Uncarved Block WI : Tai Chi

Art Description: The UNCARVED BLOCK series is about the importance of balance, whether in nature or in one’s physical or psychic being. In order to have a functioning or harmonious system, there must be balance. If a system of any kind, on any scale, is out of balance, it malfunctions. Balance is also important for the practice of Tai Chi Chuan, which all about balance and movement around the “center”. In order to achieve the fullest realization of the practice and function of Tai Chi, one must move from the center, which is just below the navel. This is the case whether one is doing Tai Chi, soccer, dance or whatever. The aspect of balance and center is also important in one’s psychic and spiritual life, for without these two aspects, there are problems. This series of sculptures for me manifest in material form the concept of balance, harmony and center. In looking at the sculpture, one sees that the block is in balance, that the form of the work moves and flows around its center: movement in a solid material which makes visible the atomic movement on a visible level. In many works of art from past times and cultures, the void at the center is synonymous with the spiritual center: the void out of which all form emanates. In the two version of UNCARVED BLOCK WI : TAI CHI and UNCARVED BLOCK VT : TAI CHI, the former in black Wisconsin granite and the later in white Vermont marble, they are both mounted atop a half of a block of Canadian pink granite—a moraine boulder brought to Ohio via the ancient glaciers. In the case of WI, I have left the natural textures of the stone untouched on the exterior, polishing only the interior surfaces: on the VT marble, the exterior surfaces are polished and some of the interior surfaces are textured. My aesthetic is somewhat Zen or Taoist or Mono Ha in that I like to respect nature and work with the natural characteristics of a given, unique block of stone.

Medium Used: Wisconsin black granite