Arlene Shechet: Sculpting Time | ART21 "Exclusive"

[Arlene Shechet: Sculpting Time]

I am going to see pieces I haven't seen in
twenty years

because a lot of these went to different people
in different places.

Sadly, some of them we couldn't locate.

Twenty-five years ago, a very close friend
of mine, Carol,

was dying at a very young age--

at the same time that I was having babies.

One day, when it was very clear that Carol
was dying quite soon,

I was tearfully explaining to a Buddhist teacher.

He said, "You know, stop making such a big
deal out of it."

And when he said that, I realized he was completely
right.

He's like, "Everybody's going to die,"

"don't be too dramatic about it."

I had come to the realization, for the first
time,

that I was going to die--

which should have been no surprise

but was a huge surprise, [LAUGHS]

inside of me.

So, to honor Carol, I basically threw out
everything in my studio

and I started anew.

Instead of being one of those New Yorkers
saying, "I don't have enough time,"

I said, "Whatever time I have is exactly the
time that I need."

Plaster is so much a timekeeper.

Every single second as it's drying, it changes.

Even though I'd work with plaster many times,

I was just starting to pay attention to what
was happening,

and I took the wet soup and I would try to
mold it,

and it would start to harden up.

I would keep molding without an armature.

I had been doing some paintings out of paint
skins.

I started embedding the paint skins onto it.

Whatever time--be it an hour or be it five
hours--

I would make a piece for that amount of time,
out of that material,

that suddenly became just the right thing.

For about a year, without letting anybody
know--

including my husband-- [LAUGHS]

I grew this family.

I would put them on the various stools.

I just saw them as living on those places.

And so they just stayed there.

[Arlene Shechet: All at Once]

I didn't have aspirations to make a perfect
figure;

I had aspirations to make this, kind of, signifier.

The real meaning of an icon--at least for
me--

was in that it was there to keep me remembering
what I wanted to remember.

After a period of time, I made something that
reminded me of a Buddha form.

Very long story short, I just decided to go
with that

because seeking form was giving what I was
doing some direction

without too much direction.

I actually lived with them and enjoyed them
as an installation.

It's not going to look as funky as my studio,

but it gets back to what I lived with,

as reminders of life being fragile--

and to have that be addressed in my studio
on a daily basis.