Sculpture Source

Detail of "Grieving," by Jerry Ross Barrish

We participate in consumption – the satisfaction of wants resulting chiefly in destruction, deterioration, or transformation.  The objects we create experience consumption – the progressive wasting away of the body. It is an efficiently detached relationship.  Whatever emotional connection, if any, to our belongings we have, eventually they lose their hold on our attention and we consign them to landfills or the depths of the sea.  We have little time for empathy when ephemerality is the standard.  But some of these castaways are resilient.  They push against our enmity.  They resurface or wash ashore.

This is when Jerry Ross Barrish finds them and breaths life into the inanimate. This is not creation ex nihilo but creation ex vetus adveho novus – out of the old comes the new.  They combine and reconstitute into more than the sum of their plastic parts while still maintaining the markings and scars of their former life.  Bent, distorted industrial drainage tubes, series 73681-82000, become a subtle set of controposto hips and legs.  “Made in Mexico” containers transform into a hunched torso. The curve of a misused snorkel creates a cradling arm and hand.  A cratered and scuffed toy ball marked “Supper Tuff” is a makeshift, downcast, mournful head.  Refuse - discarded, unwanted, isolated – reconstitutes itself through anthropomorphic redemption.  But this is not all.  Barrish has one more act of transformation and transcendence.  As if in defiance for the once consumed, he has cast several of these assembled detritus into bronze.  Ephemerality is now corporealized.  Ironically, decay is permanently preserved. Long after the consumers themselves have passed away through consumption, those who were once the objects of consumption will live on.

Through this multi-layered transformation, Barrish requires a reconsideration of human empathy.  His objects of castaway materials take on the form and likeness of those who have discarded them.  But they are more than human in form.  They are also human in substance.  Feeling. Emotive. Empathetic.  Despite their lowly genesis, they have transcended their own fleeting material by communicating the very thing that was originally denied them.  They have the last laugh.  Yet, these do not seem to have the disposition of vengeful irony.  They remember their humble history.  They do not gloat.  They look back on us and give in the face of thoughtless waste.  They were treated apathetically yet they reveal what can be of highest nobility - emotion. Joy. Sorrow. Play. Contemplation. The desirable attributes of the consumer have been mastered by the consumed.  Roles have reversed.

Restoration Work on Michelangelo's David

Relatively recently Michelangelo’s David underwent extensive restoration.  The process and certainly the result divided the public in a firestorm of controversy.  Was the restoration necessary?  Was this monument of culture saved from advancing age or forever destroyed in the name of restoration?  Who was serviced more, the work of art or the careers of those who oversaw the restoration?  These questions become particularly pertinent here at home with the San Francisco Art Commission’s announced plans to restore Peter Voulkos’ piece at the Hall of Justice.  When is restoration needed?  When does it cross the line from help to hindrance?  This much can be said: for every insistent restorationist you will find an equally passionate traditionalist.  Each has valid arguments; each believes to be acting in the name of the greater good.  There is a place at the table for both.

The ensign of restoration waves for one of two reasons – delaying destruction and restoring original intent.  Until a Muse grants a primetime interview, we will never know the true original condition of the work or the intent of its creator.  He, and he alone knows how it was created and how it should be cared for. Thus, little can be said of “original intent.”  Even if this unknowable could be known, would we necessarily want it?  Canonized masterpieces are elder statesmen.  They no longer have the vivacity of their youth or the energy of innovation but they have something of equal worth - scars, wrinkles, and blemishes.  We look to them not because of their smooth alabaster skin but because time has given them a uniquely insightful patina of experience.  A 500-year-old crack can sometimes carry more significance then unblemished youth.

However, at what point do we allow a meaningful crack to become a thousand scars of decay?  When do the distinguished marks of age become destructive to the work’s fundamental identity?  At some point, even the most archival work requires help to prolong the inevitable reach of time.  It is at this point that the skills of restoration are essential and needed.  But where is this point?  When is it time to intervene?  Therein is the line of gray.

