“Instead of indicating space by an angular intersection of planes, I enclose the space in one continuous surface. I eliminate angularity in space construction and give space the curved character which it has to my perceptions.”
-Naum Gabo, quoted in: Martin Hammer and Christina Lodder, “Gabo’s Stones”
Sculpture no longer exists within a neutral and uniform medium of space but works upon it like raw material: it divides space rather than displaces it. Space, traditionally conceived as transparent and “empty,” is now visible and palpable; we perceive it through sculpture, which is no longer the closed, opaque mass it once was.
-Megan R. Luke in “Space for Recognition: The Late Work and Exile of Kurt Schwitters”
“Schwitters became extraordinarily talkative when it came to the column. He always had an anecdote, a story or some personal experience at his fingertips to explain the tiniest item that he kept in the niches of the column.”
• When you came in that room, you had like suspended string from across the windows
• you had all of this spray foam and I was like overwhelmed….and it was unclear to me how you got it all. I was like…
• the foam or the sculpture
• cause you had like Costco amounts of spray foam and I was like where did all…and you couldn’t like give me a straight answer about where it all came from. this girl, she had all of these leftovers..or something, blahblahblah
• I was like nonono, this is not an altruistic gesture on your part.
• I don’t recall expressing any kind of anxiety
• I think about the newspaper but I don’t think about you in action
• I have, I have almost no vision of you in that front room
• the visions I have are of when we were moving out and the house was kind of empty but the sculptures were still in the front room. like I
• I’m going to go back for some more, I bought it all out. the guys going to call me when they get some more.
• and then so the jumble of the cords you were making or
• you’re just perfect the way you are
• front room first
• I knew you were going to be really mad at me so I didn’t
• why’d you break our door?
• well now that house is gone, it’s like a
• CONDO
• and so I was thinking about some of the sculptures that I really like.
• I mean it’s a piece.
• right
• but it was a piece
• so describe it
• that was something. it was like these big sculptures that were in our house
• it didn’t even matter, it was like
• lets go ….lets…. suss it out
• what do you think, a running throw?
• you got a good grip on it?
• yeah, I’m just trying to think , should I go this direction or go the long direction?
• I think you should throw it like an arrow
• a lot of consideration is going into this.
• oh ho ho that’s beautiful
• you’re not going to hurt youself are you?
• we just want to see it roll down the hill
• oh I see, this is one of them, what’s it called, experimental kind of
• I think underhanding it…but be careful because now..
• I like how it sounds like its breaking but its not
• can you scoot in a little please and then I’ll let you hold the camera
• ohmigod, relentless!
• and then she like calls me four days in a row. I was like where were you last night when I needed you?
• talk about….. talk about….
• comeer, lemme pierce your ear
Baby at Henry
(or, Structures that Act as Objects)
At the party, I saw Baby sitting on top of one of the red carts with the prints of Rail and Elana and John between his legs. I brought people by the Shop to see my new piece that someone else had made. I pushed Baby around Fisher on the red cart, anchoring it in spots for days at a time. John, it turned out, made Baby on The Red Cart.
Leila saw Baby but first she saw Wing, who was not Wing until she named it so. She watched me dance Wing and Rail around together. I posed them and she saw a dance. Wing pirouetted. Rail was the base mostly. They did not dance publicly and shortly after Leila saw them, Wing’s namesake was bent. I bent the wing.
Group Photo was taken about five years after the wide shot of Braziller with Kristi in it. In Group Photo, Baby is not yet all black. The process of coating Baby was enjoyable. The big fiberglass abdomen held the colored plastic differently than the arms did. When wiped with water and put in the light, Baby can gleam.
