ART 3711 SCULPTURE: Materials and
Methods
Anthony Castronovo, Professor
The University of Florida
Fall Semester 2008
Meeting Times: T R 5-7 (3:00-6:00 PM)
Office: B-3 FAC
Telephone: 392-0201 ext.?
e-mail: castronovo@ufl.edu
Office Hours: T R 11-11:30 AM or by appointment
YOU MUST WEAR CLOSED TOE SHOES TO CLASS FOR THE DURATION OF THIS PROJECT. YOU
MUST ALWAYS WEAR CLOSED TOE SHOES IN THE SCULPTURE SHOPS. PLEASE KEEP AN EXTRA
PAIR IN YOUR LOCKER.
PASSAGES: THE WOOD PROJECT
The purpose of this project is two-fold: First, to introduce you to most of the
equipment available to you in the Sculpture Shop relating to woodworking.
Second, and more importantly, to introduce you to the properties and
possibilities of wood as a sculptural material and to introduce you to artists
in modern and contemporary sculpture who are using this material in new and
exciting ways.
Our readings will focus on historical periods relating to post-minimalism,
process art, arte povera, and Japanese sculpture where the materiality of wood
has played a prominent role in sculpture and architecture. Shigeo Toya. Your first assignment
is to read/look as much as you possibly can and to continue reading and looking
throughout the semester at all of the many ways in which wood is used in art and
culture.
Go to the library before Thursday August 30. Look at the images
in the books on reserve: Martin Puryear; Louise Bourgeois: The
Early Work; Richard Deacon; Cristina Iglesias; Primal Spirit: Contemporary
Japanese Sculptors; Contemporary Japanese Sculpture; Jackie Winsor; there may be
more as we go on. Some of these books may not be on reserve yet. Find an artist whose work Look at what is
there.
Read the assigned readings as required by due dates. Write responses as due.
PART #1:
LETTER/SYMBOL/JOINT
look into the work of Xu Bing for creating symbols
In this exercise you will make a letter or symbol (See above. See reading on
Tapies and Raymond Llull) using one type of wood joint and in the process be
introduced to some of the major woodworking equipment in the Sculpture Shop
including the table saw, band saw, joiner, planer, chisels, chop saw, and
sanders. You will learn how to use measuring tools and how to properly prepare
wood measurements for cutting. You will learn how to prepare wood stock for
woodworking projects and how to make effective and elegant wood joints.
“At a relatively early stage in his career Tapies decided to position his work
in relation to four essential references: Ramon Llull, Jakob Boehme, Antoni
Gaudi, and Max Ernst. Ramon Llull (1232-1315), the universal mediaeval genius,
theologian, philosopher, poet, missionary and scientist, is practically a
national saint in Catalonia, whose work Ars compendiosa inveniendi veritatem seu
Ars magna et maior was supposed to comprise the various branches of wisdom,
granting men the ability to advance towards knowledge and truth as much as to
compose poetry.
Under Llull’s influence, Tapies considered that painting was a way of reflecting
on life and of helping the beholder to see what the artist had already seen,
for, as he wrote in La practica del arte, “a man devoid of images, of
imagination and of the sensitivity required to trigger associations of ideas and
feelings, will be unable to create anything.” Llull resorted particularly to
“figures of meaning”, that is to say, to letters as a medium with which “to copy
mental figures”. In his treatise Ars magna he privileges seven geometric figures
which he calls A, S, T, V, X, Y and Z.
These very letters appear in a number of works by Tapies whose favorite capitals
are the A (the figure of essential dignities) and the T (that represents the
principles of distinction of meaning). To Llull’s seven figures Tapies adds the
M, the sign of will. The artist relates the letters A and T of course to his own
initials, and to those of his wife Teresa. In 1986 Tapies published a series of
etchings dedicated to the Ramon Llull writings that had inspired a number of
artists in the sphere of Surrealism, a movement Tapies himself had been
attracted to in the forties and fifties.” (Antoni Tapies, Ediciones Poligrafa,
Barcelona)
MATERIALS:
The Shop will provide you with basic wood materials FOR THE EXERCISE. Brad Smith
will lead the shop orientation and demonstrate one type of joint. This may be a
refresher for some of you. You will then choose the joint you want to make.