If the artwork is in scientifically verifiable and incontrovertible peril, proceed, but proceed with caution.  If restoration is undertaken for other reasons, leave it alone.  We will never know how it looked in its youth so let us continue to venerate the image we have now.  If a painting is deemed “sick” and in need of treatment then conservationists, who consider themselves the “doctors,” should take the artistic equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath – “do no harm.”  Is the treatment a cosmetic tummy tuck or a double bypass?  Are we prolonging the life of our elder statesmen or turning our canon into the artistic equivalent of Joan Rivers and Michael Jackson?  Aging has its grace and beauty.  Interfere only when there is real need.

What bearing does this have on the aforementioned Voulkos restoration?  Is this cosmetic or essential surgery?  Years of neglect have caused unnatural, accelerated aging.  When the piece was initially installed a much needed endowment for upkeep was never established.  It now desperately needs our attention.  Fortunately the restoration plans include raising funds to establish an endowment for regular upkeep hopefully making future restoration projects unnecessary.  Indeed, this is surgery with a much needed dose of preventative medicine.

Sculpturesite Gallery

Brigitte Micmacker: Bella and JP, this is your first joint exhibition, although you have worked together for nine years and have even been called the “odd couple”. How did your relationship begin?

Bella Feldman: In 2000 I had a sequence of three exhibits in different parts of the country.  I needed more help than the assistant I had then, Chris French.  I asked a former student if she knew anybody and she sent JP my way. He was only hired on a temporary basis but, when I returned from a much needed vacation, Chris who had been with me for four or five years decided to leave and so JP fell into the job.  He turned out to be the best assistant I have ever had.

B.M.: Bella, when you began exhibiting as a sculptor thirty-five years ago, as well as when you established yourself in a long career as a professor, and as the chair of the sculpture department at a major art college, beginning in 1965 in a field then mostly entirely dominated by men, what did you have to do to be considered a respected professional, and not a “woman sculptor”?

Bella: I needed to be desperate enough for the job to endure the insults in the then all-male Sculpture Department. When the head of my department tried to get rid of me so he could give my job to a male protégé of his, I had to take the case to the then Board of Equalization which dealt with cases of discrimination.  I won. His successor managed to get rid of the entire department in order to hire his own.  I stood my ground tenaciously. When he resigned in a pique I became Chair.  But for 20 years I had to deal with the man’s hostility in as civilized a fashion as I could muster.  My endurance was fueled by the research which showed there wasn’t a woman teaching sculpture within a 100 mile radius of my home.  It was considered a male profession.  I continued to teach and to exhibit with considerable acclaim and that won me respect as a professional.

In 1996 I was awarded an exhibition at the Fresno Museum “California Woman Sculptor of the Year.”  My 8 year old granddaughter when she came to the opening looked at the sign and, without prompting, said “If it was a man artist, they wouldn’t have written ‘Man Artist of the Year.’”  I have received many honors and awards over time.  I am very, very good at what I do, but I believe a man with these honors, etc. would have fared better than I as a woman did.

B.M.: JP, you studied jewelry and metal art at the California College of Art and Crafts in Oakland (now CCA) where Bella taught for 35 years, yet you never took any classes from her. When you first walked into Bella’s studio to work as an assistant in 2000, do you remember what first struck you about Bella?

JP Long: I had long admired Bella’s work and jumped at the opportunity to work for her. What first struck me about Bella was that she was definitely from the East Coast. Strong, direct, and blatantly honest—which I respond to very well, having grown up in New England.

B.M.: (JP) How old were you? Were you looking for a mentor at that point?

JP: I was 21 when Bella hired me. As you mentioned before, I graduated with a degree in Jewelry/Metal Arts, which was excellent training. That department still believed in teaching technical skill. But I always wanted to go big. So when the opportunity to work for Bella arose, it was the perfect situation. All my life I’ve looked for mentors, and I’ve been fortunate in having had a number of wonderful teachers—most of whom were powerful women.

