followed his placeof residence with the tomorrow ofhis gallery’s time zone. Interested increating a temporal no man’s land,he offered four highly realistic ver-sions of elevators, their verisimilitudeso accurate as to reach trompe l’oeilproportions. According to Erlich, anelevator is “a functional object, butone in which life seems to be sus-pended parenthetically.” These copies,

which include an elevator stalledmid-floor, a bank of elevators, an ele-vator shaft laid out horizontallyrather than vertically, and an elevatorthat opens to reveal changing videosof Japanese riders in Tokyo, are fabu-lously realistic. They engender sucha facsimile of reality that we can nolonger tell what is actual and whatis not. Influenced by artists outsidehis field—including the Argentinianwriter Jorge Luis Borges and the film-makers Alfred Hitchcock and LuisBuñuel—Erlich preys on our capacityto experience the uncanny, whereartificial reality is more convincingthan the real thing.Stuck Elevator (2011) is exactly

that—an elevator stuck between

floors. While we know that it is asculptural, even an architectural,construct, the structure nonethelessgives the impression of actuality, cov-ered on the sides with a thin layerof concrete, with its door revealingmostly shaft and cables. But towardthe bottom of the open door,the viewer sees the interior, cleverlygiven depth by the use of a mirror,so that a newspaper (actually affixedto the ceiling) looks like it lies on thefloor. Here, the copy is distressinglyreal, with the paper adding a note ofmysterious narrative. Elevator Maze(2011) presents a bank of four eleva-tors, each meticulously reproduced,but whose disorienting mirrors feignwalls. Once again, a narrative ele-

ment accompanies the illusion, aswe work out just how exactly thetrick is attained. In fact, the mirrorsoccur at the ends of the installation,while the two inner walls are open,so that one is looking at reflectionswhile inside the two center elevators.Here, the sense that not all isquite right undermines any feelingof security within the maze.Walking the 50-foot length of the

horizontally aligned Elevator Shaft(2011) offers a powerful experience.Passing through the dimly lit space—meticulously conceived and created—walking on what would be one of the

reviews

Leandro Erlich, installation detail

of “Two Different Tomorrows,” 2011.


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72 Sculpture 31.2

shaft’s walls and following the heavycables, one experiences a thrillinglyexact sense of place. In this exhibi-tion, Shaft was set up so that viewersmoved toward what would be thetop of an actual elevator, darkenedand scuffed to suggest actuality.Elevator Pitch (2011) consists of

an elevator with an automatic doorthat opens to reveal video footageof Japanese shoppers in an elevator,shot while Erlich was in Tokyo. Thevideo lasts fives minutes and runson a loop, so that the picturesof the shoppers change as viewersstand in front of the opening of thegenuine door. All four installationsplay with the notion of the copyas trompe l’oeil experience, so thatsmall changes come as revelationsand reveal the structures to be art.The results are strikingly entertain-ing and uncannily precise.

—Jonathan Goodman

Toronto

Phillip Beesley

Allen Lambert Galleria

It was there for 10 days, and then itwas gone—a site-specific piece forthe Luminato Festival that expandedand enhanced an already spectacularlocale, recalculating traditionalnotions of both art and architecture.Phillip Beesley’s Sargasso was aspiny, feathery cascade of plasticfronds, bulbs, and electronic gear,a wave-like network responding toatmospheric changes in a slow dancewith its viewers/partners. It couldhave been a pathway for an avatar,a cloud, a sea creature, a glacier, aviral mathematical aberration, ora generator of some kind, and whilethe science intrigued, it was theartistry that captured the imagina-tion. This beautiful thing tumbleddown the center of Santiago Cala-trava’s soaring atrium. A massiveaccumulation of white featheryfronds gradually reacted as viewersentered the space. Beakers contain-ing what appeared to be amber liq-uid were suspended like light bulbs,some blinking on and off, whileinflatable sacs imitated lungs as theypuffed out and contracted at glacialspeed. It was like walking insidea giant benevolent body, its innerworkings exposed. Engulfed by sea-weed-like ferns, the viewer becameagent, an intelligent interface inter-acting with external stimuli, creat-ing a dynamic and reciprocal rela-tionship between audience and art.The science involved in making

