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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
January 1975. Rough hewn granite. Dimensions: 4 × 4 × 2 in (10 × 10 × 5 cm). Destroyed.
Stone Assemblage II, the second sculpture I made after Falling Stones, continues an important shift in my relationship with stone—from carving it in the traditional subtractive manner to using found stone as an additive, assemblage element. Discarded granite curbstones are accepted largely as found, retaining their rough surfaces, irregular edges, weathering, and quarry marks. These marks create what I later described as a kind of “quarry graphic,” revealing something of the stone’s history while adding a visual cadence to the work. The separate stones are joined with concealed steel pins, a transitional fastening method I would soon abandon in favor of exposing the structural forces and connections themselves—an idea that became central to the tensegrity or Brute Series that followed.
The sculpture also reflects my growing interest in the work of Isamu Noguchi and a Japanese sensibility toward stone—accepting and even celebrating the material for what it already is rather than imposing a predetermined form upon it. Here, the leaning slab, upright vertical, and long horizontal stone create a spare, gestural composition reminiscent of strokes in East Asian calligraphy. At the same time, the lintel-like upper stone introduces a strong sense of weight, balance, and architectural structure. Stone Assemblage II thus brings together several ideas that would become fundamental to my sculpture: found stone, assemblage, the expressive history of materials, and the dynamic relationship between mass, gesture, balance, and gravity.
January 1975. Rough hewn granite. Dimensions: 4 × 4 × 2 in (10 × 10 × 5 cm). Destroyed.
Stone Assemblage II, the second sculpture I made after Falling Stones, continues an important shift in my relationship with stone—from carving it in the traditional subtractive manner to using found stone as an additive, assemblage element. Discarded granite curbstones are accepted largely as found, retaining their rough surfaces, irregular edges, weathering, and quarry marks. These marks create what I later described as a kind of “quarry graphic,” revealing something of the stone’s history while adding a visual cadence to the work. The separate stones are joined with concealed steel pins, a transitional fastening method I would soon abandon in favor of exposing the structural forces and connections themselves—an idea that became central to the tensegrity or Brute Series that followed.
The sculpture also reflects my growing interest in the work of Isamu Noguchi and a Japanese sensibility toward stone—accepting and even celebrating the material for what it already is rather than imposing a predetermined form upon it. Here, the leaning slab, upright vertical, and long horizontal stone create a spare, gestural composition reminiscent of strokes in East Asian calligraphy. At the same time, the lintel-like upper stone introduces a strong sense of weight, balance, and architectural structure. Stone Assemblage II thus brings together several ideas that would become fundamental to my sculpture: found stone, assemblage, the expressive history of materials, and the dynamic relationship between mass, gesture, balance, and gravity.