Page 43 - Studio International - October 1967

But the best pieces come where a minimum of talk is naturalistic reproduction. If I were, I would have to use
required. So I am dependent on the sensitivity and a completely different process.
response of the people posing for me. `I've thought about putting real clothes on the figures.
`Is there any reason for the unrefined surfaces? Yes, I've tried painting them, but I haven't liked it, because I
there is. It would be just as simple to take a human hand, think there's something more severe in my nature where
put plaster on it, let it dry and take it off. What's inside not only do I insist on something true about the essence
would be a perfect negative. You'd get all the skin pores, of the person, I want to keep them intact as a shape. If
the wrinkles, the incredibly minute detail. I choose to you put real clothing on, if you drape a fur scarf around a
use the exterior because in a sense it's my own version of plaster figure, that fur scarf jumps out and becomes a
completely independent horseshoe shape. I would rather
not use distracting details.
`As to my casting, I can tell you that a mystery takes
place that I never expected, and it's different each time.
The simple act of somebody taking a position and putting
pieces of cloth saturated in plaster on them, and having
that person sit until sections harden has had a very
unexpected side result. I think that's why I continue
casting; otherwise I'd have been bored to tears and gone
to something else long ago. First of all the wetness shows
the muscles and bones underneath the clothing. It
saturates the clothes to the point where you can see bone
structure underneath. The discomfort to the person is of
such a nature that they can't pretend with me; they have
to relax, and they're just stoic and brave, or screaming
and hysterical as they really are. It's very hard to be a
fake with that kind of wet discomfort over such a long
period of time. Maybe I'm a sadist, I don't know. But
then I've also done the same person over six or seven
times, and I've been absolutely amazed to find that even
slight differences in state of mind come through that I
can't control in the finished sculpture.
`I like the feeling of plaster, the fact that it was non-toxic —
it's like healthy dirt in contrast to the plastics where the
fumes are poisonous and my friends come down with all
sorts of liver troubles and turn green; then I have to
carry them to the hospital. It's not plaster of paris, it's
an industrial plaster. And if I want to change anything,
I have to use an axe or a hacksaw.
`When I'm finished casting, I'm left with a collapsed
pile of pieces that are weak, floppy, cracked, broken.
They have to be reconstructed and put together with
more plaster. And the amout of time it takes me to build
a figure is about ten times longer than the actual casting
which is a gay, social time. The intensive work comes in
the reconstruction.
`HI have a clear idea of what I want, if the person posing
for me has been O.K., if I can successfully compose that
reconstruction in the space I decided, it's fine. But
usually it is not that smooth. I generally have to make
modifications, and they're of all kinds or any kind, either
plastic or psychological. I sometimes cut off arms and
stuck them into pockets when they were reaching out.
`I have become interested in looking out at the world. I
don't want to report the world as a reflection of my own
blood vessels. I think that's the real reason I am still
interested in using casting models. The truth about some-
body else's bone structure or doing an elongated bony
drawing or painting. I have to define what I want, and I person is inconceivable. I simply can't draw that. I don't
can blur what I don't want. I can dissolve something in think any artist who gets in the swing of producing his
a puddle if I like. It bears the mark of my hand; but it own art can work against his temperament.'
bears not the work of my hand so much as the mark of
my decisions in emphasis. I'm not really interested in