Bring your own measuring tools such as a tape measure, metal ruler, sharpened
pencil, along with your drawing to scale or your maquette to scale of your
letter/symbol.
Wood Technology Readings
A chart of numerous wood joints. You will have to complete only
one of the joints. Find and circle the joints on the chart that interest you.
Those of you who have already learned specific joints in other sculpture
classes, please choose a joint you do not know. Given your design, discuss other
possibilities with Brad.
PART II: PASSAGES: THE WOOD PROJECT
“The material itself, stone or wood, does not interest me as such. It is a
means; it is not an end. You do not make sculpture because you like wood. That
is absurd. You make sculpture because the wood allows you to express something
that another material does not allow you to.”
-Louise Bourgeois, Interview by Donald Kuspit.
Based upon the readings, presentations in class, discussions and your own
research, write a proposal, make a drawing/design (not just a sketch), make a
maquette, and create a wood sculpture that integrates the concept of Passage.
What is a passage?
Thirty spokes gathered at each hub:
absence makes the cart work.
A storage jar fashioned out of clay:
Absence makes the jar work
Doors and windows cut in a house:
Absence makes the house work
Presence gives things their value,
but absence makes them work.
-Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, No. 11
“The primal generative process revered by those earliest of Chinese sages takes
on new dimensions in Lao Tzu’s Tao, dimensions that carry it into realms we now
speak of as ontology and ecology, cosmology, phenomenology, and social
philosophy. Tao originally meant “way,” as in “pathway” or “roadway,” and Lao
Tzu recast it as a spiritual Way by using it to describe that inexplicable
generative force seen as an ongoing process (hence a “Way). This Way might be
provisionally described as a kind of generative ontological process through
which all things arise and pass away, and Lao Tzu’s way is to dwell as a part of
that natural process. In that dwelling, self is but a fleeting form taken on by
earth’s process of change.” (David Hinton, Introduction to Tao Te Ching, 2000,
Counterpoint Books, p.x)
“Look at the simplest object. Look, for example, at an old chair. It does not
seem to be much. But think about the whole universe that it contains: the hands
and the sweat of the person who carved the wood which was once a robust tree,
full of energy, in the middle of a thick forest high up in the mountains; the
loving work of the person who built it; the pleasure of the person who bought
it; the weariness it comforted; the pains and the joys which it probably
supported in a great living room, or maybe in a poor dining room in a working
class suburb. All, absolutely all of that represents life and has importance.
Even the oldest chair carries in it the sap which, far away in the forest, rose
from the earth and which will still serve to give heat the day when, having
become mere pieces of wood, it will burn in a fireplace.” (quote by Antoni
Tapies, Catalogue, Martha Jackson Gallery, NY, 1975)
SCHEDULE:
WOOD PROJECT
Aug.26 Introduction to course. First Project introduced. Shop Orientation with
Brad Smith. Locker and storage assignments. Assignments given out for Tues. Aug.
28 on letter/symbol exercise.
Aug. 28 Demonstration by Brad Smith on one joint. Discussion of possible joint
solutions for letter/symbol designs. Begin work in shop. Discussion of one
Reading.
Sep.2 Continuation of letter/symbol joint exercise. Must be completed today or
outside of class prior to Sept. 2. Discussion of one Reading and slide viewing.
Begin discussion of next project, Passages.
Sept.4 Proposals for Passages due, this includes detailed drawing, scale,
materials, sizes. Group discussion of proposals. Discussion with Brad Smith
before 5:00 pm of possible problems to look out for. Continuation of discussion
and project revisions until 6:00 pm. Discussion of another reading if time
remains.
Sept. 9 All materials must be with you and you must be ready to begin the
Passages project. Final discussion of remaining readings.
Sept. 11 Intense work in wood shop.
Sept. 16 Intense work in wood shop
Sept. 18 Intense work in wood shop. Mid project review.
Sept. 23 Intense work in wood shop
Sept. 25 Intense work in wood shop
Sept. 30 Project Due. Critique. Mandatory
attendance.