Ron Mueck (and Andy Goldsworthy)

[don dougan <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

Artisti  says, " Another artist I personal like is Andy Goldsworthy. I
call it sculpture and I think it is great. He takes what Duchamp was
saying and pushes the argument further."

Thanks for adding Goldsworthy to this discussion -- I think that
Goldsworthy is another great worker in stone (among the many other
materials he employs).  What I like about his work is that he causes us
(the viewer) to reconsider what we know to be the truth about the
material, and to understand (and question) in greater depth what the
'making' is all about.

He takes those qualities that we (as stone workers) all have probably
associated with the material --  i.e., 'noble' , everlasting, durable,
etc. -- and makes us question them at a basic level rather than taking
them for granted.  His work encourages us to rethink our all-too-often
narrow definitions and to expand them so as to include Ol'  Mother Earth
as a factor in  our human (anthropocentric) endeavors.  [thanks Norman]
;-)

Though we are human, we are not JUST human -- we are also (just one) part
of this wondrous universe that our minds cannot help but delve-into and
explore.  I cannot work stone or other 'natural' materials without
reflecting on all the different processes that came together in the focal
point of that particular chunk of the universe to make it express the
meaning it can express.  I am but the most recent force to modify its
structure and form, and as such cannot help but attempt to make it
express things in human terms.
But in the long term it is simply an interval on the journey from dust to
dust.

(Why do I feel there should be a glee club or cheerleaders here
singing/shouting "Yay, Dust!" ?)

Good Carving to You,
Don

http://www.dondougan.com