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Martin Puryear: "Big Bling" | ART21 "Exclusive"

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    [Martin Puryear: "Big Bling"]
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    --[PURYEAR] There's a story in the making
    of objects.
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    --There's a narrative in the fabrication of things
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    which, to me, is fascinating.
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    I think, working incrementally,
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    there is a built-in story.
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    I think it isn't just for the artist.
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    I get from people's reactions
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    that they do find something interesting
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    in the way the pieces are made--
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    not simply in the form that results
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    but actually in the way that they're made.
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    --[CRAIG VAN COTT] We're making big pieces
    of wood
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    out of little pieces of wood
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    [Craig Van Cott, President, Unalam]
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    with the help of glue and clamps
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    and high-frequency microwaves
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    to make it all stick together.
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    The intricacy of what Martin was looking for
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    was something that we had to actually
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    buy some new machinery for.
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    We had to make very tight radiuses on the arches--
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    the ribs that are holding the plywood together.
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    And there were a lot of tight angles.
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    This is giving us exposure that we don't usually get--
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    Our product is holding up a roof
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    and what's under the roof is what gets all
    the exposure.
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    [PURYEAR] I've had to open myself up--
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    both to working with assistants,
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    but also to working with people outside the studio
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    who I have to engage to do the larger pieces
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    because I don't have the facilities to make
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    a thirty- or forty- or fifty-foot-high work
    in my studio
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    nor do I have the technical facilities
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    to work with certain materials.
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    It's putting yourself in the hands of other people
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    and trusting their skill
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    and their willingness to do what you want.
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    --[JOHN LASH] This was to be a very
    industrialized piece.
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    The outside was to look like it was a salvaged piece.
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    We did look into running recycled wood for
    the project.
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    [Madison Square Park, New York City]
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    We had a problem with the fact that
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    it is in a public place
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    and you would have to engineer every piece of wood
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    to make sure that it was structurally sound.
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    [John Lash, President, Digital Atelier]
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    So, we were able to meet and find standards
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    that made it look like an industrial product.
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    We were going to put a cloth wire or chain link
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    around the whole piece.
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    [PURYEAR] One of the most important elements
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    when you're coming up with the work
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    is the scale--
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    how big it needs to be.
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    And, for me,
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    that's always been, in some ways,
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    the most difficult
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    but also the most crucial part of a project.
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    I prefer to have work that doesn't have
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    to relate to a building.
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    So this relates more to the people, hopefully,
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    who are going to be circulating around it.
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    The wire mesh, I've used repeatedly
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    because I'm interested in the way that it both
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    is a way of creating and defining a volume--
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    a surface--
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    that's very clear in space
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    and yet, the same time,
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    it has a kind of transparency
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    because of the holes in the mesh--
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    the openings in the mesh.
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    From a distance,
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    it tends to look very, very massive and heavy.
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    And what I like is the dichotomy
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    between that heaviness and massiveness
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    and the actual sense of it as, really, a veil.
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    It's just a thin skin
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    that's very permeable--
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    very open.
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    As you approach it, you realize
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    that you're actually looking through it--
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    you see light through it.
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    And as you walk around it
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    and as you get closer,
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    you realize that it's really just a thin crust of mesh.
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    It looks very boulder-like and massive.
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    I like the dichotomy between those two experiences.
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    My work has a potential for evolution--
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    for change and open-endedness--
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    which, to me, feels resonant with what it
    is to live a life.
Title:
Martin Puryear: "Big Bling" | ART21 "Exclusive"
Description:

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Video Language:
English
Team:
Art21
Project:
"Extended Play" series
Duration:
04:44

English subtitles

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