Sculpture, Space, and Science

Sculpture. Is it making space? Defining space? Filling Space? Maybe it’s finding space. The space in this photo was “hidden” until the sculpture “found” it.

There is so much space even in the crowded human-built environment. As much space, it seems, as on an empty beach or mountainside. The space is there, it doesn’t need to be “made.”

You could say that sculpture is a way of defining space but that seems silly to me. There is already definition all around. In this photo, you can make out “defined” space in the background and foreground of the sculpture. But defining seems more real than “making,” maybe because it’s part of the way toward “finding.”

I think as an artist I find space. The clay object I shape is a found space and the space it inhabits is found, because in a sense it didn’t exist in that form until the thing filled it.