Ursula von Rydingsvard: "Ona" | "Exclusive" | Art21

[Ursula von Rydingsvard: "Ona"]

[buzzing sounds from machinery]

[Polich Talix Fine Art Foundry, Rock Tavern, NY]

I'm trying to get a look that has a wide range--

a variation--

between the different colors.

[VON RYDINGSVARD] And then I did this a lot.

[PHILIP CASTORE] I see that. I like it.

[VON RYDINGSVARD] And I did this.

But I really exaggerated.

[CASTORE] Okay.

[VON RYDINGSVARD] But you, with your leaky lines,

might have made the best thing of all,

do you know what I mean?

[Philip Castore, Patina Artist]

[CASTORE] Well, we'll see!

[VON RYDINGSVARD] We'll see what it looks like.

I'm just trying to figure out what is going to work!

Next to a big big big Corten steel building.

The Barclays Center piece "Ona"

is really the most major piece that I've done in bronze.

I have never done anything quite that scale.

And "ona" in Polish refers to 'her' or 'she',

And I thought that there's something about that sculpture

that has some hint of a female feel.

It is a simple name and it has a reference

that makes sense in my head

in terms of what that sculpture looks like.

I was surprised I was using colors.

I can't stand colors ordinarily

because, in part, I don't know how to use them.

But, also, they feel abrasive to my eyes.

So I was amazed that I was doing this with a patina.

I really didn't know where I was going,

and I kept thinking during the whole process

of my putting on the patina,

"Ursula, you should have stuck to your black!"

But I was convinced that for the Barclays Center,

which is so loaded with that metal look--

the rusting Corten steel.

I was so convinced that I wanted something that was lighter and brighter.

[CASTORE] The heat opens up the pores of the bronze

and readily accepts the chemical.

You can have a wet application or a dry application.

It gives you different looks.

[VON RYDINGSVARD] I've been able to make the wood do acrobatics,

and I sort of twist it to go into places

it never thought it could or would want to.

I can't do that with metal.

There's a level of frustration

because I feel like I'm not in as much control.

The beautiful thing that the wood can do

is give me so many details.

It gives me a psychological base

and details of that base with which to work.

I'm definitely not trying to replicate the wood.

And I'm wanting it to feel like metal,

because it obviously will feel like it.

And I want it to look like metal.

But bronze in any case, in time,

sort of finds its own patina,

and then it takes on its own look.

Often these sculptures are large.

Often I'm on scaffolding.

I'm on scaffolding, in fact, one-third of my life.

There's always this urgency

with my having only so many years left.

And when they say, "When you get older, life gets easier,"--

it does not.

You know, my biggest hope is that I get more courage,

I get more trust in myself,

I get more faith--

that I'm able to do things that maybe I wasn't able to do before.

And I feel unbelievably lucky to have the kind of talent--

the kind of brains--

that are working with me.

I've been working in Brooklyn for thirty-four years.

It does make me happy that there's a piece of mine in Brooklyn.

It was very clear that this was not a museum situation.

I wanted this to feel

as though one could approach the work...

that one could approach it psychologically.

One could also approach it physically.

But they would both sort of blend.

Somehow, I think that one could almost

see with one's hands, as well,

when one feels it.

It just gives me pleasure to have the possibility

to enable people to be exposed to art,

should they want to.

It's nothing that I would wish to force upon them.

But that makes me feel good.