January 1982. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 17 × 4 × 5 in (43 × 10 × 13 cm).
Private collection - Washington, DC
Pull continues my exploration of gravity, tension, and compression as active sculptural forces. Two granite slabs are separated in space yet made structurally dependent through forged-steel bars. The large foreground stone leans dramatically forward while the smaller stone acts as a counterweight, creating a strong sense of pulling against one another. As in the Torque works, the sculpture becomes a “static energy event”—a moment of physical action held in arrested motion. This approach grew from my use of stone as an assemblage element rather than something to be carved into a predetermined form.
The title Pull is deliberately both noun and verb, identifying the physical force within the sculpture as well as suggesting an action taking place. The long diagonal steel element makes that otherwise invisible force visible, drawing the eye—and seemingly the smaller stone—toward the larger mass. The work is essentially sculpture about sculpture, with gravity, balance, and the act of holding disparate materials together becoming both its structure and its subject.
January 1982. Granite, steel. Dimensions: 17 × 4 × 5 in (43 × 10 × 13 cm).
Private collection - Washington, DC
Pull continues my exploration of gravity, tension, and compression as active sculptural forces. Two granite slabs are separated in space yet made structurally dependent through forged-steel bars. The large foreground stone leans dramatically forward while the smaller stone acts as a counterweight, creating a strong sense of pulling against one another. As in the Torque works, the sculpture becomes a “static energy event”—a moment of physical action held in arrested motion. This approach grew from my use of stone as an assemblage element rather than something to be carved into a predetermined form.
The title Pull is deliberately both noun and verb, identifying the physical force within the sculpture as well as suggesting an action taking place. The long diagonal steel element makes that otherwise invisible force visible, drawing the eye—and seemingly the smaller stone—toward the larger mass. The work is essentially sculpture about sculpture, with gravity, balance, and the act of holding disparate materials together becoming both its structure and its subject.