Sargasso could be found in its use ofsensors, air-processing bladders, andenvironmental membranes. Embed-ded machine intelligence mimickedliving systems, enacting breathingand swallowing motions. As weinhaled and exhaled, perspired, ormade dust walking past, Sargassoprocessed our actions. It respondedby creating a skin-like material in tinyincubator nests, effectively increasingits volume in minute stages, nour-ished by its environment. JA

SONWYC

HE,

NY,

©LEANDROER

LICH,COURTESY

SEANKELLY

GALLER

Y,NY

Above: Leandro Erlich, Stuck Elevator,

2011. Mixed media, metal structure,

wood, stainless steel, mirrors, paint-

ing, and button panel, 109.5 x 68.25

x 66.5 in. Left: Leandro Erlich, detail

from “Two Different Tomorrows.”


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COURTESY

LUMINATO

The installation suggested thatarchitecture can refuse to remainstatic, that it can adapt in orderto descend from its lofty heights—abrilliantly appropriate metaphor forthe design of the galleria as a com-

munal arcade, where a variety ofevents take place and through whichcity workers bustle. As an architect,Beesley rewrites traditional discipli-nary boundaries, mining wide-rang-ing facets of contemporary knowl-

edge, including the recognition thatour reality conflates artificial andnatural process and response. As anartist, he accomplished the samething through a forcefully stunninginstallation of mythic proportion.

—Margaret Rodgers

Leitrim, Ireland

Karl Burke

Leitrim Sculpture Centre

When confronting a scientific prob-lem, simplification yields the mostsuitable basis from which to carryout a logical and deductive analysis.This direction of thought is usefulin that it brings the world andits phenomena toward the mind,breaking the complex into crude,static moments that can then beanalyzed. Intuition is placed outsideof this method—between the onewho objectively intervenes and theworld he or she intervenes into.Karl Burke’s recent solo show, “Tak-

ing a Line,” included a series of logi-cal interventions primarily concernedwith perceptions of space and time.Either end of the large gallery spaceheld photographic prints, placeddirectly on the walls, a drawing, avideo piece, and a canvas with somepainted text. The photographs depicta hand thrust into a sylvan setting(with the thumb, index, and middlefinger pointing out Cartesian x, y,and z axes), a mound of boulderswith a strip of white tape tracedacross them, and then a mound ofbuilding rubble with some facesof the strewn material painted yel-low. The segments of color suggest acontinuous whole; the urge is to plotcontinuity from these fragmentedgestures of form. The images couldbe photographs of drawings, orsculptures, or something in between.One photograph shows an arbitrary

section of ditch. In the foreground, a

fallen branch has some white tapefixed along its side, suggesting a sortof speculative probing. The spacebecomes a place, the place thisbranch draws itself into.The first stanza of William Henry

Davies’s poem “Leisure” was paintedin Helvetica-like black lettering on alarge, square, white canvas: “what isthis life if, / full of care / we have notime / to stand and stare.” The samecanvas also appears in the video,where it is placed on an easel, block-ing a path into a forest. Where theprevious works focused on an objecti-fied, static, Cartesian space, thesepieces introduced duration. And thisis where Burke (also a practicingmusician) becomes really playful.Time here is counted out in differentways, using the iambic meter ofverse, the meaning of the quotedwords, and through the looping ofthe video. Where analysis stills theobject, intuition goes toward it,immersing the viewer in continuousencounter.Reusing these methods of naviga-

tion and investigation, Burke openedout four large, black, modular steelframes in the middle third of thespace, (evoking Robert Morris’s L-beams and Sol LeWitt’s open cubedrawings). Each frame is square andsplit horizontally by another piece ofsteel, thus making two equal 1:2 rec-tangles. All four forms stood uprightand were placed end to end at rightangles to produce a zigzag shapeacross the space—suggesting a frag-mented navigation through a seriesof Cartesian origin points. There weretwo of these modular arrangements,and the eye skipped across them,putting the viewer into the positionof one who is re-creating the move-ment of drawing.Burke’s is a methodical, quiet, and

committed description of spacesand duration. He asks the viewer toappraise these objects and spaceswith an intellectual sympathy atonce analytical, intuitive, and poetic.

—Adrian Duncan

Phillip Beesley Architect Inc., Sargasso,

2011. Mylar, acrylic, aluminum, latex,

glass, custom electronics, Freeduino,

and microcontrollers, 36 x 24 x 110 ft.


