Sculpture Magazine Jan-Feb 2012

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January/February 2012
Vol. 31 No. 1
A publication of the
International Sculpture Center
www.sculpture.org
Elizabeth Turk
Ayse Erkmen
Allan Wexler
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THE WORLDS NEWSSTAND
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sculpture
From the Chairman
ISC Board of Trustees

Chairman: Marc LeBaron, Lincoln, NE
The end of the year for a nonprofit board, as for many of us, involves
close scrutiny of the year past: What were our successes and where do
we need to focus our renewed attention? The new year also brings
cheerful anticipation for the events ahead, and for the ISC, there are
many reasons for excitement. Thanks to the foundation that we laid in
2011 (including the launch of ISConnects, a brand-new approach to the
Outstanding Educator Award, a new type of Sculpture article on
<www.sculpture.org>,
____________ and plans for the 23rd International Sculpture
Conference), the sculpture community is poised for greatness in 2012.
Early in 2012, the ISC will present philanthropist Olga Hirshhorn with the
Outstanding Patron Award. This event, to be held at the Naples Art
Museum, will be a personal tribute to the generosity that Hirshhorn has
shown to countless sculptors and friends of the arts. It is also the first
Patron Award since 2008, when the ISC honored Fred and Lena Meijer, of
the Meijer Foundation, for their contributions to sculpture and society.
We are constantly adding to the list of events in the new ISConnects
program. Since each event in the series varies (in subject, partnering
organization, and attendees), make sure to stay up to date on the latest collaborations and topics. This year, we hope to post the events online so you can follow each discussion on <www.sculpture.org>.
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The 2012 recipients of the Outstanding Educator Award will also be
announced soon, after being narrowed down from an extensive pool of
educators nominated by ISC members, Sculpture readers, and the public. The chosen educators will be honored by the ISC in partnership
with each educators school. The Lifetime Achievement Award gives us
another opportunity to celebrate greatness in the field. Each Lifetime
Achievement awardee receives a feature article in Sculpture, where
readers learn more about why the ISC recognizes select individuals as
masters of sculptural processes and techniques.
October is an exciting time for the ISC, when upcoming student
artists, winners of the Outstanding Student Achievement in
Contemporary Sculpture, are published in a feature article in Sculpture.
The traveling Student Awards exhibition is always entertaining, and
always unique. This year, the ISC will ship works that include packing
peanuts (a work by Dustin Boise), a 900-pound head (by David Platter),
and a plastic cup (part of Derek Bourciers piece).
The 23rd International Sculpture Conference is also held in October.
For those who want to explore partnerships and panels, it is not too
early to plan for Process, Patron, and Public, which will be held in
Chicago on October 4, 5, and 6, 2012.
The ISC has many other activities planned for the new year, all
focused on providing enhanced services for the growing sculpture community. On behalf of the staff and Board of the ISC, best wishes for a
great and fun-filled year.
Marc LeBaron
Chairman, ISC Board of Trustees
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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
Josh Kanter, Salt Lake City, UT
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
Walter Schatz, Nashville, TN
Steinunn Thorarinsdottir, Iceland
Boaz Vaadia, New York, NY
Philipp von Matt, Germany
Chairmen Emeriti: Robert Duncan, Lincoln, NE
John Henry, Chattanooga, TN
Peter Hobart, Italy
Robert Vogele, Hinsdale, IL
Founder: Elden Tefft, Lawrence, KS
Lifetime Achievement in
Contemporary Sculpture Recipients
Magdalena Abakanowicz
Fletcher Benton
Louise Bourgeois
Anthony Caro
Elizabeth Catlett
John Chamberlain
Eduardo Chillida
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Mark di Suvero
Richard Hunt
Phillip King
William King
Manuel Neri
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen
Nam June Paik
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Gio Pomodoro
Robert Rauschenberg
George Rickey
George Segal
Kenneth Snelson
Frank Stella
William Tucker
Sculpture 31.1
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January/February 2012
Vol. 31 No. 1
A publication of the
International Sculpture Center
32
26
Departments
Features
10 Itinerary
18
The Line Defining Three-Dimensional Space: A Conversation with Elizabeth Turk
26
Ranjani Shettar: Playing with Creation by Chitra Balasubramaniam
16 Commissions
by Rebecca Dimling Cochran
72 ISC News
Reviews
32
Shuli Sad: Thinking in Time by Jonathan Goodman
65
Houston: Marc Swanson
36
The Girl Who Liked to Smell Dirt: A Conversation with Lori Nozick by Marty Carlock
66
Troy, Alabama: Duane Paxson
40
Ayse Erkmens Plan B and Other (Not So) Futile Gestures by Berin Golonu
67
Honolulu: Steven and William Ladd
46
Rita McBride: (Re) Negotiating the Public Realm by Christina Lanzl
67
Chicago: Aristotle Georgiades
68
New York: William Corwin
52
Allan Wexler: The Man Who Would Be Architecture by Joyce Beckenstein
69
New York: Jene Highstein
70
Buenos Aires: Juan Miceli
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40
Venice: Fabrizio Plessi, Pier Paolo Calzolari,

and Marisa Merz
52
67
On the Cover: Elizabeth Turk, Knot 1, 2011.

Marble, 4.5 x 13 x 4 in. Photograph: Eric
Stoner, Courtesy Hirschl & Adler Modern,
New York.
Sculpture January/February 2012
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I N T E R N AT I O N A L S C U L P T U R E C E N T E R
Executive Director Johannah Hutchison
Conference and Events Manager Carla Watts
Conference and Events Coordinator Samantha Rauscher
Office Manager Denise Jester
Executive Assistant Alyssa Brubaker
Grant Writer/Development Coordinator Kara Kaczmarzyk
Membership Manager Julie Hain
Membership Associate Emily Fest
Web Manager Karin Jervert
ISC Headquarters
19 Fairgrounds Road, Suite B
Hamilton, New Jersey 08619
Phone: 609.689.1051, fax 609.689.1061
E-mail: isc@sculpture.org
SCULPTURE MAGAZINE
Editor Glenn Harper
Managing Editor Twylene Moyer
Editorial Assistants Elena Goukassian, Joshua Parkey
Design Eileen Schramm visual communication
Advertising Sales Manager Brenden OHanlon
Contributing Editors Maria Carolina Baulo (Buenos
Aires), Roger Boyce (Christchurch), Susan Canning (New
York), Marty Carlock (Boston), Jan Garden Castro (New
York), Collette Chattopadhyay (Los Angeles), Ina Cole
(London), Ana Finel Honigman (Berlin), John K. Grande
(Montreal), Kay Itoi (Tokyo), Matthew Kangas (Seattle),
Zoe Kosmidou (Athens), Angela Levine (Tel Aviv), Brian
McAvera (Belfast), Robert C. Morgan (New York), Robert
Preece (Rotterdam), Brooke Kamin Rapaport (New
York), Ken Scarlett (Melbourne), Peter Selz (Berkeley),
Sarah Tanguy (Washington), Laura Tansini (Rome)
Address all editorial correspondence to:

Sculpture
1633 Connecticut Avenue NW, 4th Floor
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: 202.234.0555, fax 202.234.2663
E-mail: gharper@sculpture.org
Sculpture On-Line on the International
Sculpture Center Web site:
www.sculpture.org
Advertising information
E-mail <advertising@sculpture.org>
Each issue of Sculpture is indexed in The Art Index and

the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA).
I N T E R N AT I O N A L S C U L P T U R E C E N T E R C O N T E M P O R A R Y S C U L P T U R E C I R C L E
The International Sculpture Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization
that provides programming and services supported by contributions, grants,
sponsorships, and memberships.
Benefactors Circle ($100,000+)

Atlantic Foundation
Karen & Robert Duncan
John Henry
J. Seward Johnson, Jr.
Johnson Art & Education Foundation
Joshua S. Kanter
Kanter Family Foundation
Gertrud & Heinz Kohler-Aeschlimann
Marc LeBaron
Lincoln Industries
National Endowment for the Arts
Mary OShaughnessy
I.A. OShaughnessy Foundation
Estate of John A. Renna
Jon & Mary Shirley Foundation
Dr. & Mrs. Robert Slotkin
Bernar Venet
Major Donors ($50,00099,999)
Chakaia Booker
Fletcher Benton
Erik & Michele Christiansen
Rob Fisher
Richard Hunt
Robert Mangold
Fred & Lena Meijer
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park
New Jersey State Council on the Arts
Pew Charitable Trust
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Walter Schatz
William Tucker
Nadine Witkin, Estate of Isaac Witkin
Mary & John Young
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.
Chairmans Circle ($10,00049,999)

Magdalena Abakanowicz
Anonymous Foundation
Janet Blocker
Blue Star Contemporary Art Center
Debra Cafaro & Terrance Livingston
Chelsea College of Art & Design
Sir Anthony Caro
Clinton Family Fund
Richard Cohen
Don Cooperman
David Diamond
Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
Terry & Robert Edwards
Lin Emery
Fred Eychaner
Carole Feuerman
Doris & Donald Fisher
Bill FitzGibbons
Alan Gibbs
David Handley
Richard Heinrich
Daniel A. Henderson
Michelle Hobart
Peter C. Hobart
Joyce & Seward Johnson Foundation
KANEKO
Ree & Jun Kaneko
Mary Ann Keeler
Keeler Foundation
Phillip King
William King
Anne Kohs Associates
Cynthia Madden Leitner/Museum of Outdoor Arts
Toby D. Lewis Philanthropic Fund

Marlene & Sandy Louchheim
Marlborough Gallery
Patricia Meadows
Creighton Michael
Barrie Mowatt
Manuel Neri
New Jersey Cultural Trust
Ralph OConnor
Frances & Albert Paley
Patricia Renick
Pat Renick Gift Fund
Henry Richardson
Melody Sawyer Richardson
Russ Rubert
Salt Lake Art Center
Carol L. Sarosik & Shelley Padnos
June & Paul Schorr, III
Judith Shea
Armando Silva
Kenneth & Katherine Snelson
STRETCH
Mark di Suvero
Takahisa Suzuki
Aylin Tahincioglu
Steinunn Thorarinsdottir
Tishman Speyer
Brian Tune
University of the Arts London
Boaz Vaadia
Robert E. Vogele
Georgia Welles
Elizabeth Erdreich White
Sculpture 31.1
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About the ISC

The International Sculpture Center is a member-supported, nonprofit organization
founded in 1960 to champion the creation and understanding of sculpture and
its unique and vital contribution to society. The mission of the ISC is to expand
public understanding and appreciation of sculpture internationally, demonstrate
the power of sculpture to educate and effect social change, engage artists and
arts professionals in a dialogue to advance the art form, and promote a supportive environment for sculpture and sculptors. The ISC values: our constituents
Sculptors, Institutions, and Patrons; dialogueas the catalyst to innovation and
understanding; educationas fundamental to personal, professional, and societal growth; and communityas a place for encouragement and opportunity.
Membership
ISC membership includes subscriptions to Sculpture and Insider; access to
International Sculpture Conferences; free registration in Portfolio, the ISCs
on-line sculpture registry; and discounts on publications, supplies, and services.
International Sculpture Conferences
The ISCs International Sculpture Conferences gather sculpture enthusiasts
from all over the world to network and dialogue about technical, aesthetic,
and professional issues.
Sculpture Magazine
Published 10 times per year, Sculpture is dedicated to all forms of contemporary
sculpture. The members edition includes the Insider newsletter, which contains
timely information on professional opportunities for sculptors, as well as a list
of recent public art commissions and announcements of members accomplishments.
www.sculpture.org
The ISCs award-winning Web site <www.sculpture.org> is the most comprehensive
resource for information on sculpture. It features Portfolio, an on-line slide
registry and referral system providing detailed information about artists and their
work to buyers and exhibitors; the Sculpture Parks and Gardens Directory, with
listings of over 250 outdoor sculpture destinations; Opportunities, a membership
service with commissions, jobs, and other professional listings; plus the ISC
newsletter and extensive information about the world of sculpture.
Education Programs and Special Events
ISC programs include the Outstanding Sculpture Educator Award, the Outstanding
Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards, and the Lifetime
Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture and gala. Other special events
include opportunities for viewing art and for meeting colleagues in the field.
This program is made possible in

part by funds from the New Jersey
State Council on the Arts/Department
of State, a Partner Agency of the
National Endowment for the Arts.
This issue is supported

in part by a grant from
the National Endowment
for the Arts.
Directors Circle ($5,0009,999)

Ana & Gui Affonso
Haunch of Venison
Sydney & Walda Besthoff
Michael Johnson
Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Tony Karman
Lisa Colburn
Gallery Kasahara
Ric Collier
Susan Lloyd
FreedmanArt
Martin Margulies
Grounds For Sculpture
Merchandise Mart Properties
Ralf Gschwend
Jill & Paul Meister
Patrons Circle ($2,5004,999)
Elizabeth Catlett
Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
Gerard Meulensteen
National Gallery, London
Kristen Nordahl
Brian Ohno
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje
van Bruggen
Dennis Oppenheim
Bill Roy
Doug Schatz
Mary Ellen Scherl
Sculpture Community/
sculpture.net
Sebastin
Eve & Fred Simon
Lisa & Tom Smith
Duane Stranahan, Jr.
Roselyn Swig
Tate
Julian Taub
Laura Thorne
Harry T. Wilks
Isaac Witkin
Riva Yares Gallery
Moore College of Art & Design

Museum of Arts & Design
Princeton University Art Museum

Elisabeth Swanson
Doris & Peter Tilles

Philipp von Matt
Paul Hubbard
Paul Klein
Phlyssa Koshland
Gary Kulak
Nanci Lanni
Chuck Levy
Jim & Karen Linder
Steve Maloney
Robert E. Meyerhoff & Rheda Becker
Millennium Park, Inc.
Lowell Miller
David Mirvish
Prescott Muir
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
John P. & Anne Nelson
George Neubert
Sassona Norton
Steven Oliver
Tom Otterness
Polich Tallix Art Foundry
Roger Smith Hotel
Ky & Jane Rohman
Greg & Laura Schnackel
Sculpt Nouveau
Storm King Art Center

Thai Metal Crafters
The Todd & Betiana Simon Foundation
Tmima
Tootsie Roll Industries
UBS Financial Services
Edward Ulhir
Steve Vail Fine Arts
Hans Van De Bovenkamp LTD
Ursula von Rydingsvard
Alex Wagman
Friends Circle ($1,0002,499)

Dean Arkfeld
Verina Baxter
Melva Bucksbaum & Raymond Learsy
Giancarlo Calicchia
Cause Contemporary Gallery
The Columbus Museum
Henry Davis
Terry Dintenfass, Inc.
James Geier
Agnes Gund
Dr. LaRue Harding
Ed Hardy Habit/Hardy LLC
Professional Circle ($350999)

555 International Inc.Ruth AbernethyLinda Ackley-EakerD. James Adams
John AdduciOsman AkanMine AkinElizabeth AraliaDoris H. Arkin
Michelle ArmitageArt ValleyUluhan AtacMichael AurbachHelena
Bacardi-KielySarah Barnhart-FieldsBrooke BarrieJerry Ross Barrish
Carlos BasantaFatma Basoglu-TakiiilBruce BeasleyJoseph Becherer
Edward BenaventeJoshua BedersonJoseph BeneveniaPatricia Bengtson
JonesConstance BergforsEvan BerghanRonald BermanRoger Berry
Henri BertrandCindy BillingsleyDenice BizotRita BlittChristian Bolt
Marina BonomiGilbert V. BoroLouise BourgeoisLinda BowdenJudith
BritainWalter BruszewskiGil BruvelHal BucknerRuth M. Burink
H. Edward BurkeMaureen Burns-BowieKeith BushMary Pat ByrnePattie
ByronImel Sierra CabreraKati CasidaDavid CaudillJan Chenoweth
Won Jung ChoiAsherah CinnamonJohn ClementJonathan Clowes
Robert ClyattMarco CochraneLynda ColeAustin CollinsRandy Cooper
J. Laurence CostinFuller Cowles & Constance MayeronRobert Crowel
Amir DaghighSukhdev DailTomasz DanilewiczArianne DarErich Davis
Martin DawePaul A. DeansArabella DeckerAngel DelgadoG.S. Demirok
Albert DicruttaloAnthony DiFrancescoKaren DimitKonstantin
DimopoulosMarylyn DintenfassDeborah Adams DoeringYvonne Ga
DomengeDorit DornierJim DoubledayPhilip S. DrillLaura Evans Durant
Charles EisemannWard ElickerJorge ElizondoElaine EllisBob Emser
Robert ErskineHelen EscobedoJohn W. EvansPhilip John EvettIsabelle
FaucherJohann FeilacherZhang FengHelaman FergusonPattie Porter
FirestoneTalley FisherTrue FisherDustine FolwarcznyBasil C. FrankMary
Annella FrankGayle & Margaret FranzenDan FreemanJason Frizzell
James GallucciEliseo GarciaRon GardRonald GarriguesBeatriz
Marina NashNathan Manilow Sculpture ParkJohn NicolaiJames Nickel