Bella Feldman, "Untitled"

(Interview Continued)

B.M.: Bella, For many years your sculptures have been both rooted in the love of material and craft and the playful, yet often dark interpretation of aspects of the human condition, creating what critic Harold Rosenberg called “anxious objects”. How do these images of objects come to you?

Bella: Regarding Anxious Objects.  I have lived through at least five wars that the U.S. has been engaged in.  As a child I listened to Hitler’s speeches, witnessing my parents’ dread and anxiety for their relatives (Polish Jews).  We seem now to be perpetually at war.  I am pessimistic about mankind’s future, but I diffuse my anxiety with “black” humor. These images arise from my subconscious which has been fueled by the times I’ve lived and continue to live in.

B.M.: (Bella) The juxtaposition of glass elements to the metal in more recent years, and now color, has given a bit more lightness, delicacy to your work. Does this correspond to a place in your life where making art has become smoother, less of a struggle?

Bella: Regarding the use of glass.  Lightness and delicacy is not new to my work.  For a number of years I worked with fiberglass and resin membranes which looked like they could float away despite their size.  I have always used tension as part of my sculpture vocabulary. I turned to using glass with metal because of the contrast and the vocabulary of tension set up using these materials in the same sculpture. The Sculpture Department of CCA is located right next to the Glass Department, so I developed a familiarity with the material.  I was told by the Glass Department that it wouldn’t work to blow glass into metal forms as I did in my Flask series and War Toy series, but I did and it worked and now a lot of people do it.

B.M.: (Bella) You now spend several months per year in Europe, where you have a very small studio space. How has this affected your art?

Bella: My partner lives in Europe and we go back and forth—neither of us willing to pull up stakes. I always have to do art and so I started to work in two dimensions in watercolor, pastel, and collage in a 9×9 foot room. You are what you do and now I am working in a 2D/3D mode in my Oakland studio of which you can see examples in this show.

B.M.: JP, you have participated in some of the decision making about Bella’s work, and have brought into the studio some ideas and techniques that she has integrated into her sculpture. At what point did you feel that Bella was interested in your input? Did this come naturally for both of you?

Bella: JP has contributed to the problem solving which is different from the decision making.  The decisions are mine.

JP: Bella usually says my suggestions were off the mark when I first started working for her—which I totally disagree with. There’s no question that I’ve learned an amazing amount from her. But it did take a couple months for her to start trusting my judgment.

B.M.: (JP) Did this make it easier or harder for you to begin finding your own way in sculpture?

JP: Easier. The hardest part of establishing a career in the arts, I think, is discipline. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect, and Bella gave me the opportunity to be constantly making art, three days a week for her and four days a week for me.

JP Long, "Impression 5"

(Interview continued)

B.M.: (JP) Did you also seek Bella’s input into your work?

JP: As I said before, Bella is an East Coaster. I don’t think it’s possible for her not to state her opinion. But yes, I would purposefully leave new pieces out for critique.

B.M.: Bella, you introduced JP to our gallery, as well as to other dealers. You were very persistent about mentoring JP. This is rather uncommon, as often masters develop feelings of jealousy when one of their protégés becomes successful. Was this ever an issue for you?

Bella: I have to admit I become uncomfortable when some of his work resembles mine too closely.  But jealousy, no.  He is a wonderful, bright, talented young man.  I am glad that is he doing well and I am gratified that I could help him on his way.

B.M.: How about you, JP?

JP: There’s a saying among musicians: there’s no new tune, just how you play it. Artworks are always embedded in a history, a context, and part of what makes art so rich is how it references the past while pointing toward the future—in other words, how a work of art occupies its “now” in the history of art. As I’ve heard Bella say time and again, quoting Picasso, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

B.M.: Bella, what was your favorite aspect of teaching? What was most challenging?

Bella: The favorite part of my teaching was encountering interesting and talented young people and to be able to guide them where my own experience and knowledge could be of use.  I have very good critical and verbal skills and I was able to give easily understood, straightforward critiques of students’ work as well as recommendations for clearer ways of expressing their ideas.  Many teachers do not have that gift.  It helped being a born and bred New Yorker; it’s not the California style to be direct. The most challenging part of my teaching years was dealing with the sexist politics.