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Paris

Takashi Murakami

Versailles

Once again the battle to save classi-cal French culture from the uglyclaws of globalization has beenmaking headlines in France. Thistime around it was provocateur-artistTakashi Murakami who raised thehackles of Prince Sixte-Henri deBourbon-Parme, a descendent ofLouis XIV, and members of the Coor-dination de la Défense de Versailles,an organization formed to preventJeff Koons from exhibiting at thepalace in 2008. Condemning Mura-kami’s “veritable ‘murder’ of our her-itage, our artistic identity, and ourmost sacred culture,” de Bourbon-Parme claimed that the artist’s workdisrespects the glory of Versailles:“There are puppets in that exhibitionthat are frankly grotesque.”Murakami’s exhibition was not

derailed, but the “powers that be”did capitulate ever so slightly. Themore titillating “body fluid” sculp-tures, deemed too “explosive” toshow, were not on view. Also missingin action wereMy Lonesome Cowboy(1998), which features a masturbat-ing young man whose ejaculation,exploding from a large penis, floatslasso-style overhead, and Hiropon(1997), in which a young womanwearing only a bikini top squeezesher oversized breasts and nipples,while a frothy stream of milk swirlsaround her like a jump rope. The

nearest thing to sex at Versailles wasthe six-foot-tallMiss Ko² (1997), ablond, perky-breasted, and scantilydressed Barbie-doll waitress.Whether Murakami succeeded in

creating a vibrant, “meaningfuldialogue”—the stated intention ofcurator Laurent Le Bon—was amatter of opinion, and all of Franceseemed to weigh in. For me,Murakami’s invasion of the royalchambers was little more thansideshow entertainment—a diver-sion—for youngsters and touristswho know little more aboutVersailles than that its former occu-pants lost their heads.Two or three of the 22 featured

works managed to register in thealready spectacular Baroque set-ting. But many of Murakami’s ironic,mildly impertinent, and cutesy-pooproductions were neutered by thepeerless powers of the Sun King’spalace. For instance, FlowerMantango (2001–06), an oversized,double-globed sculpture coveredwith sprouting tendrils and grinningflowers in a thousand eye-poppingcolors, was reduced to an annoyingaccessory by the Hall of Mirrors,an awe-inspiring jewel of a space.

The Emperor’s New Clothes (2005),a nod to Hans Christian Andersen,added the ultimate ironic touch—serving as a statement about theentire exhibition. A diminutive, large-headed, wide-eyed, comedic-looking

character occupied the CoronationRoom, which is filled with paintingscelebrating the glories of Napoleon.But Murakami hit the bull’s eye

with Tongari-Kun (2003–04), thecrowning glory of the exhibition.This work represents Murakamiat his most inventive and luxuriousbest. The 23-foot-high, baroque ren-dering of Buddha explodes witha colorful fusion of Surrealism, ArtNouveau, and manga. With numer-ous arms gracing his sides, Buddhasits on a frog, which in turn, restson a lotus flower. Sitting beneathan opulently painted ceiling andframed by a pair of Veroneses, thisimposing figure was a showstopper.Here, Murakami, if only during therun of the exhibition, got to rule.

—Edward Rubin

Above: Karl Burke, Mound, 2011.

Building rubble and yellow paint,

dimensions variable. Right: Takashi

Murakami, Tongari-Kun, 2003–04.

Fiberglass, steel, and oil, acrylic, and

urethane paint, 22.96 x 11.48 ft.


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Rome

Rome Biennale: International

Exhibition of Sculpture

Billed as the first sculpture biennialin Rome, the original and veryambitious plan was to place con-temporary artworks in many of thepiazzas of a city celebrated for piaz-zas—if not for contemporary art(although that might change nowwith MACRO, MAXXI, and Gagosian).Many of these spaces are alreadyoccupied by destination art—oneobvious instance is Bernini’s Foun-tain of the Four Rivers in PiazzaNavona. It therefore seemed a greatidea to site more recent worksin the context of a public exhibition,alternating old and new, Italian andinternational, pegged to the VeniceBiennale not so far away. However,due to bureaucratic snafus andother impediments, it was not tobe, although the curators, GloriaPorcella and Lamberto Petrecca, arehopeful for the next edition, whichthey are already planning.This first exhibition, sponsored in

