Building the Good City

Reading roundup: Week ending October 2

This week's articles roundup: beauty and humanity in both expected and unexpected places. Enjoy!

 

How to Weave French Fries: What do french fries, spit, bottle caps and peanut butter have in common? They can all serve as weaving materials to create works of surprising beauty.

Arts Organizations Tiptoe into 'Humanizing' Themselves: Future trend of arts institutions putting names to faces and encouraging human connection between members and constituents?

To Some Architects, Beauty is Not a Concern: Can and should beauty have a place in contemporary architecture? 

Street Art that Helps You Get to Know Your Neighbors: Fun, interactive piece of art in Brooklyn, NY. Won't you be my neighbor?

Insight: Makoto Fujimura

Artist, writer and creative catalyst Makoto Fuijmura creates and advocates beauty in a world often soured by cynicism and doubt. This week, he opens his first solo exhibition in mainland China, "Soliloquies," at twocities.

Photo by Brad Guise

How did you get into the Nihonga technique?

I received a Japanese National Fellowship in 1987 and studied in Japan for 6 1/2 years.  I noted my interest in traditional Japanese painting, so they placed my at Tokyo University of Fine Arts Nihonga Department.  On the first day, when I saw the materials used, I felt right away that I had found materials that I had been searching for all my life.

 

What makes you most passionate about your work?

Being a bridge between the invisible reality and the visible; to spend time creating beauty.

 

What is a piece of advice you'd give to young artists?

Pursue your "first love" to create, rather than become what society, or your schooling, expect you or desire for you to become.  Create in love.

 

How do you contribute to building the "good city" in what you do?

Paintings are the maps of the good city.

 

If you could describe Shanghai in one word, what would it be? Why?

I call it "Wild East."  It's a fantastic cultural estuary.

 

Makoto gives a lecture on "New Nihonga" this Thursday at 7:30 pm. "Soliloquies" opens Saturday, with an opening reception from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.

 

 

Art of Lost-Wax Casting

In craft art, we often come across a piece of finely formed artwork that bears an uncanny resemblance to another object. How did that metal or glass come to perfectly take on the complexity of an engine, or in the case above, the delicacy of a cotton bloom?

While some silversmiths fabricate metals - typically cut and then construct - others cast their pieces using a process called lost-wax casting. The art of lost-wax casting has been used for thousands of years to produce complex objects in metal. The process can be used with any material that can burn, melt, or evaporate to leave a mold cavity.

Natural objects are some of the most attractive objects we can recreate through the lost-wax casting process; they embody characteristics and personalities that our limited hands are unable to craft. Organic materials possess the ability to completely disintegrate by burning, which lends well to the lost-wax technique. There is no need for an artist to attempt a wax replica.

At the start of the casting, the natural object is attached to a pour-cup with rods of wax called gates or sprues; the pour-cup is a funnel-shaped cup that channels the metal into the mold, with the help of the gates. A venting system is made the same way to convey air and other gasses out of the mold when it is filled with hot metal. Once the model is set up with its gates and vents, it is surrounded with a plaster mixture. Plaster is ideal in the casting process because it will cover the object smoothly when wet and withstand high temperatures when baked.

The plaster sets hard and the flasks are placed in a kiln - slowly reaching temperatures over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit – where it rests until all wax/natural residues have disappeared. The place where the object was once fixed is now void of any material.

The metal is then melted and the molds are filled with liquid. The flask cools and the plaster mold - broken away - reveals the faithfully detailed metal object.

Last week to see "Light and Shadow Dance": Jewelry Art Exhibition, featuring jewelry created by the lost-wax casting method. Exhibit closes September 12.

Reading roundup: Week of August 30

This week's reading roundup is a visual feast - links and articles containing loads of images. Happy reading and viewing!

NPR: On Philadelphia's Walls, Murals Painted With Brotherly Love: With more than 3,000 murals scattered throughout the city, Philadelphia is transforming walls into public art to help bring about urban renewal and healing.

Gardiner Museum: Private Pleasures: Two weeks left in this exquisite exhibition of fine Japanese porcelain from the Edo period. The Gardiner Museum is the only museum in Canada solely dedicated to ceramic art.

Arts Journal: Ophelia - 6 Alternatives to Drowning: O Ophelia, what if thou hadn't died so tragically and poetically? Alternatives to drowning, rendered by various artists.

Museum of Glass: Richard Craig Meitner: "Magic," says Meitner, "is a moment in which something happens that does not fit into your belief system." Beautifully crafted with whimsy and wonder, Meitner's works of glass art explore room for the fantastical.

Wall Street Journal: Chopin's Small Miracles: This article contains images for the ears. Pianist and author David Dubal describes the brevity and beauty of Chopin's Preludes