Wing hung above the right window of three windows in the three-sided wall facing the street in my living room. At that time, I think there were two chairs in that space, with a gap in front of the biggest window in the middle. I have a picture of it somewhere, and the picture shows a very dark but also very blue night sky. In the picture there may or may not also be parts of the couch and the white book shelf that are also in the living room. Anyways, it hung on the window while I had the big gray photo backdrop on the wall and floor of the living room. I was building Rail on top of the backdrop. When I left for the summer, I can’t remember what I did with Wing—did I leave it there or did I put it in a closet? When I came back, I was still interested.
After my critique, I decided to leave Baby in the Print Shop rather than take it to UBS with the others. I just didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
It took a lot of effort and much time went by before Leila and I were able to arrange a time for her to come back to my studio to discuss Wing. By the time it happened, I was working in an adjacent space that was much bigger than the one in which we had originally met. We went back to the old space first—I wanted to record Leila talking about the Wing she remembered before she saw what Wing had become. Leila expressed some discomfort about being recorded, but was willing to do it. She put earrings on before we began.
When Wing became Baby—Todd didn’t like Baby but Carla did—I felt like, what is this thing I’m making? It’s mine for sure but how did I get here? I tried to read about fetish objects. African Art in Motion was a nice brown, library-bound book that I carried around till I finished it, though it did get a bit hard at the end. I marked lots of pages and when I went back to find what had been exciting to me, I couldn’t remember.
Baby and Rail. Whorl. Baby and The Dog (or, Lot of Lot and Lot’s Wife). Baby on a Stool. Baby on a Cart next to Yoni’s photos. Baby on a Cart in the Hall.
When I edited what Leila said about Wing, I only took what I liked (not necessarily everything that was important to her to say). I changed what she said, I slanted it in my direction. It was scary to have insight into what the media does daily, all the time. What Leila “said” about Wing ended up having something to do with expansion. About energy going outwards. both accidentally and logically.
I left Baby sitting on a stool at Henry. I first set him next to the rugs on the bench on the right side of the store, but then Nancy moved it to the stool on the left side next to the big boxed shelf. I remember liking what was next to him and also trying to adjust him and finding that he was already in the right spot. I carried Baby up to the store. She fit in my arms. I realized on the way that I hadn’t said goodbye.
“House is the projection, space around it intermediary, theater.”
–Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge
In American Masters: The Voice and the Myth, Brian O’Doherty writes that Willem de Kooning’s work “conveys an anxiety about maintaining ourselves from minute to minute.” I identify with the anxiety produced by maintaining stability amidst change over time, and I am equally preoccupied with the problem of consistency in time, or, the fact that an entity can be variously described at any one point in time..
If we acknowledge the mercuriality of things, how do we then define, represent and relate to them?
‘things’ here are defined as: ENTITIES that are constant and whole and also open to reinterpretation in each performance, lines as structures, objects that toss around in the world.
“This pair of sculptures is being recorded on an almost daily basis.”
“This piece is being documented throughout the duration of this exhibition.”
“This piece is being documented daily throughout the length of this exhibition.”
“X and Y will be documented daily for the length of this exhibition.”
* * * * *
the law, as per Vince Pitelka (http://www.potters.org/subject92492.htm)
As a general rule, if a sculpture base attracts any attention at all, then
it becomes part of the sculpture, drawing attention away from your work. If
you are proud of the work you have done and want the viewer or customer to
focus on the work, make the base as neutral and featureless as possible. In
my opinion, bases made of marble or other stone with visible surface grain
are inappropriate for one-of-a-kind sculpture. They are appropriate for
mass produced reproductions and trophies. Avoid wood bases with visible
grain for the same reason. A fine piece of stone or wood is a beautiful
thing, and should not be used in such a way that it detracts from the
sculpture.
“At a time when sculptures are as likely to be seen on a computer screen as in a physical setting, it is easy to question the notion of a ‘right’ position or arrangement. Since artistic intention and control cannot be guaranteed, we might consider the ways in which sculpture is inherently unstable. And in considering this, we might direct attention to sculptures that acknowledge this intrinsicly as well as our expectation and need for sculptures to be stable and consistant.”