Donald NoonJoseph OConnellThomas OHaraMichelle OMichaelThomas
OstenbergFrank OzerekoPalmyra Sculpture CentreScott PalsceGertrud
ParkerRonald ParksTarunkumar PatelMark PattersonJolanta Pawlak
Carol PeligianBeverly PepperCathy & Troy PerryAnne & Doug Peterson
Dirk PetersonTerrance PlowrightDaniel PostellonBev PreciousJonathan
QuickSemion RabinkovMorton RachofskyKimberly RadochiaMarcia Raff
Vicky RandallJeannette ReinChase RevelAnthony RicciEllie Riley
Robert Webb Sculpture Garden/Creative Arts GuildKevin RobbAndrew
RogersSalvatore RomanoCarol RossSusan Ferrari RowleyJames B. Sagui
Olou Komlan SamuelNathan SawayaTom ScarffPeter SchifrinMark
SchlachterAndy ScottJohn SearlesJoseph H. SeipelArt SelfCarlos
SetienMary ShafferPatrick ShannonKambiz SharifScott SherkJerry
ShoreDebra SilverDaniel SinclairVanessa L. SmithYvette Kaiser Smith
Susan Smith-TreesStan SmoklerFrances SniffenSam SpiczkaJohn
StallingsRobert St. CroixEric SteinLinda SteinEric StephensonMichael
StearnsElizabeth Strong-CuevasJozef SumichrastDavid SywalskiTash
TaskaleCordell TaylorTimothy TaylorRichard TaylorPeter TerryAna Thiel
Marta ThomaPeter TilleyStephen TironeCliff TisdellRein TriefeldtJohn
ValpocelliJon Vander BloomenVasko VassilevMartine VaugelPhilip
VaughanKathy VenterAles VeselyJill VineyBruce VoyceEd Walker
Martha WalkerSydney WallerBlake WardMark WarwickAndrew White
Michael WhitingPhilip WicklanderJohn WiederspanMadeline Wiener
W.K. Kellogg FoundationWesley WoffordJean WolffDr. Barnaby Wright
Joan WynnCigdem YapanarRiva YaresAlbert YoungLarry YoungGenrich
ZafirSteve ZaluskiPeter ZandbergenGavin ZeiglerGlenn Zweygardt
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GerensteinShohini GhoshJames S. GibsonJacqueline GilmoreHelgi

GislasonJoe GittermanEdmund GlassGlenn Green Galleries & Sculpture
GardenDeWitt GodfreyRoger GoldenYuebin GongGordon Huether
StudioThomas GottslebenTodd GrahamPeter GrayFrancis Greenburger
Gabriele Poehlmann GrundigBarbara GrygutisSimon GudgeonThomas
GussRoger HalliganWataru HamasakaMike HanselJens Ingvard Hansen
Bob HaozousJacob J. HarmelingSusan HarrisonBarbara Hashimoto
Sally HeplerKenneth HerlihyDavid B. HickmanJoyce HilliouKathryn
HixsonBernard HoseyJack Howard-PotterBrad HoweJon Barlow Hudson
Robert HuffKen HustonYoshitada IharaEve IngallsLucy IrvineJ. Johnson
GalleryJames Madison UniversityJivko JeliazkovJulia JitkoffAndrew
JordanJohanna JordanWolfram KaltKent KarlssonRay KatzCornelia
KavanaghJan KeatingRobert E. KellyLita KelmensonOrest Keywan
Hitoshi KimuraGloria KischStephen KishelBernard KlevickasJacqueline
KohosAdriana KorkosKrasl Art CenterJon KrawczykDave & Vicki Krecek
KUBOLynn E. La CountDale LamphereAlexis LaurentHenry LautzWon
LeeMichael Le GrandEvan LewisJohn R. LightKen LightRobert
LindsayMarvin LipofskyRobert LonghurstSharon LoperCharles Loving
Jeff LoweHelen LykesLynden Sculpture GardenNoriaki MaedaMike
MajorAndrea MalaerJane ManusLenville MaxwellEdward Mayer
Claire McArdleWilliam McBrideIsabel McCallJeniffer McCandlessJoseph
McDonnellCeci Cole McInturffSam McKinneyDarcy MeekerRon
MehlmanGina MichaelsRuth Aizuss Migdal-BrownLowell MillerBrian
MonaghanNorman MooneyRichard Moore, IIIJean-Pierre MorinAiko
MoriokaDeeDee MorrisonKeld MoseholmSerge MozhnevskyW.W.
MuellerAnna MurchRobert MurphyMorley MyersArnold Nadler
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PERRY: STEPHEN WHITE, COURTESY THE ARTIST AND VICTORIA MIRO GALLERY, LONDON / LOS CARPINTEROS: MATTHIAS WIMLER / KUNSTHAUS GRAZ, 2008 / WILKES: COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GALLERIA RAUCCI/SANTAMARIA, NAPLES
itinerary
Left: Grayson Perry, The Rosetta Vase.

Above: Erwin Wurm, Guggenheim
melting. Top right: Los Carpinteros,
Cama. Right: Cathy Wilkes, Untitled.
labor, particularly architectural structures, furniture and design objects,

tools, and construction materials,
though their often subversive works
alter the familiar to focus on the
contradictions between object and
functionality, art and the everyday,
practicality and uselessness. The four
sculptures featured here (in addition to wondrously morphing watercolors) include a bed contorted into
the shape of a pretzel, a miniature
pool/aircraft carrier, a missile frozen
in place as it penetrates a wall, and
a group of old-fashioned drafting
tables covered with sheets of water.
Tel: + 34 971 908 200
Web site <www.esbaluard.org>
Es Baluard Museu dArt Modern

i Contemporani de Palma
Palma, Majorca, Spain
Los Carpinteros
Through January 22, 2012
Renouncing the notion of individual
authorship, the Cuban collective
Los Carpinteros returns to the collaborative guild tradition. Remaining
members Dagoberto Rodriguez and
Marco Castillo take inspiration
from the products of skilled, artisanal
Bass Museum of Art

Miami Beach
Erwin Wurm
Through March 4, 2012
Every time Wurm produces a sculpture from a real objectcars, potatoes, cucumbers, pieces of clothing
he creates something strange and
wonderful. Embracing the absurd,
his work invites us to consider different possibilities for the ordinary
and familiar. Experiments in performance, photography, installation,
drawing, video, and text add another
dimension, pushing the boundaries
of sculpture (particularly in the
10
one-minute sculpture performances) by investigating elements

of time, mass, and material form.
Many of the new large-scale sculptures in this show (including a
Drinking Sculpture that only achieves
completion when the audience is
drunk) operate on a theatrical scale,
inviting viewers to enter the pervasive weirdness that lurks beneath
the surface of social norms and
unquestioned conventions.
Tel: 305.673.7530
Web site
<www.bassmuseum.org>
British Museum
London
Grayson Perry
Through February 19, 2012
Perry fuses art and craft into a multilayered and complicated montage
of high and low, serious and humorous, conventional and seditious. In
his latest project, The Tomb of the
Unknown Craftsman, the Turner
Prize-winning transvestite potter gives
voice to his inner artisan, thumbing
his nose at celebrity and staging
a memorial to all the anonymous
craftsmen that over the centuries
have fashioned the manmade wonders of the world. In addition to
creating new workvases, elaborate
tapestries, and a richly decorated

cast iron coffin-ship, he has plundered the museums vaults, selecting
a wide array of astonishing objects
from the past two million years
of human history, some funny, some
poetic, and some grim. In constructing this deeply felt homage to what
it means to makeas a calling and
as a means of self-creation, irrespective of recognitionPerry once
again plays a double role, beneficiary
and decrier of the star system that
has plagued artists since the day
of the first signature.
Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7323 8299
Web site
<www.britishmuseum.org>
Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh
Cathy Wilkes
A 2008 Turner Prize nominee, Wilkes
has raised eyebrows with her highly
charged arrangements of commonplace items and personal artifacts.
In Shes Pregnant Again, a TV combines with a sink containing human
hair, a half-naked mannequin, and
a stroller in a tableau of almost
audible judgment. Formally precise
and essentially diaristic, her work
Sculpture 31.1
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SAILSTORFER: JAMES EWING, COURTESY PUBLIC ART FUND
employs a difficult and coded visual

language, making it what at least
one critic has called the kind of
contemporary art that pundits pay
deference to and that deep down
nobody really likes. But uncompromising introspection is not an end
in itself for Wilkes; as jarring as her
work can be, it exerts a strong
psychological pull that creates commonality and shared experience from
isolation. Her first American museum
exhibition demonstrates the power
behind what she calls the undefined ancient force of history and
memory.
Tel: 412.622.3131
Web site <www.cmoa.org>
Castello di Rivoli
(and other venues)
Turin
Arte Povera 2011
Spanning the Italian peninsula from
Bergamo to Bari, this grand-scale
retrospective of Arte Povera (eight
shows in all) reunites its founding
theorist, curator Germano Celant,
with the artistsfrom Anselmo to
Zoriowhose work he christened
in 1967. Celants ambitious project
examines this influential movement
(Italys most important since
Futurism) not only as a historical
expression of socio-political unrest,
but also as a vital impulse that
continues to grow and inspire new
directions. Three segments of
the show are currently on view. Arte
Povera International at the Castello
di Rivoli focuses on international
dialogue and energy, juxtaposing
works by the movements exponents
with responses by (among others)
Vito Acconci, Bernd and Hilla
Becher, Joseph Beuys, Bill Bollinger,
Hanne Darboven, Rebecca Horn,
Richard Long, Maria Nordman, and
Robert Smithson. Arte Povera
19672011, a detailed chronology
of the movements evolution,
continues at the Triennale di Milano
through January 29. Arte Povera in
Top left: Giovanni Anselmo, Entrare

nellopera. Above: Jannis Kounellis,
Untitled. Both from Arte Povera 2011.
Left: Michael Sailstorfer, Tornado.
teatro, at the Teatro Margherita in

Bari through March 4, features dramatic installations in a fire-gutted
Stile Liberty theater, with new works
by Fabro, Anselmo, Marisa Merz,
and Calzolari, as well as an encore
appearance of Kounelliss atmospheric, site-specific Untitled, created
for the space in 2010.
Web site
<www.castellodirivoli.org>,
<http://triennale.org/
artepovera345378/index.
php?pag=evento>,
_________
<www.artepovera2011.org>
Haus der Kunst

Munich
Sculptural Acts
Sculptural Acts features works
by six artists who focus on process.
Responding to the characteristics
and demands of individual materials
(from paper, fabric, and glue to polystyrene, plaster, plywood, Sheetrock,
and found objects), Phyllida Barlow,
Alexandra Bircken, Michael Beutler,
Vincent Fecteau, Anita Leisz, and
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Doris C. Freedman Plaza

New York
Michael Sailstorfer
Sailstorfer revels in transformations,
contextual shifts, and spatial appropriations. His work reveals an acute
interest in everyday things and
materials from his immediate surroundings, as well as a fascination
with the identity and history of his
sources. Broken down into their
component parts, these items are
deformed, adapted, and re-assembled into powerful spatial installations. Despite the seeming violence
of Sailstorfers approach, his objects

and installations, including his new
creation, Tornado (a densely packed,
30-foot-high storm system made
from truck tire inner tubes), radiate
sentiment and compel emotional
response.
Tel: 212.980.4575
Web site
<www.publicartfund.org>
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Top left: Michael Beutler, Elefant und

Schwein im 3D-Wandteppichstall, from
Sculptural Acts. Left: Valie Export,
Fragmente der Bilder einer Berhrung.
Top: Simon Starling, Project for a Masquerade (Hiroshima). Above: Berlinde
De Bruyckere, Into One-Another to
P.P.P., III.
Kimberly Sexton create objects that

carry the history of their making.
Born of actionenveloping, tearing,
folding, bending, and compressing
their eccentric works reveal all,
layer after layer of experimentation,
accident, reversal, and correction.
Tel: + 49 89 21127-113
Web site <www.hausderkunst.de>
Kunsthal Charlottenborg
Copenhagen
Simon Starling
Starling, the winner of the 2005
Turner Prize, is fascinated with
processboth physical and intellectual. While playfully exploring
the links that connect craft, material,
and technique, his work also absorbs

the histories, contexts, and social
nuances of a locale or object. A
single piece or operation can reveal
countless contradictions. Part
utopian visionary and part critic, he
describes his work as the physical
manifestation of a thought process.
Uncovering hidden histories and
relationships while transforming
one object or substance into another,
his sculptures, installations, and
pilgrimage-like journeys draw out an
array of ideas about nature, technology, and economics. This exhibition includes two recent works
exploring the notion of performance.
The Excursion, a newly commis-
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sioned work, features a special puppet play staged with the assistance
of Copenhagens Marionet Teatret.
Tel: + 45 33 36 90 50
Web site
<www.kunsthalcharlottenborg.dk>
Kunsthaus Bregenz
Bregenz, Austria
Valie Export
After more than four active decades,
Export has taken her place as a key
protagonist of media art. From her
first works, in which she dropped her
real name and launched the Valie
Export brand (named for the Austrian
cigarettes Smart Export), she has
been a maverick of shifting identities
and role-playing. Through performances, photographs, actions, sculptures, texts, and installations, she
BEUTLER: WOLFGANG GNZEL, OFFENBACH A.M./ EXPORT: MARGHERITA SPILUTTINI, VALIE EXPORT/VBK, VIENNA, 2011 / DE BRUYCKERE: MIRJAM DEVRIENDT, COURTESY HAUSER & WIRTH / STARLING: KEIICHI MOTO AND THE HIROSHIMA CITY MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
itinerary
questions the place of women in

society, the boundaries between the
human body and its environment,
and social and cultural constraints
in addition to the impact of technical
and electronic media on perception,
communication, and behavior. This
unique retrospective draws on
Exports archive, made available for
the first time.
Tel: + 43 55 74 4 85 94-0
Web site
<www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at>
Kunstmuseum Bern
Bern, Switzerland
Berlinde De Bruyckere
Among contemporary artists, De
Bruyckere is unique in her ability to
see beyond the form of the human
figure and feel the body as unrelenting physicalitymeat, tissue,
and sinew. Not since art imitated
the miracle of the word made flesh
has an artist created such fully
enfleshed works. De Bruyckere, not
surprisingly, is fascinated with
medieval and early Renaissance religious imagery, and her recent work
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BREER: CH. BERNARDOT, ROBERT BREER, COURTESY GB AGENCY, PARIS / POLLI: PAV TORINO
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finds a contemporary idiom for the

Man of Sorrows, a cult image focused
on Christs wounds, his physical
suffering, and hence the reality of
his incarnation as a man. This exhibition puts her work in dialogue
with the paintings of Lucas Cranach
and the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini
(another controversial reinterpreter
of religious imagery and moral
codes). The juxtaposition not only
illuminates the tensions inherent
in the devotional image, as sensuality
feeds compassion and carnal longing
penetrates mystical faith, but
also critiques todays ethical heresies
(or sins against the flesh), from frigid
mass media voyeurism to coldblooded torture.
Tel: + 41 31 328 09 44
Web site
<www.kunstmuseumbern.ch>
Museum of Contemporary Art
North Miami
Mark Handforth
Handforth creates out-of-this-world
encounters just a step away from the
ordinary. His sculptures transform
everyday elements of civic space
from lampposts and street signs to
traffic cones, metal trash cans, and
Vespasinto distinctive personalities
that challenge perception. Re-scaled
and distorted, behaving in decidedly
abnormal ways, these subtle intru-
Above: Robert Breer, Float. Top

right: Andrea Polli, Cloud Car. Right:
Mark Handforth, Rolling Stop.
sions skew rational perspectives,

introducing a double-edged magic
of wit and pathos that undermines
the complacency of the public realm.
This exhibition, which features more
than 30 works, stays true to
Handforths playful spirit, spilling out
of the museum to infiltrate locations
throughout South Florida.
Tel: 305.893.6211
Web site <www.mocanomi.org>
Museum Tinguely
Basel
Robert Breer
The roots of Breers groundbreaking
animation can be traced to an
unlikely sourcethe reductive purity
of Mondrians abstract grids. Looking
beyond stable harmony to the shifting movements behind the stasis,
Breer developed his own take
on hard-edge abstraction in which
irregular forms wrestle against each
other in a permanent state of unrest.
This exhibition follows the course
of his obsession with motion, from
painting to film to another important
body of work, the motion sculptures
or floats. Set loose in real time
and space, these simple, minimal
forms move at an almost imperceptible speed, each in its own direction.

Once they collide, they trace new
paths in an endless dance of complement and contradiction, demonstrating the power of using one force
to define its opposite: movement to
counteract movement, pause
to dramatize speed, and solidity to
visualize flux.
Tel: + 41 61 681 93 20
Web site <www.tinguely.ch>
Parco Arte Vivente
Turin
Andrea Polli
Polli and collaborator Chuck Varga
work with atmospheric scientists to
develop systems for understanding
weather, pollution, and climate
change through sound and visualization. Many of her works rely on
sonification, a process that trans-
lates raw data (about everything

from sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone pollution to lightning, wave, and wind trends) into
compelling and understandable
forms. Recent projects include a spatialized sonification of New York
storms, a Web site tracking climate
in Central Park, and a real-time sonification and visualization of weather
in the Arctic. This compelling survey
also features two site-specific
environmental installations. Breather
and Cloud Caran old Fiat 500 and
a Fiat 126, chosen as nostalgic symbols of a once robust Italian economygive visible form to air (and its
contaminants), demonstrating how
such necessities can have a very
high cost for the environment.
Tel: + 39 011 3182235
Web site
<www.parcoartevivente.it>
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Benjamin Smith, Jean-Marc Superville Sovak, Nicolas Touron, and

Nichole van Beek are installed
against the parks spectacular waterfront view of the Manhattan skyline.
Tel: 718.956.1819
Web site
<www.socratessculpturepark.org>
left: Joy Curtis, Hades. Top: Jessica

Segall, The Soft Finds a Central
Position. Both from EAF 2011. Above:
Ai Weiwei, Forever Bicycles.
Sala de Arte Pblico Siqueiros

Mexico City
Roman Signer
A master of the controlled accident,
Signer gives a humorous twist to
the concept of cause and effect. His
action sculptures stand the traditional scientific method of experimentation and discovery on its head,
taking the self-evidence of logic
as an artistic challenge. Following

carefully planned and strictly executed and documented procedures,
he enacts and records explosions,
collisions, and the projection of
objects through spaceall in the
interest of creating emotionally and
visually compelling events dictated
by time, acceleration, and change.
This show of representative works
also features several new pieces,
including an homage to David Alfaro
Siqueiross colorful murals
(Siqueiros, incidentally, coined the
term controlled accident), engineered by miniature helicopters randomly hurling paint onto the walls
of the museum, and Acht Sthle,
which introduces fireworks into the
galleries to toy with the idea of selfdestruction.
Tel: + 5255 55 31 33 94
Web site <www.saps-latallera.org>
14
Socrates Sculpture Park

