WEBVTT 00:00:02.920 --> 00:00:05.300 [Martin Puryear: "Big Bling"] 00:00:17.020 --> 00:00:19.360 --[PURYEAR] There's a story in the making of objects. 00:00:22.040 --> 00:00:24.360 --There's a narrative in the fabrication of things 00:00:24.369 --> 00:00:26.029 which, to me, is fascinating. 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:29.280 I think, working incrementally, 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:31.939 there is a built-in story. 00:00:32.580 --> 00:00:34.400 I think it isn't just for the artist. 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:37.620 I get from people's reactions 00:00:37.620 --> 00:00:39.829 that they do find something interesting 00:00:39.829 --> 00:00:41.449 in the way the pieces are made-- 00:00:43.040 --> 00:00:44.629 not simply in the form that results 00:00:44.629 --> 00:00:46.329 but actually in the way that they're made. 00:00:48.580 --> 00:00:50.380 --[CRAIG VAN COTT] We're making big pieces of wood 00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:51.659 out of little pieces of wood 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:52.420 [Craig Van Cott, President, Unalam] 00:00:52.420 --> 00:00:54.449 with the help of glue and clamps 00:00:54.449 --> 00:00:56.769 and high-frequency microwaves 00:00:57.030 --> 00:00:58.950 to make it all stick together. 00:00:59.739 --> 00:01:02.549 The intricacy of what Martin was looking for 00:01:02.549 --> 00:01:04.489 was something that we had to actually 00:01:04.489 --> 00:01:06.229 buy some new machinery for. 00:01:06.840 --> 00:01:10.210 We had to make very tight radiuses on the arches-- 00:01:10.210 --> 00:01:13.130 the ribs that are holding the plywood together. 00:01:13.130 --> 00:01:14.910 And there were a lot of tight angles. 00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:18.800 This is giving us exposure that we don't usually get-- 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.220 Our product is holding up a roof 00:01:21.729 --> 00:01:24.829 and what's under the roof is what gets all the exposure. 00:01:25.580 --> 00:01:27.760 [PURYEAR] I've had to open myself up-- 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:29.840 both to working with assistants, 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:31.859 but also to working with people outside the studio 00:01:31.859 --> 00:01:34.679 who I have to engage to do the larger pieces 00:01:34.680 --> 00:01:36.440 because I don't have the facilities to make 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:40.140 a thirty- or forty- or fifty-foot-high work in my studio 00:01:40.149 --> 00:01:41.979 nor do I have the technical facilities 00:01:41.979 --> 00:01:43.259 to work with certain materials. 00:01:44.140 --> 00:01:46.080 It's putting yourself in the hands of other people 00:01:46.960 --> 00:01:48.340 and trusting their skill 00:01:48.350 --> 00:01:50.010 and their willingness to do what you want. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:58.080 --[JOHN LASH] This was to be a very industrialized piece. 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:02.170 The outside was to look like it was a salvaged piece. 00:02:02.170 --> 00:02:05.560 We did look into running recycled wood for the project. 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:06.729 [Madison Square Park, New York City] 00:02:06.729 --> 00:02:08.729 We had a problem with the fact that 00:02:08.729 --> 00:02:09.890 it is in a public place 00:02:09.890 --> 00:02:12.900 and you would have to engineer every piece of wood 00:02:12.900 --> 00:02:14.380 to make sure that it was structurally sound. 00:02:14.380 --> 00:02:15.260 [John Lash, President, Digital Atelier] 00:02:15.300 --> 00:02:18.280 So, we were able to meet and find standards 00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:20.790 that made it look like an industrial product. 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:24.360 We were going to put a cloth wire or chain link 00:02:24.360 --> 00:02:25.980 around the whole piece. 00:02:35.080 --> 00:02:36.500 [PURYEAR] One of the most important elements 00:02:36.510 --> 00:02:37.710 when you're coming up with the work 00:02:37.710 --> 00:02:38.560 is the scale-- 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:39.709 how big it needs to be. 00:02:40.200 --> 00:02:41.780 And, for me, 00:02:41.780 --> 00:02:43.480 that's always been, in some ways, 00:02:43.489 --> 00:02:44.540 the most difficult 00:02:44.540 --> 00:02:46.480 but also the most crucial part of a project. 00:02:51.760 --> 00:02:53.480 I prefer to have work that doesn't have 00:02:53.480 --> 00:02:55.209 to relate to a building. 00:02:55.209 --> 00:02:57.260 So this relates more to the people, hopefully, 00:02:57.260 --> 00:02:59.360 who are going to be circulating around it. 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:29.540 The wire mesh, I've used repeatedly 00:03:29.540 --> 00:03:31.769 because I'm interested in the way that it both 00:03:31.769 --> 00:03:35.510 is a way of creating and defining a volume-- 00:03:35.510 --> 00:03:36.570 a surface-- 00:03:37.580 --> 00:03:39.460 that's very clear in space 00:03:39.469 --> 00:03:40.740 and yet, the same time, 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:42.500 it has a kind of transparency 00:03:42.510 --> 00:03:44.069 because of the holes in the mesh-- 00:03:44.069 --> 00:03:45.729 the openings in the mesh. 00:03:48.840 --> 00:03:49.720 From a distance, 00:03:49.720 --> 00:03:52.680 it tends to look very, very massive and heavy. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:55.260 And what I like is the dichotomy 00:03:55.260 --> 00:03:57.800 between that heaviness and massiveness 00:03:57.810 --> 00:04:00.830 and the actual sense of it as, really, a veil. 00:04:01.290 --> 00:04:02.569 It's just a thin skin 00:04:02.569 --> 00:04:03.760 that's very permeable-- 00:04:03.760 --> 00:04:05.200 very open. 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:07.840 As you approach it, you realize 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.579 that you're actually looking through it-- 00:04:09.579 --> 00:04:10.799 you see light through it. 00:04:11.260 --> 00:04:12.440 And as you walk around it 00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:13.240 and as you get closer, 00:04:13.249 --> 00:04:16.650 you realize that it's really just a thin crust of mesh. 00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:19.239 It looks very boulder-like and massive. 00:04:19.239 --> 00:04:22.099 I like the dichotomy between those two experiences. 00:04:23.380 --> 00:04:25.380 My work has a potential for evolution-- 00:04:25.390 --> 00:04:27.760 for change and open-endedness-- 00:04:27.760 --> 00:04:30.960 which, to me, feels resonant with what it is to live a life.