part by Roma Capitale and the Euro-pean Commission, was greatly cur-tailed, however, confined to the gar-dens of the Casina Valadier, locatedon the Pincio not far from the VillaBorghese, and the park of the VillaTorlonia, the residence of Mussolini

from 1925–43—two storied (but inRome, what isn’t) and popular gath-ering places for Romans and tourists.Porcella and Petrecca expressed adesire that their project be populist,accessible, and (in some cases)interactive, and toward that end,they presented frequently Pop-derived and kitsch-based works,although they also included severalModernist-inspired works by con-temporary artists, as well as canoni-cal 20th-century artists such asHenry Moore, Sante Monachesi,Giacomo Manzù (a wonderfulcrouching, life-size faun), Giorgio deChirico (a bronze statue of a stan-dard from his repertory of figures,The Archeologists), and Dalí (Nobilityof Time, a signature melting clockleaning against a budding treestump in black and gold bronze thatworks better as a painting).Its title notwithstanding, the exhi-

bition was short on internationalartists; of the 31 participants, onlysix came from countries other thanItaly. Contemporary Italians includedLorenzo Quinn with his enormoussculpture of a hand holding aVespa, La Dolce Vita, (he also recon-structed a T55 Russian tank inVenice, part of This is Not a Game,his contribution to the ItalianPavilion, in dialogue perhaps with

the overturned Centurion tank ofAllora & Calzadilla that guarded theentrance to the U.S. Pavilion).Camilla Ancilotto contributed thecolorful Peccato Originale (OriginalSin), which resembles a child’s free-standing, three-dimensional puzzle,only much bigger, its sections capa-ble of rotation. As the sections turn,images of the Temptation andExpulsion from the Sistine Chapelshift in a state of perpetual decon-struction and revision.Michelangelo-inspired works

abounded, including London-basedMauro Peruchetti’s blinding whiteresinMichelangelo 2020 A Tributeto Women and his humorous rendi-tion of Batman and Superman asMichelangelo figures. He also con-tributed some tubby translucentresin mannequins from his jelly babyfamily. Cracking Art Group’s splashyorange, recycled plastic snails aremany times life-size, part of a seriesof enlarged creatures that includesa colony of scarlet penguins shownin Venice some years ago and nowin the collection of the 21c MuseumHotel in Louisville, Kentucky.Australian artist Andrew Rogers’s(best known for his immense landart projects) two soaring bronzeswere more weighted, resonatingbetween the representational and

the abstract, the heaviness of thematerial transformed into some-thing visually much lighter, morebuoyant. Unfurling, a gracefulabstraction, suggests a figure or agigantic leaf en pointe, its ridgedsurface, catching the light, turninggold. The other, gilded and touchedwith color, is an enormous flower,plucked, perhaps, from some magi-cal garden. The Villa Torlonia halfof the show was dominatedby American artist Seward Johnson’sKiss, a 26-foot, towering sculptureof a sailor kissing a girl, a camped-up, colorized copy of Alfred Eisen-staedt’s iconic black and white pho-tograph taken in Times Square,

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Left: Takashi Murakami, Oval Buddha,

2007–10. Bronze and gold leaf, 568 x

312 x 319 cm. Below: Andrew Rogers,

Unfurling, 2003. Bronze, 310 x 100

x 120 cm. From the Rome Biennale.


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76 Sculpture 31.2

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which personified the jubilation ofV-J Day and the end of the war.Porcella and Petrecca wanted a

festive exhibition and succeeded increating a crowd-pleaser as stream-ing groups of people of all agesstopped to look and interact withthe art—it was, it seems, a people’sexhibition, if not a biennial.

—Lilly Wei

Beijing and Shanghai

Xu Bing

Today Art Museum and Shanghai

Expo 2010

Xu Bing’s two enormous, 28-meter-long Phoenix sculptures are a pas-tiche of dangling three-dimensionaltales chronicling China’s past, pre-sent, and future. Images of thesemythical birds dying in flames, then

shooting up, reborn from theirashes, have appeared for at least4,000 years, beginning with earlyShang Dynasty pottery motifs. Refer-red to as fenghuang, the phoenixis both feng (male) and huang(female) and is traditionally associ-ated with the Chinese empress.Actually a composite of many birds,it sports the head of a goldenpheasant, the body of a mandarinduck, the tail of a peacock, the legsof a crane, the mouth of a parrot,and the wings of a swallow. EachChinese dynasty developed its ownversion, and Xu searched the differ-ent interpretations to find his exactapproach. The Qing Dynasty, he felt,was too soft and celebratory, sohe chose the Han Dynasty, with itsharsher and more angular depic-tions.His idea for constructing these