Long Island City, New York
Emerging Artist Fellowship
Exhibition 2011
Through March 4, 2012
EAF artists are selected through an
open call for proposals and awarded
a grant and residency at Socrates
outdoor studio; for many, this is their
first opportunity to work outside on
a large scale. This years works represent a broad range of materials,
methods, and subject matterfrom
the ultimate in urban transparency
and an architectural view of hell to a
vitrine of artifacts from a lost world,
a triumphal arch made of cast-off
bricks, and a stone-cold flophouse
shelter. Works by Cecile Chong, Joy
Curtis, Nadja Frank, Ben Godward,
Darren Goins, Ethan Greenbaum,
Jesse A. Greenberg, Rachel Higgins,
Roxanne Jackson, Hong Seon Jang,
Jason Clay Lewis, Saul Melman, Jo
Nigoghossian, Nick Paparone, Don
Porcella, Jessica Segall, Walter
SIGNER: EMIL GRUBENMANN, COURTESY GALERIE MARTIN JANDA, VIENNA / CURTIS AND SEGALL: BILYANA DIMITROVA / AI: COURTESY THE ARTIST
Left: Roman Signer, Sandsule. Top
Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Taipei
Ai Weiwei
Its no surprise that Taiwan is hosting
Ais first major exhibition in the
ethnic Chinese world. Though his
disappearance for 81 days earlier
this year and subsequent confinement to Beijing prevented his full
collaboration (as was planned),
such obstacles have only raised the
protest quotient of this aptly named
show. Absent features 21 works
dating from 1982 to the present,
encompassing the entire range of
Ais eclectic outputphotography,
video, ceramic and marble works,
and altered antiquesevery piece
aimed at a different chamber in
the contradictory heart of Chinese
culture. Probing relationships
between past and present, authenticity and imitation, worthlessness
and value, freedom and oppression,
these works push limits and defy
censorship. (Good behavior, however,
is guaranteed by a hand-sculpted
security camera.) Forever Bicycles, a
labyrinthine new installation composed of 1,200 bikes continues the
nuanced critique: every cut and
re-assembled bike in the structure is
the product of the Shanghai Forever
Company, a state-run concern.
Ai says that the work represents
the changing face of his homeland,
where the consuming drive for
wealth runs roughshod over humbler values like equality.
Tel: + 886 2 25957656
Web site <www.tfam.museum>
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commissions
Left: Folke Kbberling and Martin Kaltwasser, The Games Are Open, 2010. Wheat board
panels, 6 x 7 x 14 meters. Two views: (top) September 2010; (bottom) October 2011.
Above: Aeneas Wilder, Untitled # 155, 2011. Iroko wood, 4.5 x 18 meters diameter.
Folke Kbberling and Martin Kaltwasser

The Games Are Open
Vancouver, Canada
Berlin-based artists Folke Kbberling and Martin
Kaltwasser have been creating structural interventions in public places since 1998, often using litter,
trash, and other discarded items. In conjunction with
the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Other Sights
for Artists Projects approached the artists with the
idea of using materials salvaged from the athletes
village for a new project.
The wheat board panels that make up The Games
Are Open previously served as protective sheathing
for the villages brand-new condos. In their current
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reincarnation, they take the form of a slowly decomposing bulldozer, one built
specifically with Vancouvers rainy climate in mind. As the sculpture falls
apart, it is transforming into a makeshift community garden where neighbors
are invited to plant seeds, watch them grow, and harvest the produce. Over
the past year, since its original installation in a large empty lot in Southeast
False Creek across the water from downtown skyscrapers, additional soil
has been added to provide a fertile environment for a mix of seeds, including
several types of grasses, clovers, and rye.
The decomposing bulldozer aims a tongue-in-cheek critique at Olympic
development schemes and current urban projects. As Kbberling notes,
The bulldozer stands for the tabula rasa, the immediate erosion of land and
buildings. Although the commissioner, Other Sights, maintains that the
project has more to do with an appreciation of the ephemeral than anything
else, there is no doubt that The Games Are Open simultaneously addresses
community building through a new conception of green space, decommodification of the art object, and the accessibility of art. This seemingly
simple sculpture depends on participation in order to develop and thrive,
making it a truly public artwork.
Aeneas Wilder
Untitled #155
West Bretton, Wakefield, U.K.
Aeneas Wilders sculptures are made to be destroyed. At the end of an exhibition, he gathers an audience together, kicks his structure, and watches
what took days to assemble crumble to the ground in a matter of seconds.
KBBERLING AND KALTWASSER: TOP: OTHER SIGHTS FOR ARTISTS' PROJECTS AND SITE PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY THE ARTISTS; BOTTOM: BARBARA COLE, COURTESY OTHER SIGHTS FOR ARTISTS PROJECTS / WILDER: TOP: JONTY WILDE; BOTTOM: JIM VARNEY BOTH: COURTESY YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK
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Untitled #155, one of Wilders most recent projects, was commissioned by

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) and kicked down in November. In this intricate
construction, approximately 10,000 equal lengths of wood were precariously
balanced on top of one another, without fixing, joining, or additional materials.
After the kick down, Wilder collected the wood in boxes and will likely use
it again in future projects. As he says, By limiting the creative act to one simple material, in ample supply, with clearly defined parametersa door opens
into a wholly unexplored creative territory. Creating the illusion of structural
stability, Wilders sculptures offer interaction, inviting viewers to enter the
alternate spaces that they create within gallery confines.
Born in Edinburgh and currently based in Japan, Wilder references Zen
through the meticulous construction of his works, which often resemble
traditional Japanese architectural and decorative motifs. (Untitled #155, for
example, looked like a long, winding folding screen made out of wooden
blinds [sudare].) After the earthquake in Japan last spring, many journalists
interpreted his delicate constructions as symbols alluding to the fragility of
the countrys infrastructure. Although Wilder refutes these specific readings,
he admits that the precariousness of each [work] hints at the delicate balance
of man versus nature.
The transitory character of Wilders work, together with the climactic moment
of the visually documented kick down, serves as a commentary on the inevitable and seemingly random cycle of creation and destruction in the world
at large, empowering the artist as creator and destroyer in an increasingly
market-driven art world.
SCOTT MAYORAL, COURTESY THE ARTISTS
Ball-Nogues Studio
Table Cloth
Los Angeles
Ball-Nogues Studio, Table Cloth, 2010. Plywood, steel, felt, and
In the spring and summer of 2010, the University of California, Los Angeless
Schoenberg Hall courtyard hosted a unique outdoor installation and performance space. Designed by Ball-Nogues Studio, a self-described integrated
design and fabrication practice operating in the territory between architecture,
art, and industrial design, Table Cloth was made up of hundreds of unique
coffee-style tables and three-legged stools, linked together to create a kind of
tapestry that hung from the main building of the Herb Alpert School of Music.
Where the tables and chairs met the ground, they could be disconnected from
each other to serve the needs of musical performances, activities, and
gatherings. At the end of the summer, the university community was invited
to dismantle the sculpture and reuse its furniture components.
An exercise in what Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues refer to as cross manufacturing, Table Cloth was specifically designed to be dismantled and its
parts put to different use. They define this approach as moving beyond recycling and reuse, calling into question the very idea of current green design.
Although, as Ball remarks, it is overly optimistic to hold Table Cloth as an
exemplary model for the future of environmentally friendly design since we
probably will not see a world where the components that make up our buildings become useful consumer products in their own rightone never knows
hardware, 30 x 20 x 50 ft.
Perhaps someday the wall systems of buildings will

be constructed of frying pans and barbecue grills.
Together with its transitory beauty and distinctive
reusability, Table Cloth also served an acoustic function. According to Ball, musicians appreciated the
sculpture for its ability to lower reverberation times
in the somewhat enclosed outdoor performance
space, thereby improving the acoustics of musical
performances in the courtyard.
The congruity of Table Cloths design impressed
not only the UCLA community, but also the American
Institute of Architects, which gave it a 2010 Design
Award. The piece was also listed as a top project
in Americans for the Arts 2011 Public Art Year in
Review, further demonstrating the success of this oneof-a-kind exercise in the site-specific ephemeral.
Elena Goukassian
Juries are convened each month to select works for Commissions. Information on recently completed commissions, along with high-resolution
digital images (300 dpi at 4 x 5 in. minimum), should be sent to: Commissions, Sculpture, 1633 Connecticut Avenue NW, 4th Floor, Washington,
DC 20009. E-mail <elena@sculpture.org>.
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OPPOSITE: ERIC STONER, COURTESY HIRSCHL & ADLER MODERN, NY / THIS PAGE: JOSHUA NEFKSY, COURTESY HIRSCHL & ADLER MODERN, NY
The Line Defining

Three-Dimensional
Space
A Conversation with
BY REBECCA DIMLING COCHRAN
Opposite: Collar 21 (detail), 2010.

Silvec marble, 23 x 14 x 17 in. Above:
Cage #1, 2008. Corton French limestone, 35 x 29 x 12 in.
19
Elizabeth Turk does not fit very comfortably within an

art world that demands rapid production of work for
museum shows, international biennials, and an everexpanding range of art fairs. Her meticulously carved
sculptures take years to create, and their fragile nature
makes them difficult to transport. Still, growing numbers of admirers have followed her steady progress, and
in 2010, Turk was awarded the prestigious MacArthur
Fellowship. Her newest body of work, four years in the
making, will premiere at Hirschl & Adler Modern in New
York, March 131, 2012, during Armory Week.
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Rebecca Dimling Cochran: You present your

work thematically. Earlier series were titled
Wings, Collars, and Ribbons, and
your newest is Cages. How do these series
evolve?
Elizabeth Turk: Collars was really about
the connection between small shapes,
conceptually similar to a flock of birds or a
swarm of fish. Then I moved into Ribbons,
which I look at as sketches. Taking those
small shapes (and they all work together),
how could they move through space? With
the Cages, the next step was taking those
pathways, or systems, and integrating
them with one another. This became the
idea of a cage.
At this point, its expanded greatly,
because there are a lot of other intellectual
ponderings that get thrown into the mix.
The Collars were not entirely closed
spaces. I liked the idea of an object that
was entirely open in the interior, but with
locked parameters. This touches back on
the Wing series, where I tried to keep
the outside dimensions exactly to those of
the original stone, and so, it harks back
to another story. Thats the thread.
RDC: So, the Cages are consistent in that
each piece is entirely enclosed, all the way
around, whether in the shape of a circle,
a rectangle, or a square.
ET: Exactly. Its the line defining a threedimensional space, a line that can fold
back on itself, like a circle or band will
define a space. One can wonder, then, if
it is a cage, or a boundary. Cage is a
loaded title, so you can take it in a lot of
different directions.
RDC: Is it always a single, unbroken line
that runs through and connects back to
itself?
ET: Many of them are, to play with the idea
of the infinite. A couple are bands, or circles,
and one is defined by three circles.
RDC: Each one is carved from marble, a
solid and weighty material that, in your
hands, turns into something delicate, light,
and airy. How did you begin to experiment
with the idea of the void that now permeates the work?
ET: That has a few answers. I like the femininity of having it really light, although I
Collar 21, 2010. Silvec marble, 23 x 14 x 17 in.
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did not start off in that direction, its sort

of a by-product. I have the luxury of keeping
my studio in a marble yard that has some
of the best equipment in the industry. By
watching what is technologically possible,
you cant help but translate it into your
own workand so, machinery itself is
pushing me along. You can replicate everything now; 3-D imaging is changing the
topography. You can enlarge work; you can
make it look surreal. You can do anything
that you can do on a computer, but thats
not interesting to me. The undercuts and
whats not there are much more interesting.
Plus, the grinding does not send as many
vibrations through the stone, and so I
thought, How far can I take that? What
is extreme about that? Philosophically, I
like the idea of emptiness, the Buddhist
concept of emptiness. Things like matrices
or filigree structures seem much more
flexible, much more workable, and these
[ideas] paralleled what was available technologically.
RDC: Where does your marble come from?
ET: I never go to a quarry and choose stone.
Most of my stone comes to me. I work in
the marble yard at Chiarini Marble and
Stone. Currently, they have a large project
in Texas, a beautiful doorway. The blocks
were cut thick and beautifully, but they
didnt use all of them so I purchased some.
I like that the stone was not cut for my
project, but for a doorframe. It is a way of
putting my story and my adaptation on
the material. Nature already made this
incredible stone, then it gets chosen for
another purpose. I also have a block that
was once a part of a building in Washington, DC, and it still has its big iron core
[once the essential connection to the
building frame]. Its cool to think thats
how buildings were made. Now, we use
veneers. That block is a foot and a half
thick. I like that there is another storyline
being told, not just my own.
If you really get into carving, sometimes
youll see a rash of bubbles, really tiny
holes. On a Neoclassical sculpture, youd
think, How terrible. But because my
work is more organic, I think, That rash
Cage: Still Life, Box 1, 2011. Marble, 13.5 x 9.25
x 6 in.
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of bubbles is the most interesting part of this sculpture. I have to

note it in some way because it is air that was trapped millions and
millions of years ago. Why not start to have a longer dialogue
with time?
RDC: Have you ever worked with a different stone, like granite?
ET: I mostly use marble because its strong enough to hold a form
and soft enough not to kill my arm and shoulder. I have cut into
granite, but I thought, Im patient but not that patient. I admire
anyone who uses that material.
RDC: You really test the limits of marble, regularly removing much
more than you leave behind. How do you know when to stop?
ET: It is incredibly scary. I have had nightmares thinking that
I could make a cut, but it would only last for about three days
before the force of gravity would be too much and it would crack.
It is a slow conversation, and some have broken. I think it has
to do with the memory of the stone, because the breaks happened
early on. The sculptures have supports, and when I took them
away, the sculptures broke. If I cant intuitively feel how the
piece is being held, then it is going to break. Ive pushed too
hard. There was one really beautiful piece, but it had a long neck
element; I should have cut the support right away and, then,
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Cage: Still Life, Sphere 2, 2011. Marble, 9 in. diameter.
started carving. Its a battle with gravity. You start to look at all
structures within that context.
RDC: Do you have the orientation in mind and carve with the block
always resting the same way? For example, if you are making a
vertical piece, do you carve it while the stone is vertical so the
gravitational pull is constant?
ET: In the end, yes. Not originally. In the Cages, there is no real
sense of up and down, and it is much easier to look at the structure where theres no definite, consistent pull. The magic is making
them feel as if they have that loss of solidity, and so, its about
the balance between how much you cut the structure and how
much you dont. The terror for me has always been in the transporting and installation.
RDC: You design all of the bases for your sculptures, and they are
as highly conceptualized as the sculptures themselves. What relationship between the two are you trying to develop?
ET: Its all one. I dont look at the base as a different object. The
ideas should be fluid. The way that it relates should bring out
the parallels and the paradoxes.
JOSHUA NEFKSY, COURTESY HIRSCHL & ADLER MODERN, NY
sculpture
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Cage: Still Life, Sphere 3, 2011. Marble, 8 in. diameter.
RDC: Paradoxes in material, in shape, in solidity?

ET: All of those. It should also bring into focus the different conceptual aspects of the work. All of the objects are objects of concentration. I like scaling the art back down to a manageable size,
where you as a viewer are not overwhelmed. Its an invitation for
a dialogue with the object, and the base brings it closer to you,
at least in these new pieces, because I want that interaction.
RDC: Do you design the bases as you carve?
ET: Absolutely, because they should work together. For instance,
in the Collars, I wanted each collar to appear as if it were another
human being in the room. The work was positioned at a height
that allowed you to imagine yourself wearing it or talking to it.
With the Cages, were doing mirrored stainless bases, so I can
invite you to step up and look in and see your reflection within
the cage.
RDC: In your studio, I noticed a second series of slightly smaller
works in which you combine natural found stone with carved
marble. Is this a new direction for you?
ET: The stones are like worn pebbles, but they have quartz veins
running through them. I picked them up because I loved the idea

that they have ribbons in them. Its just a different context: rather
than air, there is stone wrapped around the ribbon. Its a beautiful extension of how I was thinking. The stones paralleled the idea
of matter, or the emptiness of matter, and so I started playing
with them, just having them around the studio. As I began to
get into this series, they presented ideas around intention, will
versus intention, and weight, and I liked playing with those
ideas. I call these gesture sketches Variations.
RDC: Drawing also seems to be very important to your practice.
Do you consider it as preparatory work for your sculpture, a separate practice, or perhaps a bit of both?
ET: Both. I love drawing. It is freedom for me. It prepares me for the
sculpture. It is the conceptual preparation. I start by bringing different ideas together through drawings and collages. For instance,
in collages, Ill look at a matrix as seen in diagrammed sentences,
corporate structures, political systems, and biological patterns.
These structures are all very interesting because I am seeking
commonalities and new connections across seemingly disparate
ideas. Ill try to bring a new perspective to conceptstying them
together, exploring the possibilities of their visual intersections,
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Above: Line #3, 2011. Marble, 10.5 x 10 x 11.625 in. Right: Ribbon #17 (Standing) (detail),
mapping their common matrices, and then I go to the studio and adapt my
structures. Marble is the traditional home of ideals, right? This is one side of
drawing that is very important.
Then, on an emotional level, after the exhaustion of the physical labor of
carving, the very quiet kind of studiousness in focused drawing is a relief, a
meditation. It is a subconscious form of drawing. It brings the complex ideas
or questions of the day into the matrix that I was studying before I left for
the studio. This way, I can feel the sculpture when Im doing it and not overthink. Finally, there are the very large, charcoal drawings, which are about
five feet high and three feet wide. I make these if Im not carving stone. Or,
if Im really dirty and not so exhausted, Ill move from white dust to black. It
requires the same sort of physical energy, but different patterns emerge.
RDC: You have mentioned that you are interested in systems and matrices,
particularly in how one thing flows into the other. How does this translate
into your work?
ET: Im not entirely sure where it came from. Its been evolving my entire life.
The evolution of this line of questioning is seen in my drawings and collages.
Perhaps the core question is why, as organic, curved, soft creatures, we think
and find a resonance in linear structures. Why do we live in square rooms
rather than round (well, in many places anyway)? Why is the structure of a
monarchy so effective? What do linear systems of order offer our minds and
our souls that complex curves and paradoxes do not? Our comfort with systems (of order, of communication) informs our palette of responses: emotional and rational. This is why a study of systems, structures, and thus matrices is infinitely intriguing to me.
It was so long ago when I began asking myself these questions. I suppose
the answers have simply moved through their own variations. They generate
a very layered perspective. For some reason, these thoughts are easier for me
to understand if I think of them in physical shapesfor instance, language
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in terms of diagrammed forms. And I find the line of

questioning beautiful, because it pushes me to look
for the relationship between all things, the matrix of
how it all fits together. In the end, even the solidity
of the rock is not what it seems.
RDC: In 2010, you received the prestigious MacArthur
Fellowship. How has that award changed your work?
ET: Im incredibly grateful to have been invited into this
group of unbelievably optimistic and inspiring people.
I find that I want to incorporate so much of what they
are thinking about into my work that Im challenged in
the most inspirational way. The beauty of it, for me, is
that it came at a time of such flux in the world, a very
serious time. To have an injection of that kind of optimism is nothing short of miraculous; its hopeful. Its
amazing to be with people who look at obstructions as
challenges, incredibly invigorating rather than depressing.
Im trying to carry that attitude through to my own work.
2008. Marble, 50 x 8 x 7 in.
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Above: Ribbon #16 (Standing), 2008. Marble, 7 x 33 x 5 in. Left:

