Fragile Sculpture

[Devan]

Fragility is in integral aspect of my shaping aesthetic. I love the tension that delicacy brings to a piece. I love the sense of care/grace/respect that one must embody when interacting with such a piece.

But it's hard for me to sell. Galleries are warry to display. People are warry to invest in something that could be shattered when the cleaning lady bumps it with a vacuum cleaner.

I'm a wood artist. Lately working with laminated Baltic Birch. Have a look at my website for a taste: http://www.devananthony.com.

Any insights/revelations/thoughts to share with me and my predicament?

Devan.

[dondougan]

Devan;

I too make (some) sculpture with fragility as an integral element in the design.

By pushing the limits of the material or by attempting to use the very least structurally sound amount of material I feel the 'statement' the work makes is viable.

However, from the pragmatic point of view, I can't blame the gallery owner for being reluctant to show the work. Their main objective is not yours -- they are in business to make a profit.

For me (maybe for you too?) the main objective is to make a (personal) statement about the way (I -- as artist/observer) see the world.

I made a sculptural marble table (titled A MORTAL PLANE - with all that implies about the fragile nature of life itself) that I took by my gallery a few years ago. The gallery owner said it was nice, but had reservations about showing it because it looked very fragile. Now I had made it structurally sound, but I had deliberately made the reinforcing steel unobtrusive -- to emphasize the thin, fragile nature of life) and I had to get up on the table and jump (in retrospect a foolish thing to do) on it to 'prove' that it was structurally sound. It was, and (thankfully)only a few smears from the soles of my shoes were the attesting evidence.

I do NOT recommend 'proving' your work this way -- the gallery owner was mildly impressed, but declined showing the piece anyway.

I eventually sold the piece for my asking price, but I did have to store it for several years before it sold to someone who appreciated it. My artistic 'soul' was happy with the outcome, though.

I guess the response I am getting at here is that you have to "follow your bliss" (a piece of advice Joseph Campbell once gave), and you will never be sorry, even though it hurts in the short term.

(I will try to attach a picture of the table, the last time I tried on this forum the software didn't like my attachment.)

Don Dougan

[Devan]

Thanks for your reply Don, and for the encouragement to "Follow your Bliss."

It is a sort of bliss for me to make my art. But there is more to it. I make these shapes because they are an integral dimension of my physical expression/communication with the world. They say something from deep within, perhaps from a place that is beyond words. It's almost as if the shapes themselves are seeking expression through me. And it's my role to articulate and clarify the forms until they sing loud and clear. I can't do the disservice of muddying the forms so that they are physically durable.

Lately I've been trying to move myself beyond my self inflicted box. Things like: keep the fragility, but get it off the floor. Make some wall mountable sculpture that maintains the fragility but gets it beyond the reach of the family dog. Or even simply making taller bases that are more like pedestals.

BTW, I took a look at your website, and I have to tell you how much I love your 'lips' series. very cool.

[dondougan]

I like what you are suggesting about "trying to move [your]self beyond [your] self inflicted box" -- keeping the fragile nature of the work but presenting it in another way that will perhaps make the statement more complete, even though protecting it.

Wall-mounted sculpture, as you said, might do the trick. Or perhaps even hanging from . . . the ceiling? . . . some other kind of structure?
Along the theme of wall-mounted 'Sprouts' - as you call them on your website - think of the caper and rosemary bushes growing out of the old stone city walls in Italian scenes, or perhaps just ivy growing down the garden wall . . .
And speaking of ivy from above - one of my first major clients lived in an old mill.
The room in which I installed the sculpture had been converted into the main living room - about 25 x 40 feet. The top of the walls was about 25-foot above the hardwood floor (covered in a single huge oriental rug). High overhead the oak trusses and beams and the wooden structure of the underside of the slate covered roof was exposed. Covering the outside of the building, and coming in over the top of the walls and into the room were vines of ivy. The ivy draped down to about ten feet above floor level. It was an amazing room with ivy inside and coming down from above like that.

Taller bases that are more like pedestals will solve the functional problem, but the 'base' would then become more important visually and could possibly alter the conceptual integrity of the piece.

An artist (Norman Wagner, primarily know for his printmaking)whom I have know since I was a freshman in art school many years ago once described a piece he had done that deals with similar issues.

He had found an old-fashioned child's scooter in a rubbish pile by the curb where someone was moving out of a house.

He took it and restored it - applying hours and hours of careful hand-sanding to the wood and painting it multiple coats to match the original glossy colors on the smooth contours.
When finished, he thought it looked great as an artistic statement harking back to simpler times of childhood, but he was afraid if it was presented as-is it would be too tempting to use, and then be broken or damaged.
He said it took him a while to figure out what the best way would be to show it off but also to keep it pristine. He carefully crafted a crate to put it in, and then packed it in excelsior (sort of wooden 'straw' that has been replaced in recent years by bubble-wrap and styrofoam peanuts). The screwed-down 'lid' of the crate was made from 1/4" plexiglas - which he felt allowed the viewer to see - but not touch - this icon of lost childhood.

The clear acrylic barrier became a metaphor for the passage of years that allows our wonderous memories of childhood to remain safe, accessible for viewing but not for using.

Though my work is unlike Norman's in any number of ways, I have always thought that his story about the scooter was particularly illuminating about the importance of the design, manipulation, and adjustments of the relationships between the basic nature of the sculpture and the viewer's perceptions.

Thanks for your thoughts on the lip series, Devan.
When I exhibited the first ones I was very hesitant because of fears of how 'weird' I would be perceived to be. Though I do get a bit of that type of reaction, for the most part I have found I can generally reach more people (and evoke more specific responses) with the lip series than with my more abstracted works.

[JHoughton]

Originally posted by Devan
Quote
Lately I've been trying to move myself beyond my self inflicted box. Things like: keep the fragility, but get it off the floor. Make some wall mountable sculpture that maintains the fragility but gets it beyond the reach of the family dog. Or even simply making taller bases that are more like pedestals.


Your solutions above all sound like Viable answers to your fragility question. If I may, I would like to throw out some more suggestions. Other possible solutions would be to,
1. Hang them from their intended bases and show them inverted from the ceiling or out from the wall.
2. Continue to make these but without a preconcieved vertical orientation (top and Bottom) this would lead to many wall mounting options
3. Containment like Don had mentioned in the Go-cart story, it may be done in a way that supports the idea of fragility as well as the actual fragility of the work.
Just my 2-cents

[Devan]

Yesterday I had an ah hah moment.

The idea of suspending a fragile piece of work in a cylinder of epoxy resin. Keeps the 'moment trapped in time' feeling, protects the piece from a bump, gives me a whole new range of display ideas...hmmm.

Anyone ever worked with this stuff before? Can I just buy System Three's Mirror Coat Finish but pour it into a mold instead of over a surface?