12-ton birds began during China’s

pre-Olympic economic boom. Areal estate developer constructinga building designed by César Pellicommissioned Xu to create a motifover the entrance. At first it wasgoing to be two cranes, but thatbird’s associations in Chinese cul-ture are not pleasant—cranes assistin the flight toward death. Xu decidedinstead on phoenixes, which signifytransformation. He planned to fin-ish making them in just two months,but it took two years. Part of thedelay stemmed from the fact thatall of Beijing’s factories were closedduring the Olympics.Xu notes that, according to Mao

Zedong, art is for the people andshould be returned to the peopleto inspire them. To create a directconnection between the extremewealth financing the real estateproject and the workers who builtit, he collected raw constructionmaterials and debris from the siteof the new Beijing World FinancialCenter. The birds were cobbledtogether using rubber tubes, wires,bamboo, rusted metal, steel rodsand plates, tools, hoses, filter gratesand meshes, safety helmets, andorange warning cones. The unused

parts were returned and recycled.The tails mimic shadow puppet ani-mals from Chinese theater calledzhi zha (paper models). Xu’sphoenixes, however, change theirshape depending on the viewingangle. Even though it required sixconstruction cranes to lift them intothe air, their weight seems to disap-pear when they are lit up at night.From far away, they float; from upclose, they are stark and raw.When the economic crisis hit, Xu’s

sponsor refused to accept the pro-ject. Barry Lam, founder and direc-tor of Quanta Computer in Taiwan,a Fortune 500 company, and a greatpatron of Chinese arts, stepped into take over the funding. After open-ing at the Today Art Museum inBeijing’s Central Business District,the phoenixes were installed in theChina Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo2010, a national place of honor.

—Ellen Pearlman

Singapore

Wee Hong Ling

Sculpture Square

A cat hides behind the china cabinet,and a dog sleeps under the studiobench where the artist works. The

Left: Mauro Perucchetti,Michelangelo

2020 A Tribute to Women, 2010. Hand-

carved marble, 174 x 62 x 42 cm. From

the Rome Biennale. Below: Xu Bing,

Phoenix Project, 2007–10. Construc-

tion debris and light-emitting diodes,

2 elements, 27 and 28 meters long.


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presence of these two pets in WeeHong Ling’s “No Place Like Home,”albeit in the form of two-dimensionalvinyl cutouts, may seem like a play-ful gesture; but they are essential tothe décor that frames and contex-tualizes the ceramic works of thisSingapore-born and New York-basedartist.Wee’s exhibition takes place with-

in the framework of the home. Two-dimensional vinyl cutouts onthe floor delineate rooms, amenities(such as bathtub and toilet), andsome furniture (such as bedand sofa). Actual tables and shelvesserve as display units for Wee’sceramics. Within this context, thetwo pets are more than after-thoughts; instead, they form anintegral part of the space, invitingvisitors to suspend disbelief andimagine that they are in their ownhome or any home of their desire.Whether one prefers a cat to a dogor vice versa, one cannot denythe pet’s place in that house of theimagination.Like the 1980 romantic sci-fi

tragedy Somewhere in Time, in whichphysical trappings such as attire andfashion accessories (together withthe power of self-suggestion) allowfor time travel, in Wee’s installation,the cat and the dog draw the viewerinto the dialectics of the artist’sworld. The reason is simple: pets aregenerally not allowed into gallery orexhibition spaces. But, they arehere—or are they? And if that is so,where is the viewer? In a house or ina gallery? And what, then, are Wee’sworks? Utilitarian ceramics or sculp-tures or both?Wee repeatedly teases the viewer

with these questions. A largeceladon porcelain bowl placed ona dining table serves the dual pur-pose of functional vessel and deco-rative centerpiece. The area marked“Bathroom” contains a sink ofsimilar form, with the difference thatthis vessel has a hole at the bottomfor the drain.