Ribbons #11, #13, and #10, 200708. Marble, installation view.
RDC: What is the greatest misconception about your

work?
ET: I wouldnt say misconception, but people have
a barrier about my work in terms of craft. For me, the
idea of craft has been much more about ritual, almost
like Marina Abramovic, and the idea of discipline on a
consistent level of repetitive action. We see it in religion, we see it in so much of human behavior, and yet
when it comes down to crafting an object, somehow
the concept has been lowered. Part of my challenge,
I think, is to reinvent some of the beauty of that aspect
and put it at a different level because it marries the
intellectual and a much more emotional response.
RDC: People think the work is too beautiful.
ET: It stops them. Ive drawn attention to the object,
and that is purposefully done. But then I have the
challenge: Now that youre looking at the object,
expand your thought structurally, and thats hard
when there is so much focus on the object. But again,
part of that focus is because of the time it takes, and
thats the ritual I want to communicate.
RDC: When you say that the mirrored pedestals allow
viewers to see themselves within the Cages or that the
height of the Collars allows people to converse with
the work, your work begins to function conceptually.
Viewers move beyond just looking at the object and
begin to have a physical relationship with it.
ET: Exactly. I want to create conceptual pieces with
intimately carved, beautiful objects so that the individual pieces can stand independently, but they become
something larger as a whole. That is something consistent in all of the work.
Rebecca Dimling Cochran is a writer and curator based
in Atlanta.
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PHOTOCREDIT
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Playing with Creation
Ranjani
Shettar
PHOTOCREDIT
COURTESY TALWAR GALLERY, NY/NEW DELHI
BY CHITRA
BALASUBRAMANIAM
Bird Song II, 2009. Stainless steel,

muslin dyed in pomegranate skin,
tamarind kernel, and lacquer, 48
x 44 x 51 in.
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Scent of a Sound, 201011. Stainless steel, muslin,

tamarind powder paste, and lacquer, 224 x 190 x
Ranjani Shettar says that she turned from

painting to sculpture because I realized
I had to move around the object, it had to
occupy the same space that I did and there
was no illusion in it. Although I was little
equipped for it, I knew that was what I
wanted. That conceptual shift set the tone
for her ethereal but monumental installations combining natural and industrial
materials and modern and traditional
methods. Beginning with Thousand Room
House (2000), a hexagonal honeycomb
formed of pieced-together plastic, Shettar

has become well known around the world
for three-dimensional drawings in a host
of materials, including metal, wood,
beeswax, steel, cloth, lacquer, and, more
recently, bronze and steel.
As one walks around her sculptures and
installations, the first thought is of calm,
quiet beauty, a sense of timelessness.
Unusual combinations of materials achieve
a minimal, uncluttered aspect, the separate
elements simply blending and assimilating
into each other to create a composite whole.

Speaking of the process, Shettar says, I
take a very long time to make a sculpture;
the incubation period between having an
idea and making an artwork is quite long.
In that time, certain things get added, certain things get eliminated. It gets more
refined. Thinking through the idea usually
takes a few years. Her work is shaped by
observations of life around her in Bangalore
and in small towns across the state of
Kamataka, but inspirations from nature
also abound, most evidently in Vasanta
(2004), a work in beeswax and tea-dyed
string that recalls spring, as well as the
melodious raga of the same name.
Entering the space of Scent of a Sound
(201011), one instantly feels a connection
with the outdoors, reminiscent of a walk
through the forest. The installation combines
steel and muslin treated with tamarind
paste and lacquer. Shettar explains that
the shape or drawing in this case was linear;
but in my mind, it was a three-dimensional,
very visual piece. The result is an extremely
wispy, fragile-looking, but surprisingly sturdy creation. The title marries two different
sensory functions: Shettar wanted to give
physical form to intangible sound and smell.
Floral scents and repeating musical notes
stimulate the mind and fill the senses. The
elusive concept takes a different form each
time the work is installed. In terms of material, Scent of a Sound builds on earlier works
such as the Bird Song series (2009) and
Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles (200708),
both of which use the same materials in
different ways.
Shettar says of Sun-sneezers blow light
bubbles, When I thought of the work,
because of the visual effect I wanted to
achieve, rawhide seemed the best option.
However, since rawhide did not go with my
philosophy of using materials, I started on
a journey to find an alternative material
that did not involve violence. She found an
Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles, 200708. Stainless
steel, muslin, tamarind powder paste, and lacquer,
16 x 24 x 14 ft.
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132 in.
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answer during a visit to observe the craft

tradition in Kinhal, a small town where icons
are made using sawdust and tamarind
paste. For Shettar, the traditional technique
found a new voice in combination with
steel. Sun-sneezers blow light bubbles presents the innocence of a child blowing bubbles, as well as a laid-back spirit of simple
enjoyment. As she says, I associate my
sculptures with happier moments of life.
Shettar keeps returning to the same
materials, testing and extending their formal possibilities. She works with various
materials simultaneously, the commonality
being ideas and their interpretation. For
example, the rosewood Stretch (2010) happened simultaneously with the outdoor
bronze Maquette (2010), which has a languid feeling that Shettar describes as a linear and stretched form with an animated
elastic quality. The idea for Stretch came
from the shape of a log that she bought.
Her carving goes with the shape of the
wood, following the grain closely. The material becomes a conduit for the form.
Maquette provided the idea for Aureole
(2010), of which Shettar says, I wanted to
have these structures on the wall that
looked incredibly light, but the irony is that
the whole thing is very heavy, it is bronze.
Right: Aureole, 2010. Cast bronze, dimensions
variable. Below: Liquid Walk on My Wall, 2008.
Burmese teak, wax polish, and lacquered wood,
dimensions variable.
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Lagoon, 2011. Lacquered wooden beads, glass
The idea began with two-dimensional drawings that evolved into three dimensions as
the piece progressed. After the wax models
were made, Shettar recalls, Everything
came together. The piece has a very flimsy
quality, as if it were just fading away or disappearing. It has multiple starting points:
a soft angular geometric interior and an
idea of growth on the wall. The title is apt,
drawn from the suns halo, which remains
visible during an eclipse. She says that
installing Aureole, particularly getting the
lighting right, poses a difficult challenge.
Shettars foray into bronze is recent; she
began researching the material about two
years ago. Her technique is an adaptation
of lost-wax casting, which involves creating
funnels and channels through which liquid
wax is poured out and molten metal poured
in. The channels are usually removed from
the final form, but in Shettars work, the
channels and conduits become the main
structural form.
Shettar has worked extensively with lacquered wooden beads in works such as In
Bloom (2004) and Lagoon (2011). Lagoon,
which also features glass beads, fishing line,
and pigment, creates a gorgeous play of
lush color across suspended forms. Lighting
adds additional layers of shadow and luminosity. Shettar has furthered this concept in
her creations for a show at the Herms
Foundation Singapore, including the stunning Flame of the Forest (2011), which uses
lacquered and carved wood. Woodcarving
also played a part in the earlier Liquid Walk
on My Wall (2008), but on a smaller scale.
The new work demonstrates a sense of progression and comfort with the material.
Another prominent pursuit in Shettars
work has been giving form to energy, as in
the Kinetics series (2009), three sculptures
inspired by tools in the artists studio. The
works also draw on a childhood experience.
Shettar recalls that when she was growing
up, We were given candy strung on a piece
of thread, and one would go on playing with
it and licking it. She captures the motion of
Flame of the Forest, 2011. Carved teak, lacquered
wood, and pigments, 24 x 24 x 11.5 in.
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beads, fishing line, and pigment, 72 x 72 x 98 in.
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Above: Just a Bit More, 2006. Hand-molded beeswax, pigments, and thread dyed in tea, detail of installation. Below: Touch Me Not, 200607. Lacquered wooden
beads, pigments, and stainless steel, 432 x 96 x 6 in.
to direct sunlight. It is a very durable material, free from insects. It has immediacy and
malleability, though it is hard to come by.
One does not lose even a thumb impression,
everything is translated and everything is
present. It is a material in transition, which
would come out in the form of metal as in
bronze casting. I like the translucence and
immediacy of the material, though it took
several years to convince myself that I could
work with it. She explores beeswax further
in her show (on view through February 26)
at the National Art Gallery of Victoria, in

Melbourne, Australia. The largest exhibition
of her work to date, Dewdrops and Sunshine includes seven works.
What materials or inspiration will Shettar
turn to next? She shrugs, saying, I dont
know where I might land and what will come
out. I dont know if I will do the same series
againif I can add to it, I will go back to it.
Chitra Balasubramaniam is a writer living
in New Delhi.
moving thread brilliantly in metal, giving a

three-dimensional form to an ineffable concept. A similar fluid geometry can be seen
in Me, No, Not Me, Buy Me, Eat Me, Wear
Me, Have Me, Me, No, Not Me (200607),
which is made of used car bodies.
One of Shettars most expressive mediums
is beeswaxa difficult material to work with
in India, given the climatic conditions.
Explaining its properties, she says, I love
beeswax; like wood, good-quality beeswax
can withstand temperature unless exposed
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Shuli Sad, an Israeli-born, New York-based artist, specializes in working across the
interstices of art categories. Most often, her work has to do with photography and
video, but her images also explore the boundaries of two-dimensional and three-dimensional form. Sads installations may look like orderly constructions, yet the experience
that informs them is intuitive and often personaldespite the fact that their arrangements on wall and floor are right-angled and rational. Thus, there is a contrast or tension between the feelings prompted by Sads work and the upright system through
which her emotions are communicated. The demands of her constructions are essentially architecturalSad has often worked as an architectural photographerand this
gives her sensibility a formal edge, even a distance, intended to mediate between her
distinctive sensibility and its rigorous conditions of being. A lover of citiesone of
her most interesting projects has been to photograph courtyards in Budapest, where
her parents originatedshe has been inspired by the experience of New York, where
she has lived for 25 years.
COURTESY CYNTHIA REEVES GALLERY, NY
Shuli Sad Thinking in Time
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Urban movementthe forward motion of cars, trains, and

subwaysremains a central theme in Sads practice. Her videos
stand out for the freedom of movement that informs both artist
and audience. Shooting videos from a train window, she is literally a bit ahead of herself. Her icons of perception address the
future in the sense that they project optimism and continuity
balanced by reciprocity with what comes nextas one might
imagine, it is a naturally mysterious stance because no one knows
what will happen in times to come. For this reason, Sads strengths
in photography and video are increased by how she arranges her
installations on the ground or in sequence across the wall; they
possess, not only in their imagery but also in the conditions of
their construction, the attraction of architecturethey require
duration, an attribute indicative of time passing, as a prerequisite for the viewers experience.
The forward pitch of Sads work demands a visionary stance
not only on her part, but also on that of viewers. As she puts it,
I am interested in construction and demolition as stages of documenting time.* In her attempts to negotiate the future, Sad
takes architecture as a major field of interest: I was drawn to work
with space and structure early on. Architecture is significantly
inspirational to my work. New York made it a signature of my work,
as I am constantly surrounded by architecture, old and new. She
sees architecture as functional monumental sculpture, a view
in which architecture, a highly public art, melds with sculpture,
a plastic art as much at home in private as public space. This merger
can also be found in the arrangement of her imagery: I am
interested in a stretch beyond the boundaries of a single medium.
Installation is a tool I chose to use from early on because it has
the space for experimentation of interdisciplinary collaborations
between media and ideas. Such an approach is highly contemporary; much of what is interesting in art today crosses boundaries
defining and supposedly separating one medium from the next.
By its very nature, the experience of sculpture requires durationthe three-dimensional object is always an experiment in time.
Sad, who came of age as an artist in the 70s, looks to Minimalisms
expectation of viewer reaction as key to the experience. She
comments, The viewer is a part of the creative process using
her body, walking through or around the installation. By shifting
angles with the piece, [viewers] create personal relations with it.
This is the same process used by the Minimalists: the viewers
experience over time completes the works aesthetic effect. Space,
too, remains central to Sads sensibility. In an early work, Touching Space (1979), she stands in a warrior pose in the center of a
gallery, the shadow of her body reflected on three walls, so that
her form possesses solidity, shaping space into form. While the
work clearly relates to performance art, it is also a meditation
on the bodys three-dimensional presencethat is, its ability to
project a sense of solidity beyond physical boundaries.
Sad works not only in minimal terms, but also with minimal
materials. In addition to her bodywork, which can be called living
sculpture, she works with ethereal elements in space: light, sound,
movement, and arrested images. By merging these components
of her work, Sad comes close to totalizing the viewers involvement.
Opposite: Dure, 200809. 120 illuminated video stills, digital photographs on

Duraclear, fused acrylic, and fluorescent lights, 78 x 260 in. Above: Industrial
Temple, 199294. Cedar, 15 x 25 x 16 in. Below: Industrial Temple, 1993.
Railroad timber and steel, 12 x 11 x 14 ft.
Indeed, the physical activity of the viewer becomes as important

as the sculpture itself. In what Sad calls a post-material environment, much work is highly situation-specific, referring both to
the site of the installation and its conversation with the viewer.
Now in mid-career, Sad has a long history of engagement with
art, starting at the age of eight, when she saw an artist drawing
with charcoal: It was a life-changing experience. In 1976, she
received her BFA from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in
Jerusalem, where she first focused on painting, printmaking, and
sculpture. Soon she began producing work in photography and
video, and by her last year, she was using her body for documented
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performances that included installations combining sculptural

objects, photography, and video (most often without an audience present). At that time, she says, I was inspired by conceptual art and Minimalism. The goal was to contemplate making
dimensional pieces using as little matter as possible. Joseph
Beuys was another big influence in terms of his ability to move
across mediums, as well as his determination to be true to the
spirit of the time.
Sad came to New York City in 1984, seeking a more receptive ground for my process. Taken with the endless energy of
the city, she found a diversity of choice and an emphasis on living
in the moment. She created paintings on canvas and wood, in
addition to making objects composed of wood, concrete, steel,
and rust. In 1991, she received a National Endowment for the Arts
grant for painting, and with that encouragement, she increased
her emphasis on photography. She documented industrial ruins
throughout America and internationally, looking to correlate space,
light, and signs of time. In the 90s, Sad began creating installations. These included the Industrial Temple works (199194), a
group of 26 sculptures constructed with cedar shingles; Industrial Temple (1993), made of railway timbers and steel, temporarily
built at Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City; and Power
Echo (1994), a sculptural proposal for the Monumental Propaganda exhibition at the New York Financial Center.
Commenting on Dure (200809), one of her most interesting
recent works, Sad says that videos introduce an element of time
by generating narrative structures. For this piece, she fused 120
video stills onto open light boxes, each one showing a view of the
cityscape at night, shot while she took a taxi across the Brooklyn
Bridge. The light remains unrestricted, flowing out from beneath
the images. While Sad acknowledges that matter inherently
possesses mass and volume, and sculpture by definition produces
a three-dimensional object, she remains adamant about bringing
an ethereal presentation to viewers. Her sensibility emphasizes
the spiritual. She maintains a strong interest in Asian philosophy
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for its treatment of the transcendent and considers Buddhism and

