Sui Jianguo - 1,000 pounds, 2012.
It certainly is not easy for a digital two-dimensional piece of art to transmit three-dimensionality and the material reality of classic sculpture. And yet, Sui Jianguo achieves exactly this with his work 1,000 Pounds: we watch the rapid manipulation of a chunk of clay. But we do not ever see the artist; the fast moving film only shows the changing imprints of his hands into the material: the mutating matter opens and closes, stretches and compresses, it gapes with holes and smoothes over in finger-imprinted ripples.
1,000 Pounds reminds aesthetically of Sui Jianguo's early sculpture of a more organic abstract character and choice in materials, as was typical of his work in the early 1990s. In addition, 1,000 Pounds references the most classic practice of modern sculpture itself: the dedicated modelling and remodelling by the artist's hand. Auguste Rodin made his name when he decided to move away from the Baroque and neo-Baroque smooth surfaces of 19th century sculptural tradition. He opted for textured surfaces and the extreme interplay of light and shadow - made possible by strong modelling techniques that did not obscure the expressive impact of the artist. In its entirety, 1,000 Pounds seems to convey exactly this: the physical impact of the hand onto the clay, the concreteness of the flesh, the brutality contained within the act of forcing the bare earth into a shape decided by the sculptor.
Upon completion, 1,000 Pounds was cast by Sui Jianguo into bronze. It exists as a artwork in its own right and physical form.
- The work:
Video – Full HD 1080p, 4 mins 46 secs. - Still – High-resolution image (PNG), 1920x1080px
- It comes in an edition of 1000 starting at €5. 1,000 Pounds is also part of s[edition]’s dynamic pricing model. As edition availability decreases the price of the work increases. This limited Sui Jianguo digital edition is available on s[edition] here