In The Poetics of Space, GastonBachelard wrote that a house “con-stitutes a body of images that givemankind proofs or illusions of stabil-ity.” Wee’s installation, however,playfully challenges that notion ofstability. By expecting each simpleobject to serve more than its obvi-ous function and to also inspire cre-ativity, sustain one’s reverence forcultural symbolism, and forge tiesto ancestry and heritage, she effectschange and shakes stability.Wee asks whether a house, as

Bachelard claims, actually “sheltersday dreaming” and “protects thedreamer.” By creating an installation

that raises questions about thenature of the objects exhibited with-in the context of a house, Wee alsointerrogates the concept of “home.”Such questioning of the obvious isan inevitable function of art and ofthe artist.

—Phan Ming Yen

Mount Tomah, Australia

Rae Bolotin

Blue Mountains Botanic Garden

Australian sculptor Rae Bolotin cre-ates works characterized by seduc-tive surfaces and the innovative useof line in space. Born in Tashkentin Uzbekistan, she took an electrical

engineering degree and studiedart. She came to Australia in 1979as a refugee. An interior designbusiness led to an interest in space,form, and volume, and, ultimately,to sculpture.The simple outline and form of

the apple has intrigued Bolotinsince her earliest work in concrete.However, when she became inter-ested in the peel—a form about theabsence of form—she had to finda new material. During a residencyat the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing,Bolotin studied the ancient Chinesemethod of metal beating. She want-ed to preserve the craft by using itin a contemporary way. Traditionallythis method is used for panels ofcopper, and after initial experimen-tation with that metal, she decidedto work with stainless steel.Because she could not learn thiscomplex method on her own, metalworkers were—and are—an inte-gral part of her process, and sheworks very closely with them: whenthey are in the factory, she is thereas well.Her initial procedure is to make

same-size models in clay andwelded steel, which are shippedto China. In the factory, steel ispainstakingly beaten piece by piece,from the inside out, and thenwelded together. The surfaces ofBolotin’s sculptures are intrinsic tothe materials themselves, thoughsometimes she bakes enamel ontopart of them.Bolotin’s new work marks a major

shift both conceptually and techni-cally. The forms derive from seedpods, inspired by the botanical gar-dens in which they are installed,and also by her studio move toBilpin in the Blue Mountains, anhour’s drive from Sydney. Perhapsbecause of their closed forms andfocus on mass, volume, and texturerather than line and negative space,these pods seem less abstract thanthe “Peel” works. Large, richly sur-faced and colored, they are almost

Above and detail: Wee Hong Ling, installation view of “No Place Like Home,” 2011.

ALFRED

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recognizable, but not mimetic.There is a resemblance to nature inthe form, yet the surface color isunearthly in its beauty. The tensionbetween organic form and industrialsurface gives rise to a sense of dislo-cation—a disturbing quality of anunknown species spreading amongthe innocuous flowerbeds andshrubs.Artisans at the metal beating fac-

tory in Beijing were reluctantto fabricate the pod sculptures asBolotin wanted them. They thoughtit would be technically impossi-ble—due to the complex external

patterning—but the effort to realizethis new concept succeeded inexpanding the medium. After twoweeks of intense discussion withworkers in the factory, a satisfactorymethod was found to solve theissue and enable this technique tobe taken to its limits. Each form isrealized in either pure surfacedstainless steel or in rich iridescentcolor. The color is obtained by plac-ing the work in a vacuum chamberwhere the steel is chemically modi-fied, a technique invented by Rus-sian spaceship engineers.Bolotin has had two major shifts

in her work, both stemming from anew location and new possibilities.Each shift has been a leap forwardtechnically, conceptually, and aes-thetically.

—Carole Driver

Dispatch

12th Istanbul Biennial

The 12th Istanbul Biennial focused onartists from the Middle East and LatinAmerica. According to “Untitled” co-curator Jens Hoffman, “We were look-ing for artworks that are formallyinnovative as well as politically out-spoken and that relate to the generalthemes of the exhibition such asmigration, violence, identity, and poli-tics.”The overall theme was drawn from

the works of Félix Gonzáles-Torres,whose artistic subjects echoedthrough the cavernous venue, evokedin various forms, shapes, and styles,though without appearing per se.Hoffman explained, “The work ofFélix Gonzáles-Torres brings togetherthe personal and the political ina very unique way. It tells us some-thing about ourselves and the worldaround us in equal measures. It issad and sober but never dramatic ordidactic or even highly intellectual.”Even the biennial’s architecture anddesign reflected this perspective.Working with co-curators Hoffmanand Adriano Pedrosa, architect RyueNishizawa borrowed thoughts andshapes from the layout of Istanbulwhile integrating the refined graceinherent in Gonzáles-Torres’s work.The biennial included approxi-