Hinduism inspirational. But in her use of what she calls matter
fields of energy and light, she brings to Dure a visionary quality
that also involves Western philosophy, particularly the writings
of Henri Bergson. Time becomes its own subject, and to Sads
credit, she finds a way of introducing her themes without merely
skating on the surface of the philosophical.
Words often become inadequate to the exposition of Sads
conception. In a sense, Dure remains purely experiential, as if
interpretation would irreparably damage its fragile expressiveness. It is built with light waves and their particles: installed on
the floor, 60 bright-white units reflect the sequence of a particular
memory, which is understood as Sads own or perhaps someone
elses. Another 60 black units, negatives compared to the white
units, suggest the creation of another memory. Everything is set
in a parallel grid, an essential part of Sads workshe believes
that a basic infrastructure is needed to create order. The grid
arrangement frames the memories of Sads short trip across the
bridge; through it, she asks, Which is the real memory of the
scene, and which is a later reflection? Art based on memory
inevitably differs from the original experience; a series of images,
persistently pursuing a narrative, may be construed as separate
from the events they record. Documentation, no matter how
faithful it may be to events, can trulyand onlybe read as
interpretation.
Readings of an event require language; we must talk or write
about our experiences to order and make sense of them. Yet in
Sads installations, viewers, drawn to the silence of the object,
may well find words disappointing. An Asian perspective regarding
silence, which emphasizes the viewers subjectivity, seems appropriate to her approach. The viewers truthindeed, anyonesis
always partial; absolute objectivity is a desired, but finally unattainable state. In Dure, the viewer chooses a vantage point from
which to read meaning, and a new memory is built according to
the choice of ordered images. Memory is imposed on memory,
Dure, 200809 (details), 120 illuminated video stills, digital photographs on Duraclear, fused acrylic, and fluorescent lights, 78 x 260 in.
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with the consequence that, over time, the reading moves further and further away from
the original. New combinations of images represent a new vision of the journey toward
Manhattan, with the result that the installation orients each viewer to an interpretation
completely different from the one that Sad presents.
If partial truth is the best we can perceive, if subjectivity is a state we cannot escape
no matter how hard we try, then Sads idea of a reading chosen by the viewer makes
sense. Her works generate an interaction dictated by chance, whereby movement among
the components of an installation uniquely qualifies each individual for a particular point
of view. Although the experience is specific, it is also deeply random and dependent on
interaction. In Waterfall (2009), a piece first shown at the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont, Sad combines 15 single-channel video pieces. The components include the videos
moving images, sound, and the space. Fifteen soundtracks, released directly into space
without headphones, constitute a sound sculpture accompanying the video shots.
On each of the three walls facing the viewer, who becomes the fourth wall, five DVDs
show a river; the videos excerpt footage recording different train rides along the Hudson
River. These destination-free trips render time as a fluid event, literally and figuratively,
since Sad flips the horizontal river so that it becomes a waterfall, indicative of time
passing. The videos are grouped by color: sepia, representing the past; green, the present; and blue, the future. (Sad retains this color scheme throughout her work.)
Sad writes, If Modernism is the ability to redefine the art of the present again and
again, I am a ModernistModernism is an old term that means constant change. The
term temporary-contemporary might define it better. As an artist who travels among
several projects at one time, she feels that her practice is indicative of the times. Dure
exemplifies her concept of what art should bean ongoing collaboration mixing media,
artist, and viewer in a current version of a Gesamtkunstwerk. Hence the inclusion of sound
and the emphasis on total interaction between work and viewer. Modernism has both its
supporters and detractors today, yet it seems fair to say that our age remains dependent
on issues and origins that can and should be ascribed to the Modernist movement. Sad
participates in an awareness of 20th-century advances, but like many artists, she feels
the need to push things forward. Incorporating the advantages of relatively new categories, such as conceptual and performance art, she offers works whose eclecticism and
fluidity across media boundaries echo and foretell what art has been and might be.
Sad is currently working on a piece called Reconfiguring Memory (2011)a permanent installation of ArTable and Traces, which visualize memory gaps of the degraded
image. ArTable is a new conference table designed as an intellectual support for the
laboratory run by Andr Fenton, a professor

at New York Universitys Center for Neural
Science in downtown Manhattan. The 5by-15-foot table represents state-of-the art
understanding of memory and its expression. Its surface consists of 32 panels, each
one a photographic fragment of a single
imagea New York cityscape at night
incorporating both manmade and natural
textures. Images of trees are layered on
images of skyscrapers. Because the images
are enlarged and pixelated, the tables
elements become abstracted, making visual
reference to an original image that has been
deliberately degraded to a linear reading.
ArTable serves as the central meeting point
for Fenton and his colleagues, a place for
exchanging, creating, and refining ideas.
Sad and Fenton believe that the table
will strengthen laboratory culture by establishing a site that promotes intellectual
debate and discovery. This is Sads third
project with neural scientists and her work
here points in a new direction. Although we
dont know what will follow in Sads art,
her cross-disciplinary methods and objects
make it clear that collaboration can illuminate art.
Note
* All quotations are taken from an interview with the artist, completed in
early 2010.
Jonathan Goodman is a writer living in

New York.
Waterfall, 2009. 15-channel video installation and sound, dimensions variable.
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The Girl Who Liked

to Smell Dirt
Lori Nozick
A Conversation with
BY MARTY CARLOCK
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New York-based sculptor Lori Nozick

installed wooden structures in
galleries in Italy last year, mounted
a show in Berlin over the summer,
and then flew to Israel to initiate
a future project. Her indoor gallery
installations play with perspective
and demand interaction. Outdoors,
she builds with salt blocks, cast
cement, steel, screening, and LED
lights. She recently received a
Pollock-Krasner Foundation award.
Marty Carlock: Whats your Israel project
like? And why Israel?
Lori Nozick: It will be a salt project, but its
just in the beginning stages. I have family
and friends in Israel, so Ive spent time
there before. I had a residency grant in 2000,
which I used to research archaeological
and architectural structures.
MC: Will this replicate the salt tower that
you built a couple of years ago in Key West?
LN: I havent decided yet, but the Israel
salt towers will be based on the ancient
structures in that country. Circular forms
create a sacred space. Sal Non Sal 124,
the piece in Key West, got an unbelievable
reaction. People went into it for meditation and for healing (salt has therapeutic
properties).
I want to do a series of salt projects all
over the world. I see salt as a vehicle for
communication going way back in history,
because of its natural properties, because
it was the basis of economy, of trade. Salt
appears in the Bible. For me, this salt piece
is the crux of what I do in my work in terms
of history, architecture, universality, light,
gravity, and time.
MC: How far along is the piece?
LN: I had a meeting at the Bezalel Academy
of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, and they
were very excited. I am applying for major
foundation grants to do salt projects in the
U.S. and internationally; Bezalel has agreed
to sponsor me. This salt project will be a
key part of my application. We also hope
to work with the Seam Museum in Jerusalem. The idea is to site the piece on the
seashore in Jaffa, which is a very culturally
6 x 1 x 1 ft.; wall: 24 x 216 x 4 in. Above: Two Staircases, 2010. Reclaimed lumber, 8 x 18 x 4 ft.
mixed city. I see this as an important project for community. Im not a political artist, but
its impossible to ignore that this project could be used as a bridge. Ive already got a salt
block supplier on the West Bank, so there would be economic exchange across the border.
MC: Whatever made you start to use salt blocks as a building material?
LN: When I lived in the country, deer would come into my back yard. They come to salt
licks. It was one of those times when you dont know the questionbut suddenly you
see an answer. Salt is absolutely beautiful, translucent, luminous. It erodes and constructs
itself at the same time, because its a crystal.
The materials I use are very basic, elemental, and primal. Stone, wood, dirt, water,
sunlight, solar energy. They are satisfying to me in a physical way. From a metaphorical
point of view, they go back to the beginning of timeevery human used them, constructed with them. Using them brings us to a commonality, to a creating of place.
MC: How do you make the salt blocks stick together?
LN: Simple. I make a heavy salt mortar, a slurry, from ocean water and handfuls of loose
bag salt. At night, its almost sponge-like; during the day, the sun bakes it and pulls
moisture to the surface, and it forms crystals that latch on to each other. The process is
chemical, physical, and metaphysical.
MC: Where else do you plan to build salt sculptures?
LN: Florida is the only large one so far. I want to do them in striking venues. A curator from
Colombia, where they have huge salt mines, got in touch with me and asked whether I
knew about the salt cathedral. Outside Bogot, there is an underground cathedral carved
out of salt. Ive been in touch with the salt museum there.
MC: How long did Sal Non Sal last?
LN: The idea was that it would stay up and erode on its own, so it depended on the weather.
After a year, it was stronger than ever. Because I had done the piece in the context of
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Opposite: Sal Non Sal 124, 2009. 3,600 salt blocks and salt mortar, tower: 8 x 17 x 10 ft.; columns:
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Above: Dirt Houses on Posts (detail), 2011. Wood, mud, and pigment, 3 elements, 60 x 6 x 6 in. each.
Right: Capitol House, 2011. Reclaimed plaster column and cast plaster, 66 x 12 x 12 in.
an exhibition, the people at Sculpture Key West felt liable in the case of an accident. We
decided to take it down. I had to use a sledgehammer; I threw the pieces back into the
sea. A lot of people were really upset.
MC: You seem to work in many different materials and styles. Whats the unifying theme
of your work?
LN: Its all about creating a sense of place. I like borders and edges, places where earth,
sky, and land meet, where the wall meets the floor. Its all about creating universality and
a spiritual sensibility, a special place that has resonance for where it is. For instance, the
staircases that I showed in Berlin evoke both physical and psychological references, such
as one is East Berlin, one is West Berlin; the interior references railway tracks and barracks; the steps almost lead to each other, but they only go up, connecting earth to sky.
MC: You customize your cast concrete stelae to their locations, dont you?
LN: I just did a very big piece in Ferndale, Washington, north of Bellingham. Three concrete casts, seven, eight, and nine feet tall. I call them Markers, in that they relate to
everything else marking a place. I put clues in the cast cement, implying a narrative of
that place. People donated objects; one man brought me a king salmon. You cant imagine
how much it smelled when it came out of the mold. It looks like a fossil.
When I applied for the commission, I told them, I want to be your artist-in-residence
and live in this community while I do the project. It was the towns first public art project. I got all the material locally, used a local engineer, local construction crews. I did
the concrete pour in public so people could watchI was really nervous. I cant tell you
how people thanked me.
MC: You often draw on tarpaper, and you use mud, humus, and similar materials. Do
you go into the woods and gather them?
LN: Oh yes. Friends call me the girl who likes to smell dirt. I like to find a log thats fallen
down, dig up that dirt, and smell what it used to befor me, its one of those peak
experiences. In making the mud drawings, I often use my hands. I used to have a wood-
38
burning stove, and Id draw with hunks of

charcoal from it.
MC: When you build lumber installations,
do you do the carpentry yourself?
LN: Yes, though sometimes I have help,
students usually. In Berlin, it was just me.
I was supposed to have help, but they never
showed. I have an assistant, Kate McKenzie,
who has been with me for years. In the
structures, I like to play with perspective;
it changes ones relationship with the
environment. I did some big wooden pieces
in Italy. Where are we going? was a boardwalk 37 feet long, leading to the back of
the gallery. It started out five feet wide
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Bakersfield Lighthouse, 2009. Reclaimed and recycled materials, including steel sheet with cutouts,
windows, church doors, pallets, Plexiglas, and solar-generated LED lighting, 9 x 8 x 8 ft.
and got narrower. I continued the drawing on the wall. Everybody wanted to walk on it.
It was fascinating how, when people got to the back of the gallery, they appeared larger
than life. I like it when people want to experience my work physically. I like to force people
to interact with the works.
MC: What about the lighthouses? Do you build them yourself?
LN: A welder in Miami built the frames, then we covered them with aluminum screening,
hand-sewn with wire. People came and helped to sew for an hour or two. It was hard work;
you should have seen my hands. I then covered the screening with thick acrylic polymer
and iridescent pigment, which gives a luminous surface; it looks silver in the daylight. At
night, the lights show through; I use LED spots with theater gels, so I can select for color. I
found this nifty unit through a garden supplier, a six-by-five-inch solar panel with an LED
spot. The solar panel lights it up even in the winter, even if its cloudy. Its all about sus-
tainability, re-use. My wooden structures

are built with recycled lumber.
I started doing things with stones and
water, a circle within a circle. My method
is to start with simple materials and put
them together so they are not formal architecture. Concept and metaphor speak to
the materials, but the materials are also
served by the concept.
MC: Your work is basically about repurposing materials.
LN: Yes, its all about reclaiming and recreating.
Marty Carlock is a writer living in Boston.
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Plan B, 2011. Water purification

units with extended pipes and cables,
view of installation at the Turkish
Pavilion, Venice Biennale.
Ayse Erkmens Plan B and

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ROMAN MENSING / ARTDOC.DE
sculpture
Other (Not So) Futile Gestures

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Ayse Erkmens site-specific sculptures activate the materials found in a particular

place to shed light on the factors and histories that have lent it shape. She
will often work with evanescent substances such as water or air or use preexisting objects collected from a site only to return them to their place of
origin at the projects end. As a result, lasting evidence of her projects often
takes narrative form. Many of Erkmens works are characterized by her propensity to activate inanimate objects, to endow them with unexpected action and
movement, and to temporarily lend them new life. In Sculptures on Air
(1997), a legendary piece created for Skulptur Projekte Mnster, Erkmen
worked with sculptures taken from the faades of war-destroyed buildings.
They were brought out of storage, flown over Mnster via helicopter, and then
exhibited on the roof of a museum overlooking a cathedral. Spectators who
witnessed the extraordinary flight of these 19th-century sandstone sculptures
still talk about the ghostly mirage, likening it to a scene out of a Fellini film.
Plan B, Erkmens recent commission for the Turkish Pavilion at the 2011
Venice Biennale, also repurposed an inanimate objectthis time, a machine
used at emergency sites to purify water for drinkinggiving it new life as a
vibrant post-Minimalist sculpture. The machinery of the sculpture worked with
an evanescent substancedirty water from a canaland gave it new existence as purified drinking water. The Turkish Pavilion is situated in one of the
restored rooms of the Arsenale (an old shipbuilding yard), with windows facing
one of the canals. To indicate the different stages of the purification process,
Erkmen painted the pipes and machine parts of her deconstructed unit in
different colors; the components were then reconnected in a way that filled
the space. The effect was a cross between a Minimalist grid sculpture and a
boiler room. One of the pipes dipped into the adjacent canal and entered the
pavilion through a window, carrying with it a quantity of putrid green water,
which went through a lengthy purification and desalination process as it traversed the colorful pipes, until it finally reached a drinkable stage. To mark
the end of the process, another pipe leading out to the canal dumped the
clean water back into the murky channel.
Erkmens original proposal entailed passing the clean water out to visitors,
but the Biennales administration nixed this engagement with the public as
too risky. An alternative plan changed the intent behind the installation,
thereafter titled Plan B, so that all the energy expended to purify the water
would be directed toward a futile gesture. During the press conference,
Erkmen, together with project curator Fulya Erdemci, stressed the need not
to interpret the project literally, as a comment on diminishing sources of
clean drinking water. Though the metaphorical implications of Plan B are
indeed multifold, such an interpretation should not be discounted. After all,
the projects catalogue includes a prescient essay by historian Edhem Eldem
on the history of public water distribution in Istanbul, which concludes with
the important observation that city residents still cannot drink water out of
the tap.1 The fact was not lost on viewers that while being an essential source of
life, water also carries tremendous destructive force, as the recent tsunami in
Japan chillingly demonstrated. Considering the fact that rising sea levels caused
by climate change now threaten Venices very existence, it is worth addressing
the broader environmental issues raised by this site-specific installation.
Plan B, 2011. Two installation details of the Turkish Pavilion, Venice Biennale.
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ROMAN MENSING / ARTDOC.DE
BY BERIN GOLONU
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Rather than making a positive statement about the ability of technology to

turn back the tide of environmental degradationas intended by the original
project (or Plan A)Plan B carried a much more ominous message. Though
the purified water could be read as a metaphor for positive change, whether
relating to issues of social progress or environmental justice, Plan B sounded
a cautionary note about facts versus appearances, about the ability to effect
real social and environmental change as opposed to merely going through the
motions by means of dubious greenwashing. As a result, it engaged in a
potent formal and conceptual relationship with its geographical location while
critiquing the Biennale as a site where national status is on prominent display.
This was not the first time that Erkmens ambitious ideas gained a more
purposeful direction after navigating certain roadblocks. In Mnster, she was
originally interested in working with the cathedral and proposed to alter its
faade by adding a clock with hands of equal length, which could not, therefore, accurately measure time. The proposal could be read as a critical approach
to the influence of time on tradition, religion, social change, and their relationship. Church leaders rejected Erkmens idea, refusing to work with her
because they believed her status as an immigrant from a Muslim country
inhibited her comprehension of their Christian values. If anything, this incident uncovered the religious intolerance and cultural prejudice that still pervade Erkmens adopted nation of Germany. Not impeded by the cathedrals
refusal, Erkmen went on to make Sculptures on Air, a temporary project that
has since been retold to shed light on Germanys testy relations with immigrant
populations. Erkmens encounter with church leaders takes on a particularly distressing cast when viewed through the lens of Germanys war-ridden history.
Rather than bringing something hidden into full view like Sculptures on Air,
Plan B made use of something visible across Venice. The many metaphoric
associations of water open the project up to a complex web of interpretations.
As something that traverses the globe and enables individuals and goods to
travel across the world, water can represent a great many systems. It can
stand in for the flow of raw materials, products, services, information, or
relations traded in a transnational economy. Water quality also gauges the
environmental health of a place and affects the health of its people. Plan Bs
use and treatment of Venices water (the city has no source of potable drinking
water of its own) potently illustrated the complicated equation linking capitalist enterprise, modern development, and environmental impact.
In contrast to waters transnational flow, Plan B, installed in the national
Turkish Pavilion on Italian soil, also addresses the complicated relationship
between the discrete nation-state and its network of global ties. Political
leaders elected to head a nation have the competing tasks of ensuring a
nations wealth and economic growth, protecting its supply of natural resources,
maximizing its energy resources, and protecting the health of its environment.
By deploying a machine used in emergency situations, Plan B points to the
uneasy co-existence of such goals. Using Turkey as just one example, it suggests that all leaders allow natural resources to be used in drastically unsustainable ways in order to maximize growth and capital return.
In his essay The Climate of History: Four Theses, historian Dipesh Chakrabarty proposes a historical view of humankind as a species that has drastically altered the physical processes of the earth and thereby undermined its
own long-term survival. In his view, species thinking might enable us to
recognize our united fate in a shared catastrophe.2 Our political leaders, however,
are not positioned to ensure the environmental health of the nations over
which they preside. They always err on the side of short-term economic growth
because they seldom calculate past the next election. If we look at developing
Sculptures on Air, 1997. 13 stone sculptures, helicopter, safety

belts, metal tighteners, carabiners, steel plates, bars, and pallet,
3 views of work for Skulptur Projekte Mnster.
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nations such as Turkey, whose growing economies are tied to growing industries, the
last thing their political leaders want to do is limit growth since that would entail limiting
their power as global players. Turkeys greenhouse gas emissions are growing at a rate
that is among the fastest in the world (near to rivaling the already devastating impact
unleashed by developed polluters). Yet Turkish president Abdullah Gl managed to
convince the 2009 U.N. Copenhagen conference on climate change that Turkey should
be labeled a developing country, thereby gaining an exemption from emission-reduction
policies pertaining to other Annex I countries. Turkish environmentalists referred to the
results of the Copenhagen summit as a total disaster for their countrys environmental health.3
Yet, as Chakrabarty argues, the fate of Turkey is also the fate of our collective future.
Other world leaders are just as guilty of delivering spin over substance at environmental
summits, pandering to the business interests that finance them. Moreover, one nations
refusal to combat climate change transgresses national borders to affect populations
across the globe. Much like the self-serving gestures of the political machine, Erkmens
installation conjured visions of dystopian systems that perform empty gestures and futile
tasks to justify their own existence. Her machine, dangerous not only for its cold, industrial beauty, but also for its thirst for energy, had no regard for the human population
that it was originally created to serve.
This idea of the machine taking on a life of its own, or performing for an audience
as a sculpture, is echoed in an early Erkmen work commissioned for the 4th International
Istanbul Biennial (1995). Staged in a renovated, former industrial site like the Arsenale,
the Istanbul Biennial occupied one of the buildings of the Antrepo, a renovated customs
warehouse (which has since been turned into the Istanbul Modern Museum). Erkmen
called attention to the sites industrial history by working with the buildings freight elevator. She transformed it into a kinetic sculptural work by denying its original function.
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This page and opposite: Wertheim ACUU, 1995.