B.M.: Bella and JP, what do you think is most unusual about your relationship?

Bella: I think we’re unusually congenial despite the differences in our ages, gender, and life experiences.  Our thinking and temperaments are very similar.

B.M.: Bella and JP, how do you feel that this joint exhibition expresses this relationship?

Bella: This exhibition illustrates the crossover as well as the differentiation of ideas between us.

B.M.: Bella and JP, what other sculptors’ works do you admire most?

Bella: Sculptors I admire. Of contemporary sculptors, I would name Martin Puryear, Louise Bourgeois, Chillida, Max Ernst, Picasso, David Smith, Julio Gonzalez, and many more.

JP: I’m also a fan of Puryear, as well as the other artists Bella mentioned. But I would also add Dan Clayman, Sol Lewitt, Richard Serra, and Heiki Seppa.

B.M.: Thanks to both of you.

Since I’m new here at the gallery, I spoke to a few artists who focus on wind sculptures to get a better idea of what they take into consideration when designing a piece. In addition to the overall artistic concept, I was curious to learn what attributes can enhance or detract from the beauty and stability of each work of art.

As with other forms of three-dimensional art, material choices are critical to a successful kinetic piece, and variables such as weight, bearing strength, cost and durability are key considerations.

Artists told me that using a heavy material such as stainless steel makes the sculpture more challenging to create and transport, but can add to its structural stability in high winds. Aluminum can be worked in thinner sheets, but because it isn’t as strong as steel, it may have difficulty supporting its own weight, or the weight of other modules of the structure.

Jeffery Laudenslager mentioned that titanium is only slightly heavier than aluminum and is stronger than stainless steel, so titanium kinetic sculptures can be made which are 50% lighter and stronger. However, the material cost is ten times more by weight due to the high price of the material. Tradeoffs, tradeoffs!

In terms of durability, stainless steel is suitable for all climates. In more humid areas or in areas near the ocean with salt in the air, annual treatment with a rust preventative is needed. Titanium is virtually immune to corrosion and holds up well in the elements, but again, there’s that issue of cost.

Plastic is another material which is sometimes used for kinetic sculpture. Due to its relatively light weight in comparison to metal, it’s most often seen in the suspended modules of indoor pieces so that the movement remains subtle. Tim Prentice is currently working with elegantly engineered and precisely balanced plastic forms that dance on the slightest of air currents.

On May 25th, 2009, Brigitte Micmacker conducted an interview with Mark Chatterley. Chatterley will open a new solo exhibition of figuartive ceramic sculptures at Sculpturesite Gallery on June 25th: BEINGS -Clay Musings on the Human Condition.

BM:  So do you build your clay sculptures using slabs or wide coils?

MC:  I use slabs, 5/8 inches thick by 8 inches wide.  I have a slab roller that can roll 50 pounds of clay flat at a time. 

BM:  How do they hold up while they are drying?

MC:  I work 8 inches a day on each sculpture, with as many as 12 sculptures going on at one time.  I let the clay stiffen up each day so it will support the clay of the next layer.   The one problem working this way is I can’t go back and work on the bottom once I reach the top, for it will be dry on the bottom and wet on top.   On skinny, tall work I use cement blocks on the outside to support the work as I build.   I do drawings for each piece before I start so I know where I am going with the sculpture as I am working.

BM:  I understand that you have developed your own clay body that is mixed especially for you. Are you after a certain workability, or strength for the finished sculptures when you determine the properties you want in a clay body?

MC:  Clay is such a great material to work with.  You can make anything with it.  But one problem is in green ware the pieces are fragile, so I add materials to the clay body to give it strength at that stage of work.  Another problem is when you fire the work to vitrification, there is a lot of shrinkage.  So I add material to help with that.   The work still shrinks 10%.  Some materials are Kyanite, mullite, grog.  Different clays from around the country.

BM:  About how much clay do you go through in a year?

MC:  18,000 pounds.