mately 50 solo exhibitions and fivelarge group exhibitions titled afterfive Gonzáles-Torres works: Untitled(Abstraction), Untitled (Ross), Untitled(Passport), Untitled (History), andUntitled (Death by Gun). The strugglebetween art and politics has come tobe reflected in the Istanbul Biennial.With regard to this year’s event,Director Bige Örer stated, “Worksof Gonzáles-Torres inspired the themeof the biennial due to the figurallyinnovative and politically outspokennature they embody. We thinkthat discovering the relationshipbetween the figural and the politicalis not only significant for Turkeybut for the practice of art aroundthe world.”

After entering Antrepo 5—a mas-sive space separated into varioussized exhibition areas with metalpanels—I first set foot in a medium-sized room containing Adrian Espar-za’s solo exhibition, which includedFar and Wide (2011), an unraveledserape or Mexican blanket. Themulti-colored thread extended acrossthree walls in a geometric design,with the remaining part of the ser-ape hung on a hook opposite adisplay of the Panorama of Constan-tinople (1920). Esparza’s abstractwork presents a feeling of the impor-tance of multicultural values anda shared world history while alsoreminding the viewer of the disinte-gration of the fabric of society.One of the most interesting works

in “Untitled (Abstraction)” was TheoCraveiro’s Formicary—Visible Idea(1956/2010), which was inspired byWaldemar Cordeiro’s painting IdéiaVisível (1956) and displays a colony ofants in a wall-mounted installation,with the internal glass grids echoingthe lines of Cordeiro’s painting.Visitors gathered to watch the insectsas they carried pieces of leaves andtiny nuggets of apple to their nest.The juxtaposition of wilting storesand lively activity served as a small-scale representation of the effortunderlying human survival, a domi-nant theme in Gonzáles-Torres’s work.The upper floor of Antrepo 5 hosted

Ahmet Ögüt’s Perfect Lovers, an instal-lation of a two-Euro coin and a one-Turkish Lira coin in a black showcaseinspired by Gonzáles-Torres’s Untitled(Perfect Lovers) (1991). The artist cre-ated this work, which consists of twoidentical, adjacent, battery-operatedclocks set to the same hour, shortlyafter his lover Ross Laycock wasdiagnosed with AIDS. Over time, theclocks inevitably fall out of synch,offering personal and poetic insightinto human relationships as well asmortality. Ögüt’s Perfect Lovers, whichshowcased the formal similaritiesand disparate financial values of thetwo coins while alluding to Turkey’s

Above: Rae Bolotin, Peeled World 3,

2007. Stainless steel and baked

enamel, 173 x 150 x 130 cm. Below:

Rae Bolotin, Seed Form 1 Colour,

2010. Stainless steel, 60 x 80 x 55 cm.


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application to become an E.U. mem-ber, managed to go hand in handwith the group exhibitions “Untitled(Ross)” and “Untitled (Passport).”Elmgreen and Dragset contributed

one of the most interesting works to“Untitled (Ross).” The Black andWhite Diary, Fig. 5 (2009) consists of365 black and white photographsdisplayed in white synthetic leatherframes on two rows of opposingshelves in an L-shaped corridor. Thephotographs depict the daily lives ofthe artists in informal surroundings.Freedom of sexuality and genderare common topics in almost all ofthe photographs, which defy socialnorms and expectations by layingbare their most candid moments.Crossing over to the building oppo-

site (Antrepo 3), the group exhibition“Untitled (History)” stretched acrossa spacious rectangular hall display-ing works focused on our under-standings/misunderstandings andknowledge/belatedness of history.As stated in the biennial handbook,The Companion, “‘Untitled (History)’focuses on the writing of history, his-tory’s writing, and the history of writ-ing.” Confidentiality of governmentaldocuments and the manipulation

and destruction of sensitive informa-tion across several countries, includ-ing the U.S., Iran, Lebanon, Peru, andSerbia, were represented through theworks of various artists. Julieta Aran-da’s There Has Been a Miscalculation(2007/2011) consists of a Perspexcube containing pulverized books of20th-century history. History is some-how changed every time the comput-erized air compressor goes off, puff-ing mangled pages into the cube.“Untitled (Death by Gun)” included