Existing freight elevator, corrugated steel
sheets, and cordoning bars, 400 x 259 x 252 cm.
4 views of work for the 4th Istanbul Biennial.
Named after its manufacturer, Wertheim

ACUU was set on remote to move up and
down through the buildings floors, its doors
opening and closing on their own. No access
was granted to viewers, who could watch
the elevator performing its routine but not
use it for their own needs. Wertheim ACUUs
actions were alarming, like a ghostly presence whose unclear, slightly threatening
intentions seemed out of (human) control.
Plan B enacted a similar rebuke from a
machine toward its human audience. In the
catalogue, Erkmen states her wish not to
win public favor with her installation: In
such an event [as the Venice Biennale], the
work needs more of a presence, more than
it has in other places. A presence like a
celebrity, you need to turn heads, as people
are tired and our location is the very end
of the exhibition, people have seen hundreds
of artworksIt has to be performative, it
COURTESY THE ARTIST, GALERIE BARBARA WEISS (BERLIN), AND RAMPA (ISTANBUL)
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has to attract the attention of the people

but it should not seek affection.4 The installation allowed viewers into its sphere yet
denied their existence: visitors could penetrate the space by stepping over or under
the interconnected pipes, yet they were
refused the right to use the machine for
its intended purpose.
Plan Bs position inside a national pavilion drew a comparison between its mechanistic properties and the metaphor of a
political machine. Even though the public
may have built the political machine to act
on its behalf, Plan Bs refusal to serve the
public with its clean drinking water suggests that power does not extend to the
public but resides within the political system itself. Could the antagonism of Plan
Bs political machine toward the public be
an incentive for people to seize back power?
This is the main question posited by Plan
B, and it suggests that the stakes are rising
by the day, like the sea level around Venice.
Like many of Erkmens projects, Plan B
engaged in an ephemeral activity to comment on a manifold site-specificity, referring
not only to Venice as an actual place, but also to the national pavilions inside the Biennale as
symbols of the nation-state. It thereby pointed to the interconnectedness of the local and the
global. The purification mechanism diligently performing its task inside the Turkish Pavilion
became a complex metaphor for the states political machine, working in tandem with industrial processes and businesses to generate economic growth. The side effect of this process
was the waste of clean drinking water. Having visitors bear witness to such an ostentatiously
wasteful process holds the promise of stimulating public action against similar injustices. As
Chakrabarty points out, the overarching repercussions of such injustices may most immediately affect poorer nations, or the economically disenfranchised citizens of wealthier nations,
but the long-term effects will be felt by everyone on this planet. Every visitor who witnessed
the workings of Plan B, regardless of citizenship, economic status, or geographical location,
should therefore feel marked by this injustice. The public can now engage this transitory
piece by translating its ephemeral processes into a discursive form. This is how many of
Erkmens projects exist over time. Interpreting Plan Bs rich possibility of meanings as a statement about environmental degradation has been my contribution to such a discourse. The
reader now has the option to add to it, pass it along, or translate it into assertive action.
Notes
1 Edhem Eldem, Water in Turkish is Su, in Fulya Erdemci, ed., Plan B: Impossible Short-Circuits and Serendipity (Istanbul: IKSV and Yap Kredi
Publications, 2011): pp. 49119.
2 See Dipesh Chakrabarty, The Climate of History: Four Theses, Critical Inquiry, Winter 2009: pp. 197222.
3 Todays Zaman, Istanbul, December 1, 2009, available on-line at <www.todayszaman.com/news-196145-copenhagen-failure-met-with-concern-in-turkey______________________________
across-globe.html>.
_______
4 Erkmen quoted in Erdemci, op. cit., p. 180.
Berin Golonu is a doctoral student in Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester.
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Rita
McBride
(Re) Negotiating
the Public Realm
HAUBITZ + ZOCHE
BY CHRISTINA LANZL
American artist Rita McBride has spent the past decade living and working
in Germany. She can be characterized as a sculptor with a passion for probing
materials previously unexplored in the arts or at the cutting edge of research.
Her works typically investigate the conventions of architecture while
attempting to pinpoint thesometimes ugly, sometimes humorousunderbelly of the public realm. Some critics have struggled to define McBrides
work, noting her unusually wide range of materials and projects, including
several collaborative books. Writing about McBrides 2010 Kunstmuseum
Winterthur exhibition, Dieter Schwarz characterizes her work as defying congruence and emphasizes the intellectual (rejecting the term conceptual)
nature of her approach.1 Though McBrides essentialized abstractions clearly
place her in the Modernist, Minimalist tradition, Dirk Snauwaert emphasizes
the significance and nature of her inquiry: The hybridization of forms, the
scale of the sculptures, the choice and craftsman-like qualities of materials
mark a clear refusal to be put in a linear tradition ofa mostly maleNorth
American sculptural legacy, and make her project a singular one. This attitude
of unconventionally negotiating the pleasurable, but also the haunting
Opposite and above detail: Mae

West, 2011. Carbon-fiber, 171 x
105 ft.
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Above and detail: Arena, 1997. Twaron and
subtexts of the aesthetics of transparency

and multiplication that are the Modernist
program, created combinations of contexts
between the visual and the urban, questions of representation and of social situations.2
Over the course of McBrides 30-year
path of critical inquiry, the museum has
served as a lab space where she conducts
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research for real-world applications. Early

explorations of aesthetics and the problems
of sculptural staging and of car-related
themes provide a formulation for her later
discourse on art in the public realm and
on transportation-related work.
McBride recently installed two monumental public art projects, one in Munich
and one in Essen, Gelsenkirchen. Munichs
Mae West is the largest public sculpture to

date in Germany. Obelisk, which is located
at Emscherkunst, a new sculpture park in
the Ruhr region, was originally commissioned for Emscherkunst.2010 in celebration of the Ruhr regions designation as a
2010 European Cultural Capital. Both works
are fabricated of rust-free carbon, a brandnew material, which McBride developed
in partnership with CGB (Carbon Grossbauteile), a Bavarian corporation specializing in large-scale carbon construction
components.
McBride first introduced her work to
Munich audiences with the installation of
Arena at the Kunstverein Mnchen in 1999.
The artists widest-traveling work, Arena
was initially created for Witte de With in
Rotterdam. This modular, knockdown
sculpture of quickly assembled and deinstalled modules forms amphitheaterstyle seating constructed of wood and
Twaron (a heat-resistant synthetic fiber/
fiberglass developed in the early 1970s
by the Dutch company AKZO).3 Working
with each exhibition venue, McBride
COURTESY MUSEU DART CONTEMPORANI DE BARCELONA
wood, 13 x 66 x 99 ft.
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programmed her sculpture with performances by invited artists for the duration
of the show, thus establishing an interactive environment and repositioning the
sculptor as an impresario staging performances and happenings by other artists.
In 2000, McBride held her first major
museum exhibition at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden in Germany. She once
again exhibited Arena, as well as cast aluminum and bronze maquettes interpreting
parking structures at various scales, which
continued an earlier series of parking structures in sleek forms. McBrides now notorious Toyota (1990)a full-size Toyota
Celica fabricated in rattan from a CAD
modelformed a logical complement to
these parking garages. According to Matthias Winzen, Her sculptures, installations,
architecture-related interventions, artist
co-operationsand large-scale projects in
Installation view of Previously at Kunstmuseum
Winterthur, 2010.
public places stand for an art that is not

satisfied to be a reflexive depiction of contemporary reality and so introduces draftlike images into that reality; an art that
takes clear political and art historical positions and yet still puts its trust mainly in
artistic means; an art that is aware of itself
and its history, but accepts neither art conventions nor art institutions as givens or
limitations, preferring to see them as a
platform for the next stage.4
In designing Mae West for Munichs
Effnerplatz, McBride applied her hallmark
methodology to presenting an object and
its situation as if on a stage. Effnerplatz is
currently dotted with a few office and hotel
high-rises abutting residential pockets.
McBrides 156-foot-tall, dark gray sculpture in the form of a rotational parabola
establishes a new landmark for the east
side of Munich, which still lacks a sense
of place. Mae Wests elegant curves perfectly complement the angular architecture from a distance. Viewed close up, from
the ground, however, the sculptures narrow, hyperbolic mid-section appears a tad
stodgy.
The title gives a concrete reference to the
sculptures abstract form, alluding to the
slim waist and erotic aura of the 1930s
actress. Though the lack of any apparent
connection to the city of Munich or the
site is unusual for current, place-based
ideas of public art, locals had already lovingly bestowed two nicknames on the sculpture by the time it was installed: the egg
cup and Knitting Nancy. This folkloristic
touch offers a glimpse of the deep affection
that Munich residents have for their city
and its public realm.
Interest in Mae West has been intense,
not least because of its 1.5 million budget (approximately $2.4 million). The project, which was funded as part of the City
of Munichs Mittlerer Ring artery tunnel
construction, required a nine-year timeline.
As happens so often, the need to justify
cost competed with clear aesthetic, urban,
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and economic benefits. Munichs public art

office, Quivid, added a significant contemporary work to its public art collection.
Future real estate development and the
technological advances gained from introducing a new product to the market are
also beneficial.
Because of the projects unprecedented
scale, CGBs patented carbon fiber product
required special permitting and extensive
testing that will serve future artistic and
commercial applications. Compared to
steel, carbon is a light material; Mae West
weighs in at a mere 57 tons. With this work,
McBride has continued a career-long collaboration with workshops and fabricators,
beginning with the fabrication of Toyota
and other rattan objects in Asia. Researching affordable materials and processes preceded the cutting-edge technology of her
current work.
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Visible from afar, the 46-foot-tall Obelisk

establishes a beacon at the former harbor of Essen, Gelsenkirchen, transforming
an inconspicuous spot in the landscape
into an imaginary monument. Conceptually, McBrides work extends a trail
marked by Richard Serras Cor-ten steel
Bramme gate. A popular precedent may
be found in Munich at a plaza near
the city center, where a 60-foot-tall, early
19th-century bronze war memorial takes
the form of an obelisk. McBrides use
of a technologically innovative material
represents a contemporary interpretation of this ancient form and underscores
the regions efforts to redefine and update
its image.
Obelisk was one of 20 public and landscape art installations created by more
than 40 artists/teams for Emscherkunst.2010. Many of these works engaged
viewers through a creative use of existing

sites and urban features, from sluices,
water treatment facilities, and quays to
industrial ruins and wastelands. Following
the demise of its coal and steel industries,
the northern Ruhr region is re-imagining
itself as a scientific and academic center
while reclaiming an ailing industrial landscape on a polluted river for cultural and
recreational use. Region-wide collaborative effort has made the restoration of a
21-mile strip of Emscher Island the central
element in the newly conceived, and
named, valley of Neues Emschertal.
McBrides commission challenged her
to respond to her own previously critical
assessment of public sculpture: Obelisk
was preceded by the temporary Civic SculpInstallation view of Previously at Kunstmuseum
Winterthur, 2010.
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Left and detail: Obelisk, 2010. Carbon-fiber, 46

x 3 x 3 ft.
ture in Memoriam at Museum X, organized

in 2007 by the Ruhr regions Museum Abteiberg in Mnchengladbach during museum
renovations. Here, McBride proposed the
end of the fountain, in particular, and of
public sculpture in general. As in Arena, she
staged a public program, which included the
citys cultural deputy speaking at a memorial service.5 Her new works, however,
demonstrate that public art can be alive and
well, when artists are able to connect with
the right partners and collaborators in the
cultural landscape.
Notes
LEFT: GLEN RUBSAMEN / RIGHT: JUERGEN FINDEISEN
1 Dieter Schwarz, Here, There and EverywhereKnowledge, Reference and

Irony in the Work of Rita McBride, in Rita McBride: Previously (Dsseldorf,
2010), pp. 1523.
2 Dirk Snauwaert, Double Bypasses, in Matthias Winzen, ed., Rita
McBride: Werkshow (Baden-Baden, 2000), pp. 1516.
3 Mark von Schlegell, Rita McBride: Public Works (Cologne, 2010), p. 26.
4 Winzen, op. cit., p. 5.
5 von Schlegell, op. cit., p. 108.
Christina Lanzl is a writer and consultant

specializing in contemporary and public art.
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Allan Wexler
The Man Who
Would Be
Architecture
COURTESY THE ARTIST
BY JOYCE BECKENSTEIN
Sukkah, 2000. Wood, wheels, gardening implements, eating utensils, and

ritual objects, 108 x 108 x 120 in.
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Opposite: Scenic Overlook (detail), 2009. Granite, 60 x 8 ft. Above: Gardening
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Above: Drywall Drawing, 2010. Drywall, screws, and pencil, 8 x 8 x 8 ft. Below: Scaffold
Furniture, 1988. Plywood, drywall, 2 x 4s, paint, pine, leather, glass, cup, silverware,
napkin, and bulb, 4 x 4 x 3 ft.
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Two bird nests cradling speckled eggs sit in a glass

vitrine in Allan Wexlers living room. Propped beneath
them on the floor is his drawing Positions of Plywood
(2007), six softly rendered planes afloat on ochre
paper. The drawing points to the nest above. I want
to be architecture, he says.1 Wexler, whose works
defy easy categorization, makes architecture-inspired
sculptures and installations that explore the meaning
of this statement. Hes less concerned with creating
space, more concerned with the human spirit that
dwells within itsomething he locates in objects as
ordinary as a screw head embedded in Sheetrock.
I want to exploit the insignificant to generate something complex, he explains, as he discusses Drywall
Drawing (2010), included in an exhibition at the University of Manitoba School of Architecture, in Winnipeg,
Canada. Mission accomplished: hes squeezed a
universe into an eight-by-eight-foot cube. The cubes
Sheetrock interior is affixed with crosshead (Phillips)
screws oriented in random positions. Using a pencil
and straight edge, Wexler extended the + shapes
to draw a disorienting web of intersecting lines across
the walls, floor, and ceiling. The completed drawing,
reminiscent of an astrological map, creates a dizzying
space for the viewer who, upon entering, feels like
an astronaut in a spacecraft, adrift in the cosmos.
When we cross a threshold, we change a space and
it changes us, Wexler remarks. He intends this complex expansion as a metaphor for human conflict: Do
we want the security of confined space or the uncertainty that comes with limitless freedom? After photographing himself inside the finished work, Wexler
then digitally extended the vectors across his image,
existentially trapping himself in that quagmire of
his own devising, a finite speck in an infinite universe.
Ronald Feldman, director of Feldman Fine Arts,
understood the ambiguities in Wexlers disarmingly
simple constructions when he began to show them
in 1984: This non-practicing architect was brilliant
about architecture as a medium for sculpture.
Feldman recalls Small Buildings (1979), a collection
of miniature deconstructed and reconstructed versions
of a generic hut that presages one of Wexlers major
themes, the home. Some buildings are strapped shut
with woven wooden laths to keep out the elements
and nosey bodies; others with pitched roofs and
cement slabs suggest a childs concept of my house;
and a cobble of sticks set with glass renders the house
a vulnerable home and riffs on postmodern architecture gone awry. Wexler loves to push, to see how
much he can get out of a thing, Feldman says.
In the 80s, Wexler expanded whats become a lifetime processdeconstructing, reconstructing, and
reinventing houses, tables, chairs, and utensils to
TOP: COURTESY THE ARTIST / BOTTOM: COURTESY RONALD FELDMAN FINE ARTS
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understand how and why a construction

process works. His Scaffold Furniture (1988)
includes a comically crisscrossed pedestal,
an armature that supports a lowly cup. But
this is not furniture. It is a sculptural diagram of the physical forces required to keep
a cup level on the table. And where there
are physical forces, there is psychological
angst. Wexler serves up security and insecurity: Can we look at a vulnerable cup and
not remember spilled coffee?
Next he asked if there is a sculptural
or architectural equivalent to the ritual
of drinking coffee. To find out, he invited
four people to participate in an interactive
performance piece, Coffee Seeks its Own
Level (1990). They sat at a table covered
with a white cloth and set with four coffee cups connected by tubes. Everyone had
to sip in unison or the coffee would slobber
all over the cloth.
Then, pressing the coffee stains for
something more, Wexler traced the spills
left on the cloth and used them as patterns for a series of ceramic vessels that
he made to cover the corresponding stains.
The result, Coffee Stained Coffee Cups
(1990) casts the performance as sculpture
and elevates the second-by-second miscalculations of human ritual to the level of
timeless fine art.
The impulse to question assumptions
about art and commingle sculpture, architecture, and performance grew out of the
tumultuous 60s, when America was in
the throes of the Vietnam War, as well as
the feminist, civil rights, and sexual revolutions. A baby boomer who came of age
during that era, Wexler studied at the
Rhode Island School of Design, where he
found role models urging him to blur the
edges. His RISD mentor, Austrian architect
Raymond Abraham, encouraged him to
break the rules and make art that irritates
because it causes change. Another teacher,
Michael Webb of Archigrams, belonged to
an avant-garde architecture group that promoted hypothetical and fantasy projects.
Wexler also admired Walter Pichler, whose
architecture-inspired sculpture is more
about the poetics than the function of
architecture.
I didnt become an architect, because
I preferred experimenting with architec-
Above: Coffee Stained Coffee Cups, 1990. Assorted ceramic cups on table with white cloth, 34 x 38 x 48 in.
Below: Sukkah with Furniture Made from its Walls, 1990. Plywood, wood, and paint, 8 x 8 x 12 ft.
tural forms and materials as a studio artist, Wexler says. In the 90s, his experiments
shifted from works focused on part-to-whole relationships to installations, including a
series of sukkahs probing relationships between humans and their settings.
The sukkah, a ceremonial outdoor hut, is traditionally used to celebrate the harvest
during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, when worshippers adorn its open roof with seasonal
foliage. They share meals and often sleep inside it. Sukkah with Furniture Made from its
Walls (1990), exhibited at the Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, in 1990, is built from a cube, a form
Wexler likes because its basic, blandlike Tofu, it will absorb any flavor. He built the
cube from plywood, then cut table and chair parts from its walls. The openings left
by the cutouts form odd, whimsical windows. When assembled and placed inside the
sukkah, the table and chairs provide a dining ensemble for use during and after the harvest. Nothing, aside from the title of the work, suggests a religious function. The secular
is deliberately contiguous with the spiritual.
Gardening Sukkah (2000/09) also shelters secular and spiritual functions under one
(non) roof. Most of the year, this useful gardening shed-on-wheels holds rakes, planters,
and a box of Miracle-Groa teasing segue to its one-week ceremonial use during Sukkot.
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Above and detail: Crate House, 1991. 8-foot cube, wood, household furniture,
appliances, utensils, and 4 wooden crates, crates: 65 x 22 x 43 in. Right: Desk,
Then, the roof slides open to be arrayed with a canopy of foliage

and fruit. Dishes, wine glasses, and candles replace flowerpots,
spades, and gardening gloves. Its a provocative space, Wexler
says. When the roof is open, one is vulnerable, no longer protected by an architectural element, but protected by something
larger. Each object within the shed, given its special station, is
similarly invested with meaning and memory. The spade is as noble
as the wine glass.
Describing the influence of Zen thinking on John Cages famous
433, Kyle Gann writes, If you can turn toward the whirr of the
windor the pulse of the ceiling fan[you] realize that the division
you habitually maintain between art and life, between beautiful
things and commonplace ones, is artificial[it] deadens you to the
magic around you.2 No composed music is played during this fourminute, 33-second concert, which begins when a performer opens
the lid of a grand piano. The audience listens and savors the background soundscoughs, creaks, outside trafficthen the performer closes the lid and exits. Wexler, much influenced by Cage,
similarly finds metaphysical juice in humble everyday experience,
something he learned to do as a child.
He grew up in an observant Jewish family where the flow of ritual,
from the scrambling of morning eggs to the restocking of cupboards
in preparation for the Passover Seder, closely quartered the sacred
and the profane. Crossing from one realm to the other was as
natural as walking from the kitchen to the bedroom. As an artist,
Wexler recognizes that the imprint of home is the architecture
of childhood, the armature for adult memory, following Gaston
Bachelards belief that all really inhabited space bears the essence
of home. For Bachelard, home embodies the thoughts, memories,
and dreams of mankind.3 Wexler extends this idea, perceiving
domestic rituals and their trappings as the bones, and the relationships associated with them as the heart, of who we are.
56
When the University Gallery of the University of Massachusetts

commissioned Wexler to contribute to an exhibition encapsulating
what life would be like in the final decade of the 20th century,
he wanted to imbue his piece with reverence for how people might
live that life. On the premise that Americans would ultimately need
to economize and pare down their technology-driven existence, he
created Crate House (1991). Taking a 20th-century leap over Henry
David Thoreaus no-frills cabin at Walden Pond, Wexler wondered,
Can I fit four functional rooms into an eight-foot cube? He did it
by assembling a kitchen, bedroom, living room, and bath in four
ship-style, plywood crates-on-wheels.
TOP: COURTESY KARL ERNST OSTHAUS MUSEUM, HAGEN, GERMANY / BOTTOM: COURTESY RONALD FELDMAN FINE ARTS
2009. Wood, concrete bricks, latex paint, and wax, 105 x 27.25 x 27.25 in.
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Not too far adrift from Le Corbusiers notion of a

house as a machine for living, these crated rooms
contain pots and pans, a refrigerator, and a table
for two; a fold-down bed, a desk, and a TV. Each crate
slides into the cube through one of four openings,
though the eight-foot space accommodates only one
room at a time. Wexler wants viewers to slow down
and think about the rituals that define each room
making coffee, setting the table, readying for bedand
to engage the transient joys in the stuff of life, just as
Cage absorbed its sounds. Michael Fehr offers a practical interpretation of Crate House: One can understand
it as a blueprinta survival unit that makes civilized
lifefit in the smallest conceivable surface area.4 But,
as Wexler points out, this architecture gets in its own
way. Its really sculpture.
As sculpture, Crate House recalls Pop Art. Wexler
even nods to Andy Warhol by placing a Campbells soup
can on the kitchen shelf. But unlike Warhols fine art
renditions of mass-produced products, which popped
the question, What is art? Wexlers real-life props
ask, What do these things reveal about life? His
careful framing of tomorrows relics in dioramas of
our own time urges us to view banal necessities in a
higher context: the soup spoon is about nourishment,
a meal shared, a family.
Its not easy being architecture, something Wexler
learns anew whenever he confronts the plywood plane
as a platform for architectural and human relationships. I want to float the plane, but I must deal with
gravity, he laments. His solution, Desk (2009), recalls
the armatures of his Scaffold Furniture. Like a puppeteer, Wexler here constructs a crossbar from a tangle
of 3/4-inch wooden struts. It appears to float in the air,
though it is attached to the desktop and chair facing it.
Sitting in the chair, Wexler provides the counterweight
that keeps the desk afloat. Two heavy bricks must substitute for him when he is elsewhere, or the entire
contraption will collapse. Nevertheless, while seated,
the puppet is one with the puppeteer and Wexler can
physically fulfill his wish to be architecture.
Wexlers whimsical experiments do not seek whimsy
as an end, though humor is essential to the doubleentendres that enliven his work, elevating basic structural elements to the role of silent actors in a performance. This is especially true of the public installations
that he creates in collaboration with his wife, Ellen
Wexler.5 Of Wexlers many works that integrate the
plane, Two Too Large Tables (2006), located at Hudson
River Park in Chelsea, New York, is among the most
spectacular. These table and chair arrangements invite
visitors to chat, read, meditate, or simply enjoy the
beautiful view. One tabletop made with jigsaw puzzle
cutouts creates an asymmetrical seating arrangement.
Two Too Large Tables, 2006. Stainless steel and ipe wood, 2 elements: 16 x 16 x 3 ft.;
and 16 x 16 x 7 ft.
In the second construction, the chairs stay chairs but assume a structural role:
their backs extend to support the tabletop, which now functions as a roof.
Here, as in Gardening Sukkah, the Wexlers play with dynamic interactions
between forms and get people to think about using them in different ways.
One tabletop is open and exposed; the other provides shelter. The irregular
almost capriciousarrangements of chairs offer choices: sitting here, one
makes easy eye contact; there, its not so easy. The visitor can engage the
architecture, become one with what it offers physically and socially, or walk
away as evanescently as the shifting light.
Lets meet by the big canyon: Scenic Overlook (2009) may well be the
next sexy place for a New York City rendezvous. The Wexlers public commission for the Metropolitan Transit Authority/Long Island Rail Road Atlantic
Terminal in Brooklyn again involves a platform plane. Here, it symbolically
rises from underground bowels to greet the light of day.
Scenic Overlook is public art on a monumental scale. Configured to suggest
the outcroppings of the Grand Canyon, it projects between two staircases and
the void that separates the street level entrance from the platform below.
Made of geometric, cut granite shapes, it unites technologys pixilated gridded
city with an epic landscape that recalls those of the 19th-century Hudson River
School. This is a sculpting of natural forms, nature as architecture, says
Wexler. Were reminded of the orthogonal planes reaching toward the bird nest
in the living room. Were back home with the man who would be architecture.
Notes
1 Positions of Plywood came from a series of digital paintings, On the Art of Building in Ten Books (2007), based on Alberti and Vitruvius,
which Wexler began as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. All quotations from the artist are from an interview, October 10, 2010.
2 Kyle Gann, No Such Thing as Silence: John Cages 433 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 14445.
3 Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space (Boston: Beacon Press: 1994 [1958]), p. 5.
4 Michael Fehr, Structures for Reflection, exhibition catalogue, (Hagen, Germany: Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, 1993).
5 Ellen Wexler is an artist and art educator who collaborates with Allan Wexler on public and private commissions. She has created independent
projects for the New York City Board of Education, Whitney Museum of Art, Abrons Arts Center of Henry Street Settlement, and Chase Bank.
Joyce Beckenstein is an art historian and writer based in Long Island, New York.
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________________
New from International Sculpture Center, publisher of Sculpture

magazine, and University of Washington Press
Landscapes for Art:

Contemporary Sculpture Parks
Sculpture parks and gardens offer sculpture lovers and artists alike
unique ways to experience the outdoors, sculpture, and the intersections between nature and culture. Since the mid-20th century, these
venues have become important tourist destinations and essential
aspects of public life in cities such as Chicago, Minneapolis, and
Seattle and regions including Yorkshire in England and the Hudson
Highlands in New York. Landscapes for Art: Contemporary Sculpture
Parks surveys a wide range of sculpture parks and gardens that focus
on contemporary artfrom well-established, museum-type institutions
to small-scale, experimental programs. The book includes profiles
of sculpture parks in the U.S., U.K., Japan, Australia, Lithuania, China,
Italy, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, India, Latvia, Sweden, and
Finland (among others), plus articles on key topics by art critics,
landscape architects, and sculpture park professionals and interviews
with Isamu Noguchi, Martin Friedman, and Alfio Bonanno.
Edited by Glenn Harper and Twylene Moyer

Release date Autumn 2008
For further information, please visit www.sculpture.org
Non-members / $24.95 (plus S & H) and members / $20 (plus S & H)
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reviews
H o u sto n
Marc Swanson
Contemporary Arts Museum
Houston
in Victorian sepia portraits, the

sculptures commemorate a distant
idyll. The freestanding Untitled
(White Corner Floor Piece), with its
angles and sharp corners and a mirror below another white-swagged
box, speaks to the compartmentalization of life that obscures true
identity.
Untitled (White Corner Floor Piece)
is a transitional work, moving from
echoes of the Second Story in San
Francisco to the second story of the
show, that is to say, to Swansons
other artistic preoccupations.
His works were inspired in part by a
visit to the Menil Collection, specifically to its Cy Twombly sculptures.
Instead of Twomblys connection to
classical antiquity, Swanson refers
to a distant Arcadia (in this case,
the poque of the gay underground).
Untitled (White Corner Floor Piece)
echoes the whiteness of Twomblys
sculptures at the Menil, but this
homage reaches its fullest expression
in the haunting Untitled (Shoes). A

white-washed wooden plank resting
on the floor supports two elements
at its ends. A haphazard bundle
of short scrap wood lengths at one
end includes one piece complete
with light bulbs that might be
installed over a bathroom mirror.
Thick matte white paint coats the
pile, which is tied together with
twine. A pair of white-painted boots
rests at the planks other end,
one shoe resting on a piece of wood.
Initially, the shape of the boots
seems Victorian, but they are the
kind of square-toed, side-zip shoes
fashionable in the early 1990s.
A building has been dismantled,
unwanted shoes abandoned.
Untitled (Shoes) is hypnotic, with
the purity of the white paint creating
Marc Swanson, Untitled (Shoes),
2011. Wood, shoes, plaster, paint,
rawhide, twine, light bulbs, and
light sockets, 18 x 77 x 24 in.
JOE MAMA-NITZBERG, COURTESY THE ARTIST
Marc Swansons recent solo exhibition was named for Second Story,
a now defunct gay bar in San Francisco that had closed before the
artist even visited the city. Inevitably, the sculptures make reference
to a past time in gay culture. The
second story can be a level hidden
from street view, as well as a less
obvious narrative or story. Untitled
(Harold Box), Untitled (Gold
Box), and Untitled (Black Fabric and
Chains), each constructed of boxes
that appear to have been sawn
in half length-wise, stand open and
vertical. The gray-painted interior
of Untitled (Harold Box) contains
swagged dark fabric, along with two
silver chains and a faint image of
Harold, a character from the 1970
gay film The Boys in the Band.
Swansons boxes could be taken for
small, open coffins, yet they are

more aptly compared to shadow
boxes or dioramas that capture souvenirs and memories in a static
form. Untitled (Gold Box), with its
golden chain mail, thin gold chains,
and smashed pieces of gold-colored
glass lying in a heap at the bottom,
evokes not a death but the litter
and destruction in a nightclub the
morning after.
The draped fabric is gaudy, not
funereal; the recurrent chains are
of the kind that might clink on a
motorcycle boot, attach a wallet to
a jean pocket, or adorn a fetish outfit. What is being buried, and what
is being preserved? Something has
died, and in the AIDS epoch, the
boxes turn ones thoughts to a generation of gay men decimated by
the plague; but once again, there is
a sense that what is being mourned
is a lost era, not individuals.
Contained as eerily in their wooden
frames as young children captured
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cohesion. The whiteness evokes the

Indian color for mourning, while
the objects are as arresting as the
pale, glowing subjects on a piece
of film negative.
Against Nature, which introduced
the show, consists of an antique
turtle shell covered in rhinestones.
Glowing under the lights, the surface of the sculpture sparkled with
a quiet perfection, the tiny rhinestones hiding the animal carapace
below. The movement and life of
the creature are long extinguished,
transmuted into an artificial object
of beauty. Swansons first piece
here stood as a totem for the entire
exhibition.
Laura Albritton
T r oy , A l a b a m a
Duane Paxson
Johnson Art Center
forked, and twisted like corkscrews

radiate from the center. Bearing,
as Paxson says, natures unbridled
forces, these contorted shapes
result from natural or manmade
assaults on the ecosystem. Saplings
struggle against each other for
light, and vines intrude, buckling
and distorting growth. The title
Girasolethe Italian name for the
flower that literally turns toward
the sunpoints to natural energies.
Focusing on the human world in
recent works, Paxson chooses the
ancient game of chess to symbolize
nefarious societal stratagems.
Unable to stand without intricate
steel encasements symbolizing
social station, the players in this
game live out their roles according
to the rules. Bishop I and Bishop II
(2011), for instance, move diagonally
on the board, negotiating the tenuous intersections of the secular

and the spiritual but never arriving
at the truth. Protected by her station, Queen (2011) stands tall within
a regal steel shellher authority.
Pawns of Guilt I and II (2011),
however, are sacrificed to protect
the upper echelons. Their steel
cages fail to safeguard their
heads, knobs of fiberglass inlaid
with lozenges of wood representing
wounds.
Paxson defines the source of this
social quagmire in the title work
of the series, which hangs from the
ceiling with theatrical panache. A
fiberglass core of graduated looping
designs reminiscent of Mayan decorative patterns, encircled by protective steel wires, Ivory Tower (2011)
represents a place of contemplation divorced from pragmatic
SWANSON: JOE MAMA-NITZBERG, COURTESY THE ARTIST / PAXSON: MOSLEY STUDIOS, ELBA, AL
With works from the past decade,

as well as a new series, Duane Paxsons recent show offered an interesting contrast in subjects and
materials. Whereas his earlier works
in fiberglass and wood reveal a kinship with nature, the new series,
Ivory Tower, illuminates the not so
admirable workings of society. For
these works, he prefers steel and
fiberglass, abandoning undulant
rhythms and relying instead on stately
symmetry.
One piece serves as a microcosm
of Paxsons work over the past two
decades. Encircling a fiberglass center, wire netting suggests atomic
particles whirling around a nucleus
or the trajectories of planets circling
a sun. Lengths of woodtortuous,
Above: Marc Swanson, Untitled (Harold Box), 2011. Wood, fabric, chain,
paint, and photo, 72 x 24 x 8 in. Left:
Marc Swanson, Untitled (White Corner
Floor Piece), 2011. Wood, mirror, paint,
stain, fabric, plaster, and photo, 82 x
40 x 28 in. Right: Duane Paxson, Pawns
of Guilt I and II, 2011. Wood, fiberglass, and steel, 69 x 27 x 25 in. and
69 x 23 x 23 in.
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reality. Directly below, Eves

Pomegranate (2011) is a sphere of
fiberglass studded with rounds of
wood (the fruits seeds) and pierced
by a dramatically twisted tail
of catawba wood. Associated with
guilt in the classical tradition
Persephone succumbed to the blandishments of Pluto and nibbled
a pomegranatehere, the fruit is
also infused with culpability. Ideas,
Paxson says, get twisted like the
catawba tail when they descend
from the thinker in his tower
to the real world of application. At
once wryly humorous and deadly
earnest, Paxsons analysis of societys insidious power plays stands in
remarkable contrast to his earlier
works, which glory in the wondrous
display of natures remarkable energies.
Dorothy Joiner
suede-covered boxes that house

individual vignettes, while William
pursues his passion for beadwork in
various forms; they work collaboratively in finishing works that are
best characterized as possessing a
sense of exquisite excess.
Their sculptures do not appear
that way at first, however. Closed,
the boxes may rest in a single
tower, a tightly grouped cluster, or
a set of stacks, their fabric covers
offering the barest hint of tactile
swatches open to reveal circular

wound-like cavities bristling with
rows of long pins, each one strung
with several beads. In the third, the
units are arrayed to create a landscape of beaded trees overrun with
miniature, metal ants. Those ants
reappeared throughout the show in
various contextsin drawings and
in printed pages from a series
of boxed portfolios lining an entire
gallery. Like many of the Ladds
references, the ants, which invoke
Chicago
experience, hand-sewn seams giving

the gentlest suggestion of laborintensive fabrication. On display, as
they were in the exhibition, the
boxes open up, each cover, with
an inner lip, serving as a small
pedestal for its enclosed section.
Unstacked and unpacked, each box
becomes part of a horizontal field
or grid of exuberant detail. The triptych of Stairway to Heaven, Stack
Infection, and Ant Infestation, each
one a four-by-six grid of units, introduces the Ladds visual language
and several thematic strands. In the
first, each box contains two sideby-side spaces, like absent coffins,
embedded in a surround of tangled
threads and old buttons. In the
second, hinged lids covered with several layers of frayed rectangular
a communal productivity, are autobiographical in origin.