works that create a feeling of unease.Kris Martin’s installation Obussen II(2010) consists of a large heap of 700Howitzer shells from World War I.It is difficult to comprehend that the

contents of these casings, gleaminginnocently on the floor, killed thou-sands of people.The following room contained the

most bewildering sculpture installa-tion of the biennial, Eylem Aladogan’sListen to your soul, my blood issinging iron triggers that could bereleased (2009–11). Almost fivemeters tall, the sculpture consists ofmagnified feathers, rifle barrels andbutts, all interconnected and risingtoward the ceiling in a unified form.Composed of wood, metal, and fab-ric, the work revolves around fear.In an interview conducted for TheCompanion, Aladogan stated, “For

me, the rifles reflect both fear andstrength at the same time. You cansay that without death there is nourge to survive. We need the fearto trigger inner growth.”The 12th Istanbul Biennial covered

significant issues related to art andpolitics. The exhibitions also createda total work that enabled viewers totitle the “Untitled Biennial” accord-ing to their own experiences of thisvast montage of emotion. As FélixGonzáles-Torres said, “Always thinkabout practice, theory is not the end-point of work, it is work along theway to work.”

—Hande Eagle

Above: Eylem Aladogan, Listen to your

soul, my blood is singing iron triggers

that could be released, 2009–11.Wood,

metal, and textile, 370 x 130 x 480

cm. Top right: Julieta Aranda, There

Has Been aMiscalculation (Flattened

Ammunition), 2011. Perspex, wood,

lacquered steel, history books, and

compressor, 150 x 129 x 129 cm. Right:

Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset,

The Black andWhite Diary, Fig. 5, 2009.

365 black-and-white and desaturated

color prints, installation view.

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80 Sculpture 31.2

Vol. 31, No. 2 © 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

ISCONNECTSIn 2011, the ISC launched ISConnects, an innovativenew program developed to reach new audiences andincrease collaboration with cultural institutions aroundthe globe. Panel discussions, exhibition tours, and artistlectures hosted by the Museum of Arts and Design (NewYork), Grounds For Sculpture (Hamilton, New Jersey),Moore College of Art and Design (Philadelphia), andPrinceton University Art Museum (Princeton, NewJersey) kicked off the program last year. The geographicreach of ISConnects events is expected to grow in thecoming years, as many established and emerging artsorganizations world-wide have expressed interest inhosting events in 2012 and beyond.

The intent of ISConnects is to explore unique perspec-tives on contemporary sculpture through a variety ofaccessible programs that encourage engaging and livelydiscourse. Post-program surveys show that this objectiveis being met. Audience engagement at last year’s eventswas high, with more than 90 percent of attendeesresponding that they enjoyed the events, would recom-mend them to others, and would attend anotherISConnects event themselves. One attendee expressedsatisfaction by stating, “Excellent opportunity andcontribution to the city and area. Keep them coming!”

In addition to engaging audiences with timely and inter-esting topics and speakers, the program is also succeedingin introducing the ISC to new audiences. Approximately50 percent of all attendees are not current ISC members.Many have gone on to attend other ISC programs andbecome ISC members and Sculpture magazine subscribers.

The program also appeals to art educators, who oftenbring groups of students to ISConnects events. Oneeducator stated, “Terrific regional event for me and mystudents at Southern Connecticut State University. Wealso really appreciated that museum admission wasincluded in the event price. We would look forward tomore events in the area.”

ISConnects succeeds in providing dynamic programs toa wide range of audiences and does so at an incredibly lowprice to attendees—event admissions have ranged from nocost to $15, and most include access to museums and exhi-bitions, as well as cocktail receptions. The program experi-enced great success in 2011 and will continue to providenew avenues for exploration of topics that address theunique and shared interests of sculptors, collectors, andinstitutions that support contemporary sculpture.

Visit <www.sculpture.org/isconnects> for more infor-mation about the ISConnects program and upcoming 2012events.

1Museum of Arts and Design panel. 2 Museum of Arts and Design reception. 3 Moore College of Art and

Design Anya Gallaccio lecture.4 Grounds For Sculpture champagne reception.5 Grounds For Sculpture tram

tour.6 Princeton University Art Museum Thomas Hirschhorn lecture.4

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