A second series of tower/landscapes, identified with the brothers
parents (Mom and Dad) and grandparents (Gma, Gma2, Gpa, and
Gpa2), engages a different set of
materialsfindings such as buckles,
grommets, and other embellishments from a former belt and buckle
factory. The Ladds have made
the most of this cache, meditatively
sorting by kind and filling their boxes
like small treasure chests, which
is what familial connections and
memories often are. In addition to
their evident skill, the Ladds bring
to their work a distinctive spirit of
poignant play.
Marcia Morse
Steven and William Ladd, Ant
Aristotle Georgiades
Chicago Cultural Center
Aristotle Georgiadess recent exhibition Repurposed featured eight

sculptures constructed from salvaged wooden and metal objects.
In his artist statement, Georgiades
explained that his work uses existing objects and repurpose[s] them
into expressive sculptural forms,
adding that most of his sculptures
make reference to our continuous
H o n o lu lu
ANDREW ZUCKERMAN
Steven and William Ladd

The Contemporary Museum
Think box and what comes to

mind might be Joseph Cornells lyrical mise-en-scne, Donald Judds
obdurate rows and stacks, or a singular work like Eva Hesses
Accession IIits lush austerity signaling, among other things, a finely
tuned balance between industrial
materials and hand labor. The work
of Steven and William Ladd, New
York-based brothers and creative
partners, is part of that diverse lineage, intimately fusing the container and the contained, form and
content.
The works in their first museum
exhibition, Steven and William
Ladd: 9769 Radio Drive, are the
product of an intense fraternal symbiosis that comes at art-making
sideways (via the world of costume
design, fashion shows, and one-of-akind luxury accessories) and brings
to it an eclecticism of material and
process, much of it fiber- and textilebased. In their current division of
labor, Steven constructs the ultra-
fiber, beads, and metal, 54.75 x

36.5 x 16 in.
desire to move through life with

purpose. He sees his repurposed
objects as a metaphor for our
human need to adapt and change
directions when confronted with
obstacles or failures.
In Old School (2010), he constructs
a cube from sawed-up wooden
school desks to create an interior
space full of odd-shaped forms that
we see at different angles and
depths. Some of the wooden scraps
are finished, some are not, and a
few reveal markings left by long-ago
schoolchildren. Since a cube has six
sides, there are six possible ways to
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Left: Aristotle Georgiades, Resource,

2009. Salvaged barn wood, 3 x 3 x
4 ft. Below: William Corwin, Clocktower Chess Match, 2011. Plaster,
wood, rope, and acrylic paint, 18
x 64 x 48 in.
view Old School, but Georgiades

wastes most of this complexity by
placing his piece on the floor so we
can only look at it from above. To
see more, viewers must bend completely in half. Old School could
deliver much more visual information if it were mounted at eye level.
Old Schools big brother (though
much less dense) is Scheme (2010),
a 13-foot-high tower constructed
from parts of school chairs, with a
cast iron bell at the top and a pull
rope running down its center.
In Resource (2009), Georgiades
transforms wooden beams and
laths from an abandoned barn into
an elegant four-sided bench. Four
lengths of beam make an open
square to hold a yard-high bundle of
vertical laths. Simple and rhythmic,
with a rich, tactile surface, Resource
was the best piece in the show.
The quite different Extension (2009)
features an aluminum ladder whose
upper third has been sawn and
reassembled so that it curls in on
itself. Georgiades writes that he
rebuilt the ladder to make it expressive of human qualities. Extension,
he adds, suggests a human intention or ambition that has been redirected for some reason or another.
Georgiades has always been
interested in labor and the changing role of the worker in society,
based on my [blue-collar] family
history and personal experience. In
these and other salvaged sculptures, he gives a sociopolitical twist
to the familiar notion of repurposing.
Victor M. Cassidy
taken by the opposing player.

According to Corwin, the game of
chess is a version of the real, just as
his own workan X-shaped, wooden
structure placed in a small room
that tenuously supports small plaster objects on narrow shelvesis
a miniaturization of reality. Aurochs
Library is, as Corwin describes it,
a library of forms. In some ways, a
miniature museum or even a primitive computer complete with saved
images, the installation depicts a
system in ruins (the molded abstract
forms often fell from their shelves
and hit the floor, which became
dazzling with plaster shards and piles
of detritus).
Corwin, who studied architecture

as a graduate student at Columbia,
sees the concept organizing his
environment as a master plan. His
piece is a good example of fast
thinking about how a well-developed, organized system, much like
a city, can maintain many kinds of
details (which in Corwins case can
be eccentric; among other shapes,
he fashioned small geometric forms
very similar to the units in Brancusis Endless Column). Clearly, the
installation works as a library of
shapes, which mostly seem abstract
in nature. The combination of highly
arranged rows of objects contrasts
with the slurry of debris covering
the floor; it shows us how a work
can suggest many things at once
especially one as complex as
Aurochs Library. But Corwin doesnt
mean to bemuse so much as
he intends to play out dualities
between organization and chaos,
N e w Yo r k
William Corwin
The Clocktower
A chess game played by two American masters at The Clocktower in

Lower Manhattan marked the
culmination of a residency held by
William Corwin, a New York sculptor
who thinks long and hard about
conceptual motifs. The chessboard
and pieces echoed Corwins work
for his month-long stay; during the
game, limited to less than an hour,
the foot-high, wonderfully sculptural pieces were moved and then
removed from play after being
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BOTTOM: COURTESY TOMMY MINTZ
sculpture
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intuition and analysis, public and

private meaning. As a project,
the environment lingers in the mind,
which attempts to envision the site
as containing a workable meaning
and functioneven when those
characteristics are difficult to determine.
So a multivalent, mostly abstract
reading of Corwins work shows him
to be interested in having his installation make use of and extend
his penchant for smallish versions
of physical reality. The chess game,
commented on by another grandmaster, was wonderful fun. Corwin
succeeded in his goal of integrating
the sculptures with a performance
reaching beyond an art crowd.
Mixing different visions of real life
with the imagination, he used
the chess match to engage a wider
audience. Corwin, who hosts a talk
show devoted to the arts, is democratic about the implications of culturehe would be disappointed if
even a few people walked away
confused by the show. But it is also
true that his level of organization
is unusually abstractor at least

intellectualized. There is nothing
wrong with this way of thinking,
but not everyone will get the picture.
Jonathan Goodman
or boulders, but something ineffable,

less indebted to construction or
Constructivism and more open to the
singular form that could stand in
relation to nature or culture. For the
most part, Highsteins forms were
painted black, further intensifying
their relationship to the space
around them. Whereas one could
identify with the existence of primary forms, in Highsteins work, the
form was largely unknown and therefore not primary.
The new work takes a major leap.
The morphology has a natural referent in that the segments of the
stainless steelprecisely beadblasted and burnishedcould refer
to the segmented growth pattern
of bamboo stalks. The precision in
these worksboth in the towers
and the elliptical formsis uncanny,
particularly considering the natural
modelstalks or fruit, as opposed
to a conceptual (Platonic) ideal.
It is tempting to think of Brancusis
Endless Column, but there is nothing endless about Highsteins towers. They are modular only to the
extent that they exist in sections

connected to one another. In all
cases, the cylindrical sections are
widest at the base and then gradually diminish in width as the shapes
ascend upward. Thus, instead of
the tower appearing endless, the
continuity of rising shapes moves
toward a perspectival upward distancing.
The elliptical forms are ultimately
some of the bestmaybe the
bestwork I have encountered by
Highstein in recent years. They go
beyond simplistic references, especially when grouped together with
adequate space between them. One
pays attention to the light bouncing
off these burnished forms, realizing
that while nature may inform them,
they are ultimately not about
nature. In this sense, I would argue
against giving them some kind
of Eastern interpretation. Clearly,
Highstein has made decisions in the
process of seeing and building his
elliptical shapes that are fully within the Western concept of sculpture,
perhaps from antiquity. To study
N e w Yo r k
Jene Highstein
Danese Gallery
Jene Highsteins new stainless steel

sculptures have a formal morphological relation to his earlier work,
going back to the 1970s. In contrast
to the generation of Minimal artists
who emerged in the early 1960s
Judd, Flavin, Morris, LeWitt, and
AndreHighstein entered the
Minimalist stage somewhat later. At
the time, his forms were less involved
with geometry than with monumental organic shapesnot exactly rocks
Above: William Corwin, Auroch's
Library (detail), 2011. Plaster, wood,
and found objects, 168 x 300 x 114
in. Right: Jene Highstein, installation
view of New Sculpture/Towers and
Elliptical Forms, 2011.
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Left: Juan Miceli, Piranha, 2009.

Sculpted elements, plastic, stones,
and bones, 60 x 45 x 30 cm. Below:
Pier Paolo Calzolari, Untitled
(Materasso: Senzaltri rumori che i
miei), 1971. Mixed media, life-size.
these forms is a reminder that

sculpture is not a new invention; it
has roots that extend back thousands of years. Highsteins works
exist as both presence and absence,
sliding in and out of two states
of consciousness. In essence, this is
the kind of art that evokes a phenomenology of perception through
the continuity of its form and gives
access to the intentional object
held within memory, both past and
present.
Robert C. Morgan
and his intuition guides him to create an entire world inhabited by

fantastic beings that double as alter
egos. Miceli says, I understand art
as a way of looking/seeing and fundamentally as a practice, a way of
lifethrough my artistic production,
I cant help questioning the world
around us and our culture. His
sculptures reflect on human nature
and our relationship with the environment, especially our tendency

to turn our habitat into a robotic
world. Miceli subverts the natural
order of things, recovering waste
and bones to immortalize them in
sculptures that build huge installations. In these new environs, they
assume a new meaning that
rescues them from oblivion and
deaththey become memento

mori or protagonists of a new story.
Miceli finds constant inspiration
in the ocean. It is a place where he
has played, imagined, and created
since he was a kid. There, he discovers other, primitive worlds that
transcend him even as he decides to
appropriate them. Within his personal ocean, amorphous creatures
with threatening appearances gestate, as attractive as they are frightening.
Miceli also works as an art director,
editor, and costume designer in cinematography, radio, and publicity. In
2010, he participated in several exhibitions, showing at WallrodArte
Space, Objeto a Gallery, and United
for Argentina. His most recent project, Miceli|Brutalia, appeared at
the Garden of Sculptures Museum in
Buenos Aires. A multifaceted talent,
Miceli carries out what he thinks
and becomes what he performs.
Maria Carolina Baulo
Buenos Aires
Juan Miceli
This Is Not A Gallery
70
BOTTOM: PAOLO SEMPRUCCI
Sculptor, installation, and performance artist Juan Miceli says, I am

my work. Without him, the work
doesnt exist. Miceli thinks in terms
of projects; he imagines worlds and
works without previous formal
organization or model. His strategy
derives from the fact that he
receives his inspiration from his
materialsanimal bones, teeth,
and disposable plastic objects.
Something, channeled through the
materials, seems to speak to him,
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TOP: AGOSTINO OSIO / BOTTOM: GIORGIO ZUCCHIATTI, COURTESY LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA
sculpture
Venice
Right: Marisa Merz, Untitled, n.d.
Fabrizio Plessi, Pier Paolo

Calzolari, and Marisa Merz
Biennale di Venezia, Ca Pesaro,
Fondazione Querini Stampalia
From It doesnt match yet it flourishes. Below: Fabrizio Plessi, Mariverticali, 2011. Mixed media, installation view.
Venice recently hosted three solo

shows by three leading Italian sculptors whose language couldnt be
more different: video-techno visionary
Fabrizio Plessi at the Venice Pavilion
at the Venice Biennale; Arte Povera
master Pier Paolo Calzolari at the Ca
Pesaro; and the mysterious, solitary
Marisa Merz, whose works were integrated into the permanent collection
of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia.
Plessi has been obsessed by water
and its voice since the beginning of
his career. Ten years ago (at the 2001
Biennale), his Waterfire filled the
windows of the Palazzo Correr with
waterfalls and tongues of fire. This
year, paying homage to Venice,
water, and the ocean, Plessi created
Mariverticali for the restored Venice
Pavilion in the Giardini. Emerging
from darkness, six black steel vessels
filled the space, their hulls inset
with video screens enlivened by the
motion of currents and waves.
In Plessis words, Gigantic vertical
black steel vessels emerge from the
darkness and invade the whole space
The worlds oceans, each enclosed
within its own dark hull, toss about
thunderouslysounds that evoke surf
and distant waves mingle and cross
each other in the diaphanous spatiality of the surrounding environment
Everything is ready for us to embark
on these electronic Noahs Arks that
thrust toward the sky, incredulous and
bewildered digital aborigines of present-day life. Entering the pavilion
was a powerful experience. After pausing to adjust to the darkness, one
began to move around the hulls,
watching the screens and basking in
the light and sound of each ocean,
every one as different as the instruments in an orchestra.
Calzolaris project for the Ca Pesaro,
which included 25 works from 1968 to
2011, presented a rare opportunity to
see the plurality of his work. The exhibition began with Struttura
Ghiacciante (1990) outside the building and continued in the lobby with
a selection of light and sound works
created between 1968 and 1989 and
two installations from 2002. Four
large black installations, made with
salt, lead, and ice (200811) occupied
most of the second floor, though two
rooms were devoted to Specchio Oro
Portrait (1969), a mosaic made with
Judas tree petals, and Without title
(2010), a work still in progress that
features many of the materials that
make up Calzolaris artistic vocabulary.
Here, salt, tobacco leaves, margarine,
moss, lead, ice, and neon are linked to
the passing of time and the transformation of matterthe essence of art
for a nomadic artist like Calzolari.
At the Querini Stampalia, Marisa
Merz responded to the collection,
integrating old work into period
rooms and creating new work in
response to historical objects. Though
Merz is considered an Arte Povera
artist, her work has developed in a
very personal, independent, even
lonely way. Her works here included
partially painted, small clay sculptures and delicate drawings on paper
or canvas. Maintaining continuity
through silent dialogue, these spare
interventions represent the present
and contain memories of the past.
We had to search for the contemporary works among old master paintings and drawings, antique objects,
and pieces of furniture. Through this
exhibition, Merz argues for the timelessness of art beyond the period of
its making. The representation of the
human face, a face only suggested,
was the red thread of the show,
interrupted here and there by large
canvases full of movement and colors.
Laura Tansini
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P E O P L E , P L AC E S , A N D E V E N T S
1 Benjamin J. Dineen, Chakaia Booker, Mihala

Savu, and Carole Feuerman. 2 Haunch
of Venison cocktail party. 3 Ursula von
Rydingsvard studio visit. 4 ISC Art Party guests
at Causey Contemporary Gallery. 5 Michele
Oka Doner studio visit. 6 Boaz Vaadia studio
visit. 7 SculptureCenter tour with Mary

Ceruti.
T H E I S C S A R T PA R T Y
The International Sculpture Center hosted its first Art Party in
New York City, October 2729. Amid rain storms, high winds,
and freak snowstorms, a good time was had by all. Art Party
events provided attendees with opportunities to ask questions,
network, and get an intimate look at the creative process of some
of todays most successful professional sculptors.
Artists, ISC members, and arts patrons grabbed umbrellas on
Thursday, October 27th, to take an exclusive tour of Michele Oka
Doners amazing home and studio in SoHo. Attendees were able
to view some of Oka Doners favorite works and discuss her
wide-ranging inspirations. Later that evening, the ISC Art Party
lived up to its name with a celebration and cocktail reception in
the newly opened Haunch of Venison gallery. Guests enjoyed
drinks, delicious food, and lively musical entertainment provided
by musician Kevin Williams.
Friday, October 28th, brought a reprieve from the weather and
a trip to Long Island City. Guests visited Judith Sheas studio
for an engaging discussion about her process and the conceptual
framework behind her haunting figures. Following the visit with
Shea, the group made its way to the SculptureCenter, where
Executive Director Mary Ceruti presented a guided tour of the
Sanford Biggers exhibition Cosmic Voo Doo Circus.
Despite the wet and snowy weather on Saturday, October 29th,

attendees enjoyed a guided bus tour of artist studios and galleries
throughout Brooklyn. Tour group members warmed themselves
in Ursula von Rydingsvards breathtaking, cedar-filled studio,
where they also enjoyed lunch with the artist. After lunch, Boaz
Vaadia generously opened his studio, speaking to the group
about his deep connection to the earth and demonstrating how
he creates his works with only a small hammer and chisel. The
tour closed with hot apple cider and an artist talk with Amanda
Dow Thompson, who discussed her Ghost Moth installation at
Causey Contemporary Gallery.
Much more than your average cocktail reception, the ISC Art
Party boasted three days of events, including artist-led tours of
private studio spaces, curator- and artist-led exhibition tours, and
cocktail parties in venues throughout NYC. The event also featured
a catalogue of art for sale, with works by James Surls, William
King, and Manuel Neri, just to name a few. Artwork is still available for sale, and all proceeds support the International Sculpture Centers educational programs and publications.
For more details and photos of the ISC Art Party, visit <www.
____
sculpture.org>.
_________
Vol. 31, No. 1 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, DC
_______ Annual membership dues are US $100;
20009. 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 <isc@sculpture.org>.
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 responsible 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 Sculpture
is 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 additional 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. 55th
Street, New York, NY 10019, U.S.A. Tel. 866.473.4800. Fax 858.677.3235.
72
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Sculpture Magazine Jan-Feb 2012

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From the Chairman

ISC Board of Trustees

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Chakaia Booker, New York, NY

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The Line Defining Three-Dimensional Space: A Conversation with Elizabeth Turk

Ranjani Shettar: Playing with Creation by Chitra Balasubramaniam

by Rebecca Dimling Cochran

Shuli Sad: Thinking in Time by Jonathan Goodman

Houston: Marc Swanson

Troy, Alabama: Duane Paxson

Honolulu: Steven and William Ladd

Rita McBride: (Re) Negotiating the Public Realm by Christina Lanzl

Chicago: Aristotle Georgiades

New York: William Corwin

Allan Wexler: The Man Who Would Be Architecture by Joyce Beckenstein

New York: Jene Highstein

Buenos Aires: Juan Miceli

Venice: Fabrizio Plessi, Pier Paolo Calzolari,

On the Cover: Elizabeth Turk, Knot 1, 2011.

Sculpture January/